Spit bugs and boogers

Yesterday, I was getting stuff out of the car when Leo started calling for me, "Mom, come here, I want to show you something!" I can't tell you how many times a day I hear that. I fill my arms with all the stuff from the car and drop it inside the door, and Leo's yelling, "someone spit all over our tree!". I'm thinking about the teenagers up the street, and I realize the entire bush is covered in little spit balls. It's absolutely disgusting. We cut a branch off and put it in a bug jar and determine that it's the nymph of the spittle bug. Today, we brought it to school for show-and-tell. And then Leo explains to me that he knows what the spit tastes like. He explains that he tasted it yesterday to see what it tasted like - "It tastes like boogers! And you know how much I like boogers!"

Leo's 5th Birthday party

was a big bash. We had 60 some folks crammed into a little pavilion at Martin Park to have pizza with us and watch Paul do his first birthday party magic show since his high school days. It was wonderful to see all our friends, many of whom we haven't seen for a year since we've been in Hawaii. Paul wowed the audience and us (Leo and I have never seen Paul do a magic show). Here's Paul putting a sword through Leo's neck. Mia (in pink) is standing up, tense, her hands in little fists, watching her boyfriend get stabbed by his father.


Leo thoroughly enjoyed it however!



And he managed to survive for the cake!

Slip n slide

I got Leo a slip n slide - I'd seen it as a kid but never used one. I set it up and put him in swim clothes and told him to slide on it. So he sat on the 'boogie board' (a tiny inflatable raft that covers his torso) and tried to slide. I laughed and explained he had to slide on his belly. So he lay down on his belly and tried to slide. I said, no, you have to take a flying leap. He tried to jump and then lay down on his belly. Frustrated and in my full clothing, I took it from him and took a running leap down the slide. I was wearing these thin pants with a really big rivet for a button. The 'boogie board' only covered my chest so I landed on the boogie board and on this rivet which tore a hole in the slip n slide and painfully road rashed my crotch and ended up soaking wet in the little pool at the end of the slide. I was howling in pain, and limping back into the house. Leo didn't really want to try it again after that.

Spelling

Leo has really gotten into spelling. He's learned families of words, like moo and boo, or dog and fog and bog. Now when he draws, he tries to spell captions for his artwork. Like he drew a ladybug and wrote "LD". At school, he drew a picture of his new fave TV show, Avatar, and wrote "AVT" for the picture of the Avatar guy and "FOR" (backwards) for Fire Nation. Now he wants to teach spelling at his birthday party, before the magic show starts. I'm sure that will be exciting entertainment for the kids!

Art!

We went to the Denver Art Museum today. It was a cold, rainy CO day and we expected hail. Of course we hung out in the contemporary art section, until Leo pulled me aside and whispered in my ear, "this art really freaks me out" and then we left.

Tonight I told Leo a story about a kid who goes to an art museum and is sad and walks into this painting of a beautiful, sunny day. He goes into this other world and plays with the kids, and climbs trees and smells the flowers.

Then I ran out of steam and couldn't figure out how the kid gets back home, even though he's now homesick and wants to return home. Leo said, "Oh, that's easy, he goes to the contemporary art museum in that world, finds a picture of home, and goes into that picture to get back home."

All day

Leo was playing with a hand held massage device that had been his toy since he was small. Paul said, "let's try to use that for the purpose it was designed for" and started massaging me.

Meanwhile, Leo wanted dessert.

Paul said, "well if you want a lollipop for dessert, I'll get you one. Here, you take over and give mom a massage". He gave the massager to Leo who proceeded to massage my back while Paul got the lollipops and presented them to Leo.

Leo said, "ok it's your turn to take over. I can't do this all day!"

Pix from Canyonlands and Arches National Parks

We spent the last week in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. We had a great time, climbing around on all the rocks. We found a zillion arches of all sizes, including one that Leo could barely squeeze under. This is one of the Windows arches.

Paul and Leo in Canyonlands. We took a long hike out to the high slickrock on a hot and windy day.


It was so windy, you can't hear us talking on our videos. It was so windy, our hair looked funny a lot of the time. It was so windy, it nearly knocked us down.




We had some nice desert sunsets.


Leo did a great 'happy dance' after climbing up to the white slickrock near our campsite. Then he kept going, straight up this flaky sandstone.

We found a railing that led over the highest point of a trail to Big Spring Canyon.


We stopped at the top of the trail and then climbed up the monument for a better view.

Our little pop-up camper. We love her, and in this campground near Arches, we had an electric heater and wifi!

We then managed to get a permit to hike in the Fiery Furnace, which is closed to most hiking because of the damage done to the cryptobiotic (living) soil and the myriad of trails that hikers have started in the area. This place was awesome! Sort of like Escalante's slot canyons but smaller and more intimate. You could easily get lost in the maze of slots and washes and dead-ends here.


Paul pointing out where to go next.


One of the slots.


Leo got a lot better at climbing.

Leo pointing out a slot that even he can't squeeze through.


Leo learned a lot of new climbing tricks.


Paul had a great time jumping chasms.


Leo taking the junior ranger pledge. He had to collect trash and learn about crypto soil and draw a picture to get his badge.

The Wiseman Monster Song

This Montessori school must be really amazing. Leo can now read and write alien language, alien sonar, normal monster language, and now the wiseman monster language.

Risa's Birthday Bash

Leo dressed up as a wizard from the Far East for Risa's wizards and witches birthday party.

Leo and Mia took a break from the mystery game to bounce on the trampoline.



Risa and the witches about to eat cake

High country slickrock

We spent the last few days in out little pop-up camper out in the Needles area of Canyonlands. We took Leo up some of the high monuments and let him climb around. He is fearless and a good climber although he still needs spotting. We got in about 4 miles with him the first day, up to some nice high slickrock but in a 40 mph wind which was quite unpleasant.

We're now in Arches, which is spectaular but full of crowds. Leo's two speeds are a bit more extreme - running as fast as he can or sitting in the sand making sand waterfalls. Its a bit hotter here, and no wind, which means really hot! Moab is growing like crazy with biking and 4 wheeling being the popular sports these days.

Kids on airplanes

Leo and I were on the airplane and, since his feet exactly reach the seat in front of him, he kept kicking the seat. I told him someone was sitting in that seat and asked him several times to stop and he kept forgetting, of course. Finally I explained to him, "Do you know what that feels like? It feels like this!" And I started shaking his seat really hard. He squealed in laughter, "Do it again! Do it more!"

SICK SICK SICK!

We're all sick here. For the last 7 years or so, whenever I've gotten a cold, it's ended up being a long, drawn out cough. I also have a tendency to cough up these nasty phlegm globbers when I'm sick. Yes, I know that is more than you need to know. Well, Paul is sick now, and guess what, it's gooey.

Paul: coughing, spitting and generally making gross noises.

Leo: "It's disgusting. Ewwww"

Paul: "Yeah, I've turned into your mommy"

iPad

I couldn't resist. Terry showed me his iPad when I was in Portland and I fell in love. Another guy at the conference had one and let me play with it - a great substitute for the 5.6 lb MacBook that I lug around when I travel! So I ordered one. I was so excited, I told Leo, "Guess what I just got! An iPad!!!!" He didn't know what it was, of course, and I told him it could do anything and how cool it was. He replied, "Can it take an x-ray of your body? Can it take out your eyeball and glue your eyeball back in without hurting it? Does it have a microphone to hear food talk? To hear bacteria talk with real understanding?" Nope, guess it ain't that cool after all.

New book by Leo, 'wroten in Alien language'

Leo wrote a book which is "wroten in Alien language", which he reads in this video, titled, "Finding Drago". While an outrageous plagiarism of the Leapster book, it is a very emotionally charged version of this lovely Bakugan story.

What if I kill someone?

We got a free book from Playfair Toys as part of their push for child literacy (somehow I doubt Boulder literacy is down these days but we like books!) - Always. It's about how a mom tells her kid that she will always love him no matter what. I asked if Leo if I loved him even though he made a mess - he said yes. I said even if he didn't eat and he said yes. I said even if he drew on the cork floor with a pen and said yes. I asked if I would love him no matter what and he said no. I asked what he would have to do for me not to love him. He said if he killed someone I would not love him. I was stumped. We'd never talked about something like that before. I said what if it was a bad guy and he was trying to hurt Leo? We decided there could potentially be acceptable reasons for killing someone. We discussed car accidents where someone died. And then finally I told him that even if he killed someone and it wasn't an accident and it wasn't a bad guy, that I'd still love him no matter what.

Trouble

Today when I picked up Leo from school, he said, "You're going to be mad at me. Please don't be mad at me. I need to show you something." We went inside and he explained that he had brought in his Easter candy to school and had been giving it out to the other kids. At one point, he apparently told them to help themselves and in the ensuing fight over candy, the teacher went over, saw the candy and confiscated it. Leo had gotten in trouble (my bad) last week for bringing in a cough drop to school. This time it was candy.

He also said that he had tricked me. He was worried at home that his pockets were too small. He had pretended to put his Easter candy in a special hiding place in his bedroom and then asked if he could bring a backpack to school. He ran down to his room to get stuff for his backpack. When we were putting his stuff in his cubby at school, he got all secretive and said, "I'll bet you don't know what is in my pocket!" I asked him if he had candy in his pocket or anything edible and he said no. He played that little game with me and I eventually gave up. He wouldn't let me check his pockets and he claimed there was no food in his pocket. It turned out there was nothing in his pockets - it was all in the backpack. I saw him showing his backpack to his friend Louisa but he told me not to watch them so I left.

Anyway, I guess it was our first major transgression. He certainly knew what he had did was wrong. He hid it from me and the teachers. He gives people candy at our house all the time and its no problem, so I can see that he might have thought giving away candy at school would be similar. But he must have known it was against the rules because he hid it. I asked him why he tricked me and why he didn't tell me or the teachers what he was doing. He said he didn't know. He was very upset coming home today because he thought Paul would give him a time-out. I explained that Paul probably had a lot of sympathy for people who break rules because Paul was a rule-breaker and that it was me he should be worried about because I was such a goody-two-shoes.

We decided he would not get any candy or video or any treat today. And that I would put the candy up high somewhere so he could not access it. He said, "Mom, you can't do that because I can reach anywhere. You have to lock it up!"

Sperm in the Brain

Yesterday as we were trying to get out of the house, Leo set up a "locked gate" for me to get through to get out of the kitchen. I had to push buttons on his hand and twist a drum sitting on his leg and do all this stuff to get out. I wasn't really paying attention and did it wrong a couple times.

He later said he had a question for me. He doesn't usually ask that in a serious voice, so I took him seriously. He asked, "why do mommies and daddies sometimes forget things that kids don't, even when mommies and daddies have bigger brains? Your brain is so big it couldn't fit into MY head. Is it because your brain is getting old? And the tadpoles, I mean the sperm, I mean when you get old you don't have as many sperm branches."

That led to first, a correction that tadpoles, sperm, and neurons all looked alike but neurons were in the brain. And that we only used a small part of the brain. And that people remember different things depending on what is important to them. And that there are fewer neural pathways when you get older and this is why kids brains learn so much faster than adult brains.

Our last hurrah in Hawaii

I know this is all out of sequence, but the day before we left Hawaii, we took a whale watching tour. Here's Leo driving the boat. Unfortunately, Leo managed to lose his cookies halfway through the tour, and right before we finally saw the whale.

Last Wed, Leo managed to lock Por-por out of her bedroom so that she had no access to her wallet, keys, etc. So he didn't go to school that day. They went to the library instead. On the way home, Leo got tired so he told Por-por his batteries were dead and he stopped walking and became unresponsive. It freaked Por-por out and she was unable to get him to respond. She considered calling 911. A nice passerby took them home in his car and Paul came home and I guess Leo finally got "his batteries changed" and all was well.

When they explained the story to me, Por-por told Leo she didn't understand what was going on and why he wouldn't answer her or move. She didn't know he "had batteries". Leo replied, "I'm a complicated boy".

A couple days ago, Paul was remarking about Leo's abilities to do all kinds of grown-up stuff. Paul asked Leo what he wasn't good at. Leo replied, "I'm not good at working a computer or driving a car."

IEA meeting in the news

Today we were featured in the ABC and Tribunal newspapers and this blurb from the Governor's website: http://www.jccm.es/cs/Satellite/index/notaPrensa1212682930232np/1193043084902.html and a little video at http://www.jccm.es/cs/Satellite/index/home1193041213924pg/index.html



President Barreda today received a delegation of representatives of the IEA

THE AGENCY THE INTERNATIONAL OF THE ENERGY STUDIES IN CASTILLA-LA MANCHA HOW TO ADVANCE IN THE INTEGRATION OF THE WIND ENERGY IN THE MAINS

The encounter of the IEA in Toledo supposes a recognition to the autonomic power model, based on the development of the renewable energies and the extension of the infrastructures that allow that development. Representatives of the Agency the International of Energía (AIE) today indicated their satisfaction to the power to celebrate in Castilla-La Mancha, concretely in Toledo, his 9º Scientific Encuentro that he will allow them, according to said the coordinator of the group, the Finnish Hannele Holttinen, to know the production systems of wind energy developed in the Independent Community and to try to advance thus in this field.

“Spain interests to us particularly since we know that it has a high level of penetration concerning the production of wind energy, therefore hoped that this encounter is very fruitful, because it does not give the opportunity to come and to work with the systems that already exist here”, indicated Holttinen after the encounter that the representatives of the IEA maintained with the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Jose Maria Barreda, in Toledo.

Indeed, Barreda remembered that, within Spain, Castilla-La Mancha is Community Independent pioneering in which to production of energies clean refers, while it remembered that the objective of the regional Government is to be able to produce, in 2012, more renewable energies of the consumed amount.

“And we are going to continue working in that direction, because we think that it is the suitable way”, among others pointed president Barreda, who did not want to take leave without before giving the welcome to Castilla-La Mancha to the delegation formed by 25 participants coming from 14 countries worldwide like Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Sweden, Spain, the United States or Norway.

Against this background, Barreda explained to the representatives of the IEA the important effort that Castilla-La Mancha is also realising in the development the dependent clean energies of the sun, like photovoltaic and termosolar, while it remembered that it is being experienced with biomass to give value to forest products “and of having in better conditions our mounts and to agriculture”

“But of course we are developing and much the Aeolian energy because it has a great potential”, it pointed the president, who hoped that the encounter of the IEA in Toledo concludes successfully “because without a doubt it is important to improve the systems of wind energy so that it is still more efficient”.

Recognition to the autonomic power model

The encounter of the Agency the International of the Energy in Castilla-La Mancha supposes a recognition to the autonomic power model, based on the development of the renewable energies and the extension of the infrastructures that allow that development. The Agency the International of the Energy is an international organization created by the Organization for the Cooperation and the Economic Development (the OECD) after the crisis of the petroleum of 1973, that it looks for to coordinate the political energetics of his Member States in order to assure reliable energy, purchasable and clean one. Its initial objective era to coordinate the measures that will be necessary to assure the supplying petroleum, particularly in emergencia situations, with the purpose of to sustain the economic growth of their members. At present, after the changes undergone in the markets of the energy, the Agency worries about the three more excellent aspects of the political energetics: security energetics, economic development and protection of the environment.