What a great summer!

Chris has been back to work for two months, and is doing very well. He's pretty tired, but that's par for the course with a brain injury and with bones that are still healing. Biker Doc may have become GimpDoc but at least he's still a Doc :)

Chris said that he learned from the motorcycle accident that there is no sense in putting off stuff you really want, because you could be dead in an instant. So, seizing the day, he made an appointment to add a huge spiderweb to his spider tattoo.

I like it, even though I had hoped that by the time we had the money for him to get a bigger tattoo, he would have outgrown the desire to have one. This is the same thing I wished about him getting a motorcycle, and look what happened with that. So before he went off to the tattoo parlour, I asked him to at least make sure they used clean needles, because I could just see him getting Hep from a dirty needle.

Sigh. I never thought I'd have to worry about a husband who wanted to ride motorcyles or get tattoos. I thought I was safe by not marrying any of my inmate students. Shows what I knew.

The boys and I had a terrific summer, made even better by our descent (or is that ascent?) into confirmed granolahood. A few months ago I got something called the 12 Step Bet, which was about how individuals could cut down greenhouse emmisions. Two of the items were

Reduce your driving by 6000km or 1/3: saves 3000 kg of CO2
Bike, walk or take the bus to work/school four days a week: saves 2077 kg of CO2

and there was also a bunch of books on the subject. One, "Divorce Your Car" by Katie Alvord, was.. lifechanging. We started biking and walking so much that on most days my car sat in our parking spot all day long. And it's been great! I'm in better shape and in a great mood, the kids are happy and tuckered at the end of the day, we discovered parks and glades and little forests and community gardens we never knew existed right next to our house, hiked and climbed and looked at ducks and waterfalls and all sorts of great stuff. Don't even get me started on how much money we've saved on gas.

I'm pretty sure when my car gets a bit older, we'll get rid of it and be a one-car family again, and may even try to join a car co-op instead of owning a car. Although I think the idea of no car probably wakes Chris up in a cold sweat at night, so we may have a ways to go before I convince him.

Of course, it helps that both of our kids hate the car and love the bicycles, and that we've had a drought this summer. We'll see how enthused I am when it's raining or snowing :)

In other news, Daniel recently got his 'white-yellow' belt in karate. Outside of Little Dragons he's still technically a white belt, but it means he's learned a whole bunch of kicks, punches, blocks and stances, and is a sort of role model for the other plain-white-belt Little Dragons. He also starts Jr. K on Monday. How did he get so big so fast?

Speaking of getting big, Justin (who is 3 years younger) is now two pounds lighter than Daniel and built like a truck. Our friends pointed out that there's something very... blue collar about him. He just has this look about him that says "I work hard, play hard, eat hard, sleep even harder".

One rainy day the kids were playing in the bushes and Justin,in his little peaked hat, looked just like a dwarf in a forest. It occurred to me that dwarves are the blue-collar members of the fairy kingdom - you know, working the mines and smithys, drinking beer and singing rowdy songs...

I love pigeonholing my kids. It's so funny when you end up totally wrong just a few months later. I remember we called Daniel Michelin Boy for a while, and then he string-beaned just a few months later. I can just picture Justin becoming a skinny artist or theoretical physicist, and saying "Blue collar? What were you thinking?"

Justin's not just growing physically. His vocabulary skills expand daily, and he even told his first story this summer:

Guh-loob! Guh-loob! Guh POP! POP! Fye! Ah-goh guh-loob. Ah-guh. POP! Guh POP! Fye!

Justinese-English subtitles: The balloon went POP! near the fire (barbecue) All gone balloon! POP! Fire!

Daniel surprised me the other day with the following observation: "I think you must love me more than Justin." My mother-guilt complex immediately kicked in, thinking OH NO I've been neglecting Justin!

"Why, sweetie?"

"Because I help you to take care of him. And if I didn't, you would have to work really hard to take care of him all by yourself."

Sigh. From the mouths of babes.

--

- Jimena
"But now", says the Once-ler, "Now that you're here,
The word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear.
UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot
Nothing is going to get better. It's not."
- The Lorax, Dr. Seuss