Tractors, Tino, and the Trapeze

To celebrate my birthday, and because it's just big fun, we all went to the Guilford Fair today. Ethan an I snuggled while watching the tractor pulls.
Then he and Ryan had fun with Mimi.
Mama Jeanne really got into the tractors.
This kid won first in his division.
One of the cool things about the Guilford Fair is that the Flying Wallendas perform there. (Yes, The Flying Wallendas like in the movie.) Today Tino Wallenda walked across a wire strung 70 feet above the ground. The speck to the left of the sun is Tino.
He also did a head stand. That was very cool.
The Flying Cortes performed on the trapeze.
That act had Ryan mesmerized.

Ethan really liked the round-up ride.
At one point Ryan asked for a corn dog. Mama Jeanne tried to find one, but failed. Could there really be a fair with no corn dogs?
I didn't think so. Mimi had corn dog magic and found one for him.

Ryan made friends with a donkey.
Both guys liked the inflated slide.
It was a full good day. We stayed for hours looking at the exhibits and the livestock. We said hello to the llamas, the cows, the sheep, the chickens, the rabbits, and the goats. We even got to see a cow getting her hooves cleaned and her swollen foot bandaged.

Eventually though, Ethan got tired, sat down at a table near the sheep, and went to sleep,
so we gathered him up and headed home.

Ethan and Mimi Clean His Room

Ethan asked for help cleaning his room, so Mimi made a date with him to work on it today. They have been at all day except for a few breaks. I suggested that Ethan could use an old shelf resting on some cinder blocks to add more room for books under his desk. That was the last step, and while they sorting the books, Mimi asked Ethan if he wanted his red chest to live under the Lego table or to go back under the window where it has been living.

Ethan: It's OK there now. I'm too tired to move it.

Mimi: Want me to move it?

Ethan: Um...

Mimi: Do you want it under the window?

Ethan: I don't want to move it.

Ba: If it could magically go anywhere, where would it go?

Ethan: Floating in mid-air. *Very Big Grin*

Ryan's Tooth

Ryan lost his first yesterday. We were in the car when he announced "My tooth is half un-tached!" Not 20 minutes later he yelled "My tooth came out! Here it is!" and promptly dropped it in the car where it immediately disappeared. We stopped the car and spent 30 minutes trying to find the tooth but could not. We assured him that all was well and that the Tooth Fairy would bring a dollar even if there was no tooth under his pillow. Ethan was so sweet. He reassured Ryan that the Tooth Fairy would come and even offered to help write a note explaining the situation to said fairy.

He is so cute with the little gap in his mouth. He lost the left bottom front one, so it's not incredibly visible, but when he smiles one of his really big smiles you can see it. Mimi and Ba went to the bookstore to get him a tooth fairy book, but, alas, none of them had little tooth pouches like the one we got for Ethan. No matter, we got a Charlie and Lola book in which Lola's tooth both falls out and is promptly lost, just like Ryan's. The Tooth Fairy brought Lola a coin, and this morning there was a dollar under Ryan's pillow.

So, Ryan has one less baby tooth, but one more dollar, and he is glad that he can once again eat whatever wants with having to be careful of a loose tooth.

A Few Ryan-isms

Spydentity (n): The secret name that one spy calls another. Also the real identity of any spy, although the real name and spy name rarely match.

"I'm going to pick up it." (This one has the grown-ups now using that word order.)

"My sore is throat." (Given as a reason for having a beverage close at hand.)

Toxinate (v): What happens when poison gas is let into the room. This is generally done by "bad guys" and/or "evil spys". as a noun: toxination

"My tooth is half un-tached!" (Actually, that tooth is now completely unattached.)

Elseplace (n): Some place which is ot the place you are currently occupying.

"I am starving hungry! Thus, you will make me breakfast."

Agents (n): Very old people or groups such as the Spartans or the Ancient Romans

Scientific Tickling

Ryan came to wake me up one day and tried to get up out of bed immediately by tickling my armpits. He soon found out that I am not ticklish there. He proceeded to check other places to find my "tickliness". I told him that I am not ticklish, but he kept checking. By the time he got to my feet, I found the whole adventure so funny that I was already laughing. Once he touched me feet, I burst into peels of laughter. "That proves it!" he yelled. "Ba has tickliness!"

Next he went to Mimi and tried tickling her armpits. She didn't laugh. He moved all the way down to her feet. By the time he got to her feet she was laughing out loud. "Mimi has tickliness, too!" he cried.

"Who is more ticklish, Ba or Mimi?" she asked him.

"I need to experiment," he answered. He proceeded to tickle each of us until we were laughing so hard we asked him to stop. He could barely breathe himself he was laughing so hard. "Ba can't not laugh, so that proves she has more tickliness than Mimi" was his verdict.

Now he comes in every morning and wakes us up by checking for our tickliness. Today he decided to see which was more "tickly" tickling with his fingers or blowing raspberries on our feet. "Now hold still," he instructed. "This is very important. If you move you can ruin my whole experiment." He tickled each way. By the time he blew raspberries on the soles of my feet I was laughing and squirming and pulled my feet away. I accidently kicked him. "Hey you kicked me!" he yelled.

"I'm sorry Ryan, but if you tickle my feet I might jerk away."

"Right. OK." He pretended to write on a pad. "Note: Be careful when preforming tickliness experiments."

"You are definately more tickly, Ba. Mimi doesn't kick me."

I guess I am. After all, you can't argue with rigorous scientific testing.

Breaking Things

Not too long ago, Ethan threw Ryan's favorite Planet Hero figure (Zip) from the second story window. It broke. There was upset all around. After things calmed down, I asked Ethan why he threw Zip from the window, and he said he just wanted to see something break. I told him that we could do that in a way that wouldn't involve any one's treasured things and wouldn't hurt any one's feelings. I wasn't sure how that would look, but I knew we could do it.

We stopped at Goodwill one day to check out the books and I found ceramic cups and mugs for ten cents each. I bought them and brought them home. Today we pout a tarp outside the front windows and dropped about a dozen ceramic cups, two mugs, and the remains of one broken bowl we had in the house from the front windows. Ethan was thrilled! He and Ryan had a blast dropping them, retrieving them, and dropping them again.

It was one of those moments when it was just easy to step outside the box. I love those moments.

Travels and Friends

We've been very busy for the past few weeks. We went on a trip which started out in Plymouth, MA at an Unschooler's Camp Out. Where Ryan met a new friend, Mauve, and found she shared his love of sticks.

Ethan, Declan, and Will discovered a sunny place to relax.

I managed to get all the kids in one photo. This was Ryan's fire, but he decided to share. He built lots of fires on this trip and learned "black smithing" which is, apparently, the art of blacking one end of stick so that it can be used to write on rocks.
Next we went to Grammy's cabin in NH. The fun with fire theme continued there. Grammy liked the fires.
Ethan built his first fire with a little help from Ryan and Mimi.
In honor of In spite of it being Learn Nothing Day, Uncle Gareth showed Ethan a how to use a bow and arrows.
Mimi and Ba took the guys for a canoe ride. Of course anyone can ride in the canoe. It's much more challenging to get pulled along in an inner tube.
Ethan spent hours following the ducks in the pond. He quacked at them and they were very accommodating. He got really close to them. After a few hours, he announced that being a duck was great, but without feathers it gets pretty cold even if the lake is warm.

Water always looms large in our family, so went to Jacob Riis Park last Tuesday and caught some gnarly waves.
There were a few wipe outs, but both Ethan and Ryan are ready to go again tomorrow. They say this is the best beach in the world. I have to agree. It has been my favorite beach since childhood.
Amazing water fun continued at Jean's wonderful potluck. The food was yummy and there lots of cool unschoolers. Jean lives mere blocks from the ocean, so naturally, everyone headed there for an afternoon swim. It was a great time to catch up with friends, old and new.
I couldn't resist posting in this photo of Kim. Gotta love a girl who knows what to take to the beach.
Finally, we went to see the new Harry Potter movie on Sunday. Ethan wanted to wait to see it at an Imax with Ryan, all 3 mommies, Aunt Jo, and Uncle Joe. We met up in New Rochelle, NY and while we were walking to the theater, Ethan decided to pause to let Wolverine hang on a tree.
All in all, a very satisfying and refreshing few weeks.