my bike

In recent months, I have put countless miles on my bike, participated in a bike Roadeo, and I have grown to be almost six feet tall. (Maybe not.) But I am definitely long overdue for a new bike. After school yesterday, my mom took me to the bike shop to get fitted properly and to do some test drives. 

I tested each bike in the store, including every color of every model that was available in my size - because color and graphics matter, you know. Each test drive was an ordeal. Pull it out of the display, adjust the seat and training wheels, walk the bike outside to the dedicated test drive space, ride for an hour, discuss the merits of each bike, walk the bike back inside, return it to the display, and start the process over. Not only was it fun, but it was a great way to kill a few hours. I even got some lessons about bike maintenance.

I was devastated to leave empty handed. While this Trek bike, with its flowery pink ribbons and XOXOXOXOXO treads, was the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life, I may have to opt for something a bit more suitable for trail riding; this would be a sweet bike if I lived near a pastry shop and could ride over, with a bouquet in the basket, to get some macarons and a chai. I have now decided on the exact bike I want.

Easter bunny

As soon as I woke up very early yesterday morning, I was so intent on checking my calendar to see if it really was Easter that I completely overlooked what the Easter bunny delivered. He left me a basket overflowing with peanut butter cups, a creme egg, a Hello Kitty activity book, a swim toy, and, my favorite: a large box of wildflower seeds with 100 square feet of coverage!

I spent most of the day cleaning, making more messes, cleaning, eating nothing but too many carbs and sweets, and being overexcited about my friend Lisa coming for dinner. I did settle in for a while in the afternoon just long enough to sow my wildflower seeds. Next spring, my yard will be spectacular.

I am told that dinner was delicious, though I didn't eat anything except one bite of sweet potatoes. I have recently decided that I don't even like quiche anymore. What?

We finished the evening by playing Canadian version of Trivial Pursuit. Suddenly, I know everything about Saskatchewan and VIA Rail and the Trans-Canada Highway (aka Route Transcanadienne) and that Vancouver used to be called Granville and that there is a Harrods in the Toronto airport. Who knew Canada was so exciting? As a youngster, I thought it was nothing more that just a "different store with boats in it."

But, sadly, this morning I had my Trivial Pursuit privileges revoked for an entire week because I intentionally broke the lid and I threw the cards all over the living room. I was just mad that we had to pause to eat breakfast.

still spring

While we've seen some hot days already, the miserable temperatures seem to be arriving a bit later than usual. I haven't been keeping careful track but I do believe our hottest day this year has been 88. not bad. I am never bothered by the weather, no matter how blazing hot or freezing cold. The afternoons have been perfect for playing in the yard and making horses out of logs. My sport of the week is badminton.

I have a new favorite park that has an expansive playground and a one-mile paved loop around it. My mom has been keeping my bike in her trunk and we often stop there on the way home from school. I ride while she walks/runs. We go at least once around the loop. sometimes twice. or more.

One day last week, I met my friend at the park after he finished school. We climbed trees, rode his scooters, and played. Atop the tree, we had a conversation about how high we will climb once we are 10. Yesterday my mom surprised me with my very own scooter and I rode it at the park for two, maybe three, hours.

The wildflowers are in full bloom right now. That has made my long commute to school more interesting, maybe even exciting. A million thanks are owed to Lady Bird. 

Sitting in a patch of bluebonnets in my favorite park wasn't a bad way to end the week. 

spring break

Today is the last day of spring break. Maybe it went better than I or anyone had expected. Sometimes a boy like me needs school or other highly structured activities to keep content.

On the very first day of spring break, my mom and I visited a friend's ranch to survey the environmental destruction of a nearby development. As sad as that is, I do love to see heavy equipment working. There, I met someone who used to operate gantry cranes in Saudi Arabia; unprompted, he confirmed what my mom tells me frequently: I need to have top-notch math and physics skills. We've been working on that whenever I need breaks from reading and spelling lessons. 

On prior visits to the ranch, there was nothing but thousands upon thousands of acres of trees to look at from the hilltop. Now we see nothing but rooftops and roads. It used to be so quiet that you could hear all of the cows and bulls and goats - most of which seem to have been moved on. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a nice stroll through the ranch and found some fossils and a deer skull. In this photo, I am standing in what should be a flowing river but the drought is still suffocating Texas.  

I took my first canoe trip. As you can see, I did all of the difficult work of paddling while my dad enjoyed a leisurely ride and took some photos of how great I am.

No school break would be complete without a trip to the Blanton. My dad has been taking me there since I was a newborn baby. It's a good place to practice being quiet and following rules. I only got lectured once by the security guard for sitting on something in the gallery that looked like a bench. If it looks like a bench . . .

We had the excitement of my mom's birthday waiting for us at the end of the week. She is often shocked, maybe even horrified, that black forest cakes simply cannot be found in bakeries here. (Those Americans don't know what they are missing!) My dad took the initiative to hunt down a black forest cake recipe and he and I baked the best cake in the world. (I didn't even realize that he knew you could get recipes from the internet nevermind that he could bake a cake from scratch. I will definitely put him to work as my helper again.) You probably cannot tell how massive this is but the serving platter is 16x16 and the cake is four layers. And it may be the richest cake ever with all of that whipped cream. oh my.

And then there is the sheer joy of having so much time around home without worrying about the hours-long commute to/from school or having to do anything or go anywhere really. I found a worm that kept me occupied for hours. I looked at some bugs and leaves in my creature peeper. I fixed up my yard and my columbine is healthy and only days away from blooming. The best part of this spring break is that the obnoxiously hot weather hasn't set in quite yet. Some days were even cool enough for me to wear pants.

The alarm clock is set for 5:00am tomorrow. 

26.2 (and then some)

Way way back in October, I decided to join my school's Marathon Kids program. For someone like me, running 26.2 miles over the course of four months is a breeze. I could knock that out in a week, if I had to. 

Today I completed my run. I was handed the shiniest of gold medals as I dashed across the finish line. 

Being in my program meant that we met with other runners on Tuesday and Thursday mornings before school. How lucky we all are that my school is sitting right at the edge of the Town Lake trail (which really has a different name because 1) it isn't even Town Lake anymore and 2) the trail itself is named after some people who donated a lot of money to make it as lovely as it is).

There were too many mornings that I struggled with some issues stemming from being hyper-competitive. Even though I am the youngest runner in my school, I am the fastest; that is not disputed by anyone. The purpose of the program was not to race. ("forget the rest and do your best," our leader would tell us at the start of each run.) But I can't not race. I would run and run and run and get way ahead of everyone . . . always looking back to see who was catching up . . . allowing runners to catch up . . . and then I'd cry. fiercely. We resolved this by practicing our running on other days of the week too, just me and my mom.

We've also made some trips to a nearby track. This allows me the opportunity to practice my sprints though I am probably best suited to being a middle distance runner. My latest goal: to run 100m in less than 9.58 seconds before my next birthday. Wish me luck. I'm close. 

reading

In recent weeks, not only have I been adding numbers together but I have also starting spelling more and more and more words aloud and asking about the spelling of words. Since my mom had seen me read a few words on signs when we go out, and I have been working on the sandpaper letters at school, she knew I could read now - and had been trying to convince me for days that I can. I was skeptical.

When we got home from the library on Tuesday, I was shown the word "bugs" and I read it! Then "pigs." After that, I declared "I really can read."

Yesterday, we worked on more reading and I have mastered the following words:
sat
Sam
Mat
cat
on
sad

my valentines

The days and weeks leading up to Valentine's Day were full of excitement. The week before, I received my ever first homework assignment: to make one card for each of my friends in my class. I took this task seriously and I would go home and paint and draw every day after school. (Note: if you are wondering if my mom stepped in and painted the butterfly or the sunshine, she did not. I did those with a stencil. clever me! The only help I got was with putting my name on each card and cutting them out . . . which turned out to be a huge undertaking.)

The day before Valentine's, we stopped at Whole Foods on our way home from school to fill the water jugs. And to buy everything yummy in sight. And to eat some pizza for lunch. It was in the bakery section that it started to seem like my dad should buy me a cake for Valentine's Day. So we sent him this photo for inspiration, knowing perfectly well that he'd be doing some last-minute shopping for me.

I could hardly sleep the night before Valentine's Day realizing that not only would we have our weekly assembly but also a party! What a day. I didn't even have to do any work (!!!!). These are the cards I received from my sweet friends. They clearly took their homework assignments as seriously as I did.

Now you are probably wondering if I got a cake from my dad.

I DID!

Though it was not a cake from the photo. It is a lovely strawberry cake decorated with a dark chocolate heart covered in sprinkles.