Ir en Bicicleta por la Luz del Fuego

The other night we had that rare phenomenon - a free night! We spent an idyllic evening; Joaquin playing in the sandbox, Daddy pruning rose bushes while Mommy and Jamie looked on. Jamie cooed happily in the fresh air and Joaquin's giggles echoed. Seriously it was adorably bucolic and straight out of some perfect family scene in a movie. Very nice, plus now my rosebushes are finally pruned and they needed it! However once I went to put Jamie in bed, things took a turn for the more barbaric. I was gently rocking Jamie to sleep, when the light filtering in through the curtains began to flicker oddly. After laying her down, I stepped outside to this. Tricycling by torchlight! I don't know whose idea it was or why they needed the firelight but was definitely entertaining to walk in on. Some kind of male bonding fire ceremony? Okay a few Joaquin-isms. 1. Instead of saying he's hot and getting sweaty, Joaquin tells me, "Mommy, I have water in me." 2. Joaquin has been very difficult to wake up in the morning lately, he explains, "I was deep into bed". Finally some more Joaquin creations. He made these squares during 'naptime' a few days ago and was very excited to show me. While I dutifully admired their symmetry and descending pattern he explained to me how as you went to the right they got colder

and if you went to the left they got hotter. I was very confused for

a moment and then light dawned so I asked why. Because things

get smaller when they're colder (duh, Mommy!) and larger when they're hotter. Except for what Joaquin? Water! And just to prove he's still engineering, look what you make if you stack his squares... a vent! (You know the vents they have in commerical buildings and restaurants.) Finally, this video is of Joaquin's kaleidoscope. We've been haunting Cost Plus World market lately since they have cool Easter stuff and they always have a lot of little junky toys that Joaquin desperately wants. I bought him a kaleidoscope since it was 2.50 and he had been an awesome kidlet all day. He definitely got my money's worth out of it and it's still cool. He loved how the rotating caused the colors and shapes to change. So he made this, his manual kaleidoscope. Which is nice because many people can look at it at once since you don't have to look through a little hole. :)