Life: Idiotropic

Yes, I still have them. My life really is so much more than cultural tidbits, social events and recipes. The kids are the laughter in my days. So here, they are in all their glory... from lost teeth to biking solo, Tiara's first day of 8th grade, Arianna's first day of 2nd, and Luci's first day of 1st. Elise will start next week.

Arianna lost one tooth the week before the hospital and the other the day I had my surgery. Her smile now is absolutely adorable and I think she knows it. She's smiling extra, I think, just to show off her stunning grin.

And now, suddenly, both Arianna AND Luci can not only ride their bicycles without training wheels, but they can do it confidently. Kirk's taken them twice to Burg Trips to ride. The last time they rode 8 miles! Even little Luci kept up! Amazing!

Tiara had her first day of school one day ahead of the others. This is one of her many self portraits and one that she took that day. My grown up 8th grader - she's happy to be back in school and so far, likes her classes quite a bit.

Luci and Arianna started 1st/2nd grade the next day (last Tuesday). They were both excited and happy. Their bus is bus 5 - a city bus that is used by the Americans for this school. The kids were greeted by Dr. Emerson, the principal. I need to ask what was written on the card. He had that held up for all the kids - and he was wearing a large red clown nose.


Finally... from today. Elise saw the poor little mouse trapped on Tinny's basement stair, threw her full bowl of (thankfully) dry cheerios in the air and ran inside to me crying and screaming that she saw a rat and she was scared it was going to run up the stairs and bite her. Arianna and Luci joined the onlookers while I threw down two cheerios for it to much on. We could hear the crunching as he ate them. He was cute.

I got a Keds box and scooped him up in that. He stood up on his hind legs and sniffed when he saw me. Adorable. We took him to the back yard, sat in a circle around him giving him space, and watched him nibble on weeds, sniff, poke his nose up here and there, and burrow through the grass near us for about 5 minutes until he finally ran off into the neighbor's yard. Mice are fast. I couldn't get good photos. But he could have easily come from a Beatrix Potter book. Quite a dashing fellow. You see the Cheerio? Look below and slightly right and you'll see his beady black eye. It really did look like a single shiny glass bead. So perfect.