HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL

Paul is eight today.

I don't know any other person in my life with such a power to drive me from pride to exasperation and back again.

He sat and listened to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island this year.  

He can't sit still through a meal.  

He made a ton of progress in reading and math in school last year.

He dismissed most of what he learned as soon as school was out.

He learned to swim across the pool this summer.

He can't remember two tasks in a row.

He is finally closing the door to his room and the bathroom - most of the time.

He develops deep affections for those around him.

He develops equally strong affections for his toys - even the baby toys.

He is hard on his sisters.

Then he reads stories to them.
He guards cicadas.
He vivisects earwigs.
He is starting to enjoy movies with his dad (e.g. Star Wars, Iron Man).
He totally digs Captain Underpants humor.

Right now I am trying to get him to practice writing.  We are about to drive each other crazy.
Earlier I asked him to take his dishes to the counter, and he surprised me by putting them away in the dishwasher.

His writing practice was to write 7 questions he would ask if it were Yes Day.

1. Can I have 2000 Lego's?
2. May I go to Chucky Cheese?
3. May I get 3 boxes of Coco Puffs?
4. May I go back in time?
5. [Can I have] Super Bounce shoes?
6. May I have lunch at McDonald's?
7. I want my sister to scream?

Cool cicadas

Paul wants to be an entomologist (one who studies insects) when he grows up.   He has already been equipped with bug boxes, butterfly nets, and a couple of insect field guides.

In late summer, he and Julia enjoy looking for cicada shells.  The cicada grubs like to climb our wooden swing set.  They climb out of their exoskeletons and emerge as adults with wings.  Last night we were looking for the exoskeletons when we spotted a cicada most of the way out of its shell.

It looked odd.  Okay, cicadas look odd by nature.  Something about it looked wrong.

Paul teased it with a bit of weed for a while, and then Steve suggested that Paul hold a black walnut near it.  The cicada grabbed the black walnut and Paul gently pulled the insect out of its shell.

Instead of wings, this thing had nubby little flaps on its back.  I said, "Oh, Paul.  I think this one is deformed.  Its wings didn't form properly.  I don't think it's going to live."

Paul ran to get his bug book (Insect Field Guide).  We looked to see what kind of cicada it was.  We looked to see if maybe one sex of the species had wings and the other didn't.  Steve came across a picture of a cicada emerging from the exoskeleton to adulthood.  It had nubby little flaps where the wings should be.

So it turns out that the wings are supposed to look that way when they emerge.  I always wondered how the cicada's wings fit under the grub's exoskeleton.  Now I know - it is because the wings look like they've been freeze dried and vacuum packed when they first come out.  As we watched, these little flaps slowly spread out.  It seemed impossible.  These deformed looking things transformed into transparent, beautiful instruments of flight.

Paul kept watch over it, periodically placing his hand near it lest it should fall.  He was very attentive.  We left the cicada still drying its new wings in the evening breeze.

Now that was cool.

Stock Answers

We're back. 
It is so good to be back. 
Can I tell you just how wonderful it is to have the whole family sleeping under the one roof of our home after two weeks?

It is this (imagine my hands spread far apart) wonderful. 

And so, here are some stock answers to questions we've been getting a lot lately.

• The trip to the Czech Republic went well.
• The kids did not come with us this time.  They spent the first week with Steve's mom and my parents at a cabin outside Chattanooga, Tennessee.  They loved it.  The second week they were at home with Steve's parents.
• Our travel went well.  Their travel, less so.  Details to come.
• The camp was very good.  We had a strong sense of the Holy Spirit at work.  I'm looking forward to developing the trip report.
• The baby is doing fine.  He kicks me regularly.  He is due the first week of November.  He is a he.  He doesn't have a name yet.  Recent recommendations to us include Jack Sparrow Kuhlman, John Huss Kuhlman, Vitek and Milosh.  
• We are recovering well from our travels, but we'll see how tomorrow goes.  I go back to work tomorrow, and they discourage hour long afternoon naps.

In the last week or so...

In the last week or so we have -

• had our last swimming lesson of the summer
• Petra started "I can do it myself" climbing into and out of her car seat. Yay!
• fired up a couple of window air conditioning units and moved Paul into the office to sleep
• topped 100°F and had sandwiches and banana splits for supper
• disposed of 3 racoons
• seen a coyote running along the road
• weathered a storm that knocked out our power for 5 to 6 hours (We're lucky, some people are going to be out of power for over a week)
• cleaned out and closed down the "beer and egg fridge" for the summer
• turned the "beer and egg fridge" back on because
• our freezer died
• attended a Rock & Roll birthday party (Julia now knows who Justin Bieber is)
• held our last team meeting before going to the Czech Republic
• started collecting stuff to pack for our trip