Prematurely Gray

Jasmine has been begging me daily for weeks and weeks to dye her hair black or brown. She says she wants my color (and the color of her favorite dolls). If you tell her her hair is beautiful and everyone loves and wants it, she'll tell you she doesn't want to be beautiful and you can have her white hair.

I think there will be a hoard of people surrounding the house bearing torches, pitchforks and hair bleach. It seems a crime against nature to change her moonlight hair to muddy brown.

Luckily there are temporary hair colors so I can satisfy everyone. In these pictures she's got the Halloween hair spray color. NEVER USE THIS STUFF. We still haven't cleaned up all the black smudges. As you can see an entire spray can has managed to make her hair a pretty light gray. Still she was very happy and I could wash it out after about four shampoos. The first go was opaque, sickly gray. IMPORTANT: clean this stuff off in the shower.

We're now trying a temporary dark brown on a lock of hair before we try it out on her whole head. I was worried, but again, the dye doesn't seem to "stick" in her hair. Unlike artificially bleached hair, her hair is whole and undamaged which means the color seems to slip off.

The brown dye looked like burnt sugar syrup, very worrying. But after following the directions, she had an ethereal, translucent beige lock of hair. Her hair as a whole reminded me of the foamy, steamed milk on a cappuccino with an artistic swoop of coffee running through it.

Banana-man

While on a routine patrol, our noble hero Banana-man, encountered a stash of illicit beauty supplies. He approached cautiously in case it was a trap. Instincts, luck, experience, call it what you will, saved the brave young crime fighter from a nefarious ensnarement. From a jumbo tube of daily exfoliating scrub exploded a cloud of metallic nano-howler monkeys. A blast of high-pitched howls, swinging nano-fists, and gnashing canines filled the still air. Banana-man leaped back with an alacrity that would have made his Capoeira master proud (had the beloved teacher not died at the hands of Banana-man's evil twin, Plantain-inator: see issue #423). As they drained the last of their factory installed batteries, one superior mini-mechanical monkey minion managed to misappropriate our man's mask and mangled it.

There was no time to lose. Ripping the stainless steel tube from the vocal assembly of an attackers and a large Banana from his belt, Banana-man quickly constructed a new mask. As he worked he realized that this trap could only be the work of one evil genius: Avonica. Once an assistant manager of a small electronics store, she had been kidnapped by a roving gang of zealous pyramid-scheming entrepreneurs. Back in their secret laboratory, in a tragic experiment, she became what she was now -- a warped, evil creature of flashy, meaningless technology and hyper-feminine kitsch.

Though his secret identity had been cleverly maintained, Banana-man no longer had use of the most powerful weapon in his arsenal -- the Banana-rang. But there was no time to be concerned with that. In the distance, Banana-man heard the ringing yell of the innocent, beautiful brick layer caught up in Plantain-inator's plot. Although he could hear the dull thuds of masonry against skulls, he had to hurry, she didn't have an endless supply of ammunition. "Why? Why didn't she listen? She should have never followed me out here," he fumed. Then with an ironic laugh, he mused, "But then again, I always seem to attract the plucky ones."

Pumpkins

Kai's pumpkin was autophagic. Rowan's ... um... I'll let you come up with a good description for those two. Jasmine made the bold decision to go traditional.

Kiddos in the Habitrail

I want Burger King to put in a running wheel. Sadly, many of the new BK's are putting in video games, even for the little-little kids. Maybe the parents are now too large to retrieve a child from the tubes. More frighteningly, maybe the kids are too big.

Leaf Diving, Rowan Style

We had fun with the leaves this year. We have an Autumn Blaze maple tree which loses its leaves too quickly.

Catching Air the Jazz Way

Our two feet of pre-Halloween snow came down in a frigid blizzard. Today, the sun shone and the powder turned steadily to slush.

We got in about four hours of sledding before it was all gone. I like this set because I can watch Jazz catch air and watch her audience react to her catching some air.

Bikers in the Family

We've had a population explosion of those who can ride bikes -- at least in our family. Kai and Rowan have both learned how to ride their bicycles and it only took a couple days, a number of bruises, parental hard-heartedness, and complete rejection of the training wheels.

Following a friend's suggestion, I removed the training wheels and lowered the seats of the bicycles until the boys could easily put both feet on the ground. Within a few laps in front of the house, pushing the bike like Flintstones power cars, then wobbily balancing, then pedaling, then ... wow... riding.

It may not seem like a huge milestone, but it has been for us. Balance, height, speed, all that, caused panic attacks. As a parent, I find myself vascillating between knowing that all children are different, learning and growing and being in their own way -- and constantly worrying about what I might need to do for my children that they might reach their highest potential. Something pushed me this week to follow the advice and ignore the protests. I think I must have struck at the right time, because I knew a new trick and they also were competent enough with their balance and age, that it took them very little time to realize that they could do it all by themselves.

I bet they could have done it earlier, but it seems that now was a good time. My pressure for them to succeed was relatively little and they are very aware that the success was completely theirs. After the first signs of progress, both boys became driven (ridden) to master the bike and went out as often as possible to practice. I like that this accomplishment had very little to do with me; my only mean-mommy-moment was telling them that they had to push the bike with their feet past the house a few times. After that, I made no more requests (orders) and it turned out they were unnecessary.

Regarding this picture, it's one of those ones that is either an incredibly lucky shot or one that you do over and over again until it comes out right. The latter is the case. For parents this is a good thing, it wears the kids out. Keep asking the kids to ride/run/ski/whatever past you over and over again, even if you get the shot the first time. They'll sleep good that night. :)

Wind Blown Candor

It's getting harding and harder to sneak up on the kids. I've had a few lucky shots with Rowan lately.

This was another day that a walk was cut short by rain.

Boom Bam Swishhhh Wow

This year like last, we blew stuff; however this year we went to see a professional show. I think it was the first time for the kids to see the large pyrotechnics up close. These photographs are from the Highlands Ranch show held at Town Center.

Jasmine was much less afraid of the explosions' noise, though I can't say she really liked it. No crying or anxiety. I think the bright lights made up for any discomfort.

Kai and Rowan really just wanted to stay home and blow our own stuff up, but I finally convinced them to go. Once the big booms got started they were glad they'd come.

I wish Kai had been sitting close to us, I could have gotten his reaction too. I think he scootched closer to the action. When the show ended he came back breathless and wow'ed.

Working from the Back

We just got back from our epic camping trip, but I'll finish up the events from before we left. Here the kids are joining Dr.Noize on stage at the Lone Tree Independence Day Parade send off. We made sure we were dressed for the event by wearing band shirts. Jasmine wore a specially made (crayoned) banana t-shirt.

Rowan, in particular, appreciates Jasmine's climbing abilities. She's determined to be on stage and says that when she grows up, she's going to play music with Dr. Noize.

During one part of the concert, Dr. Noize asked Kai to deliver a kazoo in the middle of the next song. Kai was sent back to the audience holding the kazoo. Dr. Noize sang for the kazoo -- one long, loud, shrill note going on and on until Kai managed to get it to him.

Mind in the Gutter

If it's been raining, Jasmine's mind is in the gutter. I'm lucky if I can do any clothing preparation before she's out the door. Stomp, splash, jump, run, stop, skip, step, splash.

Airport Security

Somehow these three made it through the security checkpoint.

We went to Indiana for the wedding of the kids' cousin Ashley. We stayed in a hotel by Aunt Julie and Uncle Jeff who know how to entertain kids. Books, balloons and silly string were among the many entertainments. Needless to say, the kids didn't want to go back to boring ol' Colorado.

My Kai

Kai saw the paragraph I wrote about Jasmine for her Anchor Center School graduation. He wondered, in a carefully casual way, how I would describe him. I was a caught off-guard and said that I had had a few minutes to think about it before I'd written that all down. I have some quiet time, so I can organize a paragraph's worth of thoughts. It's impossible of course to write down even a small bit of all the amazing things I think of any of my children, but here's a little bit.



When Kai entered my life, the entire world changed for me. I became acutely aware of the fragility of life and the amazing size and strength of love that I possessed in my heart. These feelings were, sometimes still are, overwhelming and frightening and magnificent. Theo and I found a deep resonance in a quote from Elizabeth Stone, “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” I don't know that my epiphanies since his birth are appropriately grouped with a description of him, but he heralded a more vivid and meaningful life.



Kai can immerse himself into stories and worlds of imagination, traditional romantic sensibilities, humorous and fantastic realities. He has an appreciation of the asthetic elements of pose and figure beyond his age. He's not afraid to pour into these worlds his heart and intelligence without reservation. Kai has an amazing memory and a strong will that, when directed to a task, is truly amazing.

He engages his imagination and intuition toward projects with wonderful results. Writing comic scripts within the Alice environment, he shows off both his great comedic timing as well as the behind-the-scenes technical programming talent. His power of concentration is remarkable. Kai also shows off a natural talent for mathematical and scientific concepts. The ability to both abstract the natural world and predict its workings is a rare quality.

When he engages his enthusiasm it is irresistably contagious. Anyone who has watched him, knows that he is a people person, especially with the ladies. He turns on the charisma, opens his heart and shamelessly flirts, eshews aloofness for earnestness and engenders genuine affection.

Go Ask Your Mother

Kids: Whoa! What's THAT?!

Me: It's a fish head.

Kids: Cool... Wait, woah! AAAAGH!

It's a FISH HEAD! A REAL FISH HEAD! EEEEeew, I touched it! You touched it! That's it's eye! Eeeeeewww! Mom!! You didn't tell me it was real! That's a FISH HEAD! Mom! A real fish head come look! Touch it! It's so gross! Yuck, it's all slimy! Mom! You touch the eye, it's a FISH HEAD!

Amazing how many of our conversations go this way.

Jasmine's Flintstone-Model Automobile

I missed the weirdest part where twenty identical Jasmine's came out of the car doing somersaults.

Interest Fair -- Rowan and the Toads

Kinda like a Science Fair, but not so many measurements. Rowan studied our fire-bellied toads with a happy emphasis on toad mating (more on the toads at Macro). We made recordings!

Jasmine listens to the mating call of the fire-bellied male toad.

Rowan whistles while he waits for student and parental passersby to come and listen to horny toads.