Washing

So in the last post, I showed you Purple Boy.  He was so purple he turned the bath water a lovely shade of lavender. 

The next morning, my dreams were permeated by the sound of water running in the bath tub.  Instantaneously awake, I leapt out of bed and flew down the hallway.  Mowgli was standing over the tub giggling maniacally.  In the tub were about 8 stuffed animals, including his favorites Mickey Mouse & Simba.  All of them had been colored with purple markers and were now taking their bath. 

We rescued the animals from the bathtub, and I made Mowgli cart them downstairs to the laundry room for a proper 'bath'.  I made him empty the dryer, and put the clothes in the washer into the dryer.  I measured out the soap for him to put in the washer and had him load it up with the animals.  And in an amazing feat of mommyhood, I still got him dressed and ready so that he didn't miss the school bus.
When he got home from school all the animals were clean and dry, sitting on the couch, as good as new.  All was well in his world.  

Today I took some towels down to the laundry room to be washed.  I opened up the washer to find mound and mounds of soap all over the clean wet clothes.  There was another pile of soap on the floor in front of the dryer.  Opened it up, and sure enough there were more mounds of soap inside the dryer. 

Like a great big glowing sign saying 'I tried to give Mickey another bath.'

This is what I get for teaching him how to use the washing machine. 

A purple request

Purple Boy would like to make a request


He got all dressed up to make it


He's just too small for a trombone.   And the slide is really damn delicate for a 7 year old.  We need to find Mowgli a trumpet, or maybe a bugle. 


We think he was shooting for this
 

Sardinia (Part 2)

There were so many funky plants near the beach that I just had to share some of them.  I figure I'll start with the ones that were planted by the resort, and move to the native flora. 



A cross between a palm tree and a succulent?


This plant grew in great giant bushes covered with these fuzzy-looking red flowers.  


 Now for the stuff growing in the rocks and the sand down by the water.


This one looked like a living fractal growing out of crevices between the rocks.  



It was hard to get a picture of this plant with a good sense of scale, but those thorns are an average of 2 inches long and the plants were around 5-6 feet tall.  


This spiky little plant was growing out of the sand right on the beach.   Even the baby plants are hard and spiky as I found out when I accidentally sat on a sproutling with a single leaf.


There were lots of these little lizards all over the place, though they were easier to spot out sunning themselves on the sunny days.  I actually came pretty near to stepping on a snake that was also out sunning on the path.  Sucker was 3-4 feet long and an inch or so in diameter.  If I had to guess from the green coloring, I'd say it probably wasn't poisonous.  I didn't see it until the snake headed back to the cover of the rocks to avoid my feet.



And the final entry in stuff I've never seen before are these little 'beach balls.'  They came in every size between golf ball and soft ball.  Even the large ones weighed almost nothing, no more than an ounce.  They're just little balls of beach fluff collecting on the beach. 
As for what they're made of, if you've ever really looked at a palm tree, you've probably noticed the little fluffy stuff that the larger fronds grow out of.  These balls appear to consist of that fluffy stuff felted into balls by the ocean waves. 

From Sardegna

Sardegna

For most Americans, it seems like like the Italian destinations are Rome, Venice, maybe Tuscany....  But Sardinia is where Italians go on vacation.  And that's where I went for a statistics/machine learning conference.  Absolutely great place for a conference, though I do wish it had been late may or june instead of early may. 

Ok, just to start with the basics, here's the view(s) off of my room's patio:




This early in the season, there wasn't a lot to do but walk up and down the beach.  But it was so gorgeous,










And look at the color of the water once the sun came out:






Now there has to be at least one photo with me in it to prove I really was there:



The laguna that Chia Laguna resort is named for


Of course, I couldn't be in the middle of all this beauty and not pull out my paints

From Sardegna

(There were really funky plants in Sardinia, I'll post those pictures next.)

Bikes & Picasso

Mowgli got a new bike on Monday.  Well we bought it Sunday and Daddy picked up the assembled bike on Monday night.  Tuesday was raining.

So today, Wednesday, Mowgli went for his first real bike ride.  It was totally awesome.  Of course, any time he saw a car two blocks away heading our direction, he yelped, jumped off the bike and hid behind the nearest tree.  But he did a great job.  He got the pedals more or less figured out.  And he's beginning to be able to steer and pedal at the same time.  Like I said, awesome. 

When we got home, I had him put an entry in his sketch diary. 

Take a closer look at that picture of a bike.  The handle bars are facing you, like you're on the bike.  The seat is directly in line with the handle bars as if viewed from behind the bicycle.  And then you have the wheels coming down, as if viewed from the side.  Now, I knew that Mowgli had a thing for Picasso, but to have internalized cubism's multiple perspectives at once?!  How many kids draw like this?

Glitch

Mowgli just came up to Daddy, and said, "Look, [Mowgli] has a glitch.'

Orm

Meet Orm.

Orm is the dumbest guinea pig in the world.  When Pretty comes to Orm's cage, Orm "oips" for treats.  When Pretty sniffs Orm, Orm sniffs back.

This is Pretty helping me feed Orm.

You might notice in the first picture that Pretty is doing sort of a 'play-bow' to Orm.  This isn't the first time she's invited him to play.  Pretty really, really wants Orm to come out and play.  Now, don't get me wrong, Pretty has shown absolutely no signs of aggression towards the piggy.  But she's a big ol dog, and she plays like a big ol dog.  Her favorite game is to play rough with me until she catches my arm.  She's also a big fan of tug-of-war.  And I just don't see Orm enjoying either of those games. 

But Orm somewhere lost the good sense God gave him.  He wants to get out of his cage and play with Pretty just as much as she wants to play with him. 

At least Mowgli & Pretty are getting comfortable.  He was so disappointed when she didn't want to sleep in his bed last night.