Rambles

I haven't blogged for a while - we've been busy and it's only going to get worse as we get ready to leave this place. But I wanted to share some things. Static casually mentioned over dinner the other day that he would be performing in a lunchtime talent show. Apparently his school had asked for volunteers and he signed up. We were able to make it to see him play. He played a classical piece I'm not familiar with - not Mozart, but way beyond the one-handed "Rubber Duckie" I struggled with as an early piano student. More amazing than his apparent musical talent, though, was how he seemed to have no fear of getting up in front of the lunchtime crowd to play this complete 2-part composition from memory. I enjoy being a dad.

On Monday, all the children were acting up so I put them on the couch for a 5-minute time out. Smiley retaliated by urinating on the couch. Later that evening, he climbed up on the buffet, grabbed a miniature Chinese terra cotta warrior that we had bought in Beijing and dashed it against the floor. On Thursday he pushed a rolling office chair down the stairs . . . his momentum carried him down with it. He's okay, but still showing bruises on his face. Then today, he climbed up this lattice-style concrete wall in our living room, pulled off a glass votive and dashed that to the ground. He then played with the shiny pieces and cut his thumb. He's pretty tough, though. Instead of crying and running to us, he started to climb back up the wall. When he noticed the red marks he was making he then began to finger paint with his own blood. I was playing the piano and hadn't noticed until She came in the room and asked what was on the wall. He's bandaged up now and sleeping fine, but whew, what a week.

My apologies for no pictures - our hard drive with all the photos is dead. Also my apologies to the friend to whom I just wrote the preceding story in an email - I had to share it with everybody else.