Carson.

Last Saturday, Rick was home and I was planning on going for an early run. Carson happened to be the only kid up early, so I told him to grab his bike and come along with me. He and Everett have been on an animal tracking kick after reading about it in a book (The Curious Boy's Book of Adventure, very cute), so he was thrilled that he'd be able to spot some animal tracks and such. We saw a ton of deer; it was great!!

 

Can you spot four?

Mama deer and teeny tiny baby.

We'd gone a couple of miles down the trail, when I told Carson I thought if we kept going we'd come out near the YMCA. He said he could make it, so we kept on going, up some big hills and everything. (I did give him some pushes up the big hills. I think, though, if he had a bigger bike he could have done it. He is much too big for this tiny bike!) It was so exciting when we got to parts of the trail that he recognized as being close to the park by the Y. We made it! It was about four miles from our house to there, and then he timed me while I did some exercises at the gym. It was such a fun morning!!

Then I called Rick, who brought the other kids and some breakfast tacos over.

Spiderman baby!

Later that day, our favorite lifeguard from the pool texted to tell me to hurry over for a fun free event by the pool. Apparently the HOA arranges every year for a kids' train ride, bounce house, nachos, and snow cones to celebrate the Fourth of July. The strange thing is that they don't advertise it at all, so no one shows up. We were the only people there! (They gave us all the leftover nachos. If anyone wants some nacho cheese, please come over.) Talk about a fun Saturday!

Carson has been reading like crazy this summer. We got new books at the library this morning, and he's already started and finished a Nate the Great book, James and the Giant Peach and half of The Great Glass Elevator. (Should I be concerned about the speed reading?? He does comprehend things enough that he can re-tell me the story, but I worry that he reads so fast that he's missing details...) I have been looking on Craigslist for a set of encyclopedias for him. I figured with the massive amount of reading he does, some info like that could be useful.

If you ask Carson to tell you a secret, he'll lean close to your ear and whisper something like, "A group of owls is called a parliament." Or, "The dot above the i and the j is called a tittle."  Once he told me, "you may make better decisions with a full bladder." Not sure where he got that one. When I was helping him in the bathroom the other day he informed me that toilet paper was invented by the Chinese, but at first only emperors were allowed to use it. The things he says from reading everything he can get his hands on are pretty hilarious. I love hanging out with my big five-and-a-half-year-old!!