Drove out to Oquawka yesterday so we could see the Mississippi and eat catfish. You know what it's like to get get three adults, a six year-old, and a two-and-a-half year-old into a car and on the road, though the river isn't 40 minutes away. He is every second talking at the top of his lungs, yesterday the geography of dinosaurs, today the composition of freshwater rivers ("only 3% fresh, Nina"). She is every second ingenious octopus: sugar packets, salt, pepper then ketchup then mustard then butter packets then other people's drinks then napkins, all stacked on the furthest end of the table in front of me. The waitress took one look at her yesterday and said: "you are busy, aren't you sweetie." We have a good laugh. You don't know the half of it, sweetie. We piled onto the airbed last night, exhausted. She fell asleep with lambie and Glenda. He stayed up for a choice between a program on giantsupersnakes or on earth's core. At the top of his lungs: "The earth's core is filled with tons and tons of molten metal and besides we're doing that because those are cool words, earth's core."
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He used the word beautiful three times yesterday. "Look at the beautiful dandelions" and "let's go feed the beautiful koi" and "watch me eat this beautiful tomato."
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And some of my other kids graduate today. And Stephen Colbert gets an honorary degree.
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