Trick bikes, meditation, and health

Christopher (six years old) sounds out words as he walks around the house these days, and today he was up first.  I was still in bed while he ate cereal.  He'd asked me to help him swap the wheels out on the 3-inch-long die cast trick bike we bought yesterday at the dollar store (it comes with tiny tools and interchangeable parts....I've wanted one since they came out....can't really explain why).

At about the right time for him to have finished his cereal, I heard the following as he rounded the corner into my room.

"Nec-e-s-ary.....necessary, necessary......necessary.....is it necessary to be in bed?  We need to work on this."

Then he started to show me how to ride the bike with his fingers.  I tried to show him different things I'd seen trick riders do, but I didn't think he had a good frame of reference.  So we found this video on you-tube (which we then had to watch on the dvr that gets youtube, it was so good).

He said, "Mom, I know why you picked this one.  It's got nature AND the tricks you wanted me to see."

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Easter 2012 Video

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Kids catching little crabs at the beach (video)

This is a video from earlier this summer.  We were in Snohomish, Washington, visiting my aunt, brother, sister-in-law, and cousin and took a detour with my aunt to hang out the beach.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would take us to Salt Water Park and we would gather little crabs like this for hours and hours.  The other adutlts took us, too....it was just often my grandma that said yes when we begged to go and often let us bring a few home.

It was a lot of fun to watch my kids help fill other kids buckets.  Christopher was very taken with rocks that day, and every day since.  He keeps finding heart shaped rocks for me, but they've all been in Glacier, so I couldn't keep them.

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"If I were the wind" (Leopold on geese)

"Out of the clouds I hear a faint bark, as of a faraway dog. It is strange how the world cocks its ear to that sound, wondering. Soon it is louder: the honk of geese, invisible, but coming on.

The flock emerges from the low clouds, a tattered banner of birds, dipping and rising, blown up and blown down, blown together and blown apart, but advancing, the wind wrestling lovingly with each winnowing wing. When the flock is a blur in the far sky I hear the last honk, sounding taps for summer.

It is warm behind the driftwood now, for the wind has gone with the geese. So would I--if I were the wind."
— Aldo Leopold

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Short endangered honu video (Honua~peace)

My turtle stuff is all on my other blog Turtle Medicine: Stories of a Rocky Mountain CFIDS Mom, but this clip from youtube fits here.

waikiki last week

I've posted oodles about turtles already this week, but I need a little more turtle in this gray Montana day.  It'll help me pack for our Glacier girlscout trip this weeken.

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