Day 7.039: Magnetic, hair-raising

E5N1 was very particular about making this arrangement with the magnetic pieces of the Polarity game (it's an excellent and unusual game by the way!).

The hair-raising had nothing to do with the magnets - rather it was hair-styling by winter hat:

but worth sharing I thought!

Day 6.200: Facial hair-larity!

While we were in the UK, we bought a few magazines for the kids to read on the day we went to London.

On Saturday morning, someone found the pack of fake facial hair that we removed from the cover of one of them before packing them to take on the train.

This was the result:

What do you do with your Saturday mornings?!

Day 5.155: Must dash!

Exile #4's friends got stick on mustaches as part of their spy kits at the party on Monday.

We had a few left over, so...

Yes - that.

Day 4.282: Kind of a good look!

E5N1 has been going through a phase (along with his, err, anatomical drawings) of wetting his hair whenever he has access to water. On one occasion a couple of weeks ago, he requested my help to fashion a mohawk (well a faux-hawk at least).

His declaration on seeing himself in the mirror after these self and Daddy-assisted styling sessions is always the same..."Kind of a good look!"

Day 4.121: Cut!

A long overdue cut mentioned on facebook earlier caused one of my friends to suggest that I would lose all my power as a result.

Well I was quite tired when the cutting was over. I collapsed something of a heap on the sofa with a beer. It had taken about an hour I suppose but it's safe to say its worth it and the yard now looks much better.

Oh yeah, before I cut the grass I did get my hair cut too.

Day 4.043: Broad/shouldered?

This hawk was in the Corning Preserve parking lot when we returned from our bitterly cold walk on Saturday. I believe it is a broad-winged hawk, but it could possibly be red-shouldered. I understand that the even width stripes on the tail should be distinctive.

For the kids, their February Recess started with appointments today: with the dentist and the hairdresser. E5N1 apparently declared that he now looks like me - maybe it's the runny nose and the cough. Hopefully we will both be able to shake it soon.

Day 3.360: School photos

I'm literally 'mailing this one in' as the blogger interface seems problematic this evening.

When we got the girls' photos back from school (slightly disappointingly we did not know about re-take day!) I decided that it was about time that E5N1 had one too.  Since his preschool is too small to organise such a thing, I decided to take it myself.

Now, I know I had time on my side (and only one child to deal with) - but frankly I'm rather happy with the result.

UPDATE:
A asked about the haircut - it was indeed very recent. This is from the day before (this is all back in early December)

Day 3.078: E5N1 and other wildlife

Back to work and school for three of us today, and Exile #2 spent the day with E5N1 preparing for our trip and helping out a friend who's having a really rough time.

As you can see, we saw some wildlife on Saturday - on the ponds and at the bird-feeders. Some were definite signs of spring - returning birds and newly-active chipmunks.

Click on the collage for the Flickr set.

Of course, the wildest creature may have been one we took with us.

Exile #2 commented this evening that he seems to be the anti-Samson - having apparently grown in his powers (of naughtiness mostly) since having his hair cut.  How could she say such a thing?

There aren't many things that don't remind me of a song of some sort - but, not surprisingly, I'm singing this to myself now and contemplating a slice of Wonder Bread before bed.  Then again, maybe not.

Day 3.025: Who is that boy?

That (go on, go back and read the post title now...I'll wait...OK?) was what E5N1 said when he saw this photo yesterday. This is in spite of the fact that he was there when it was taken - and not just there, but right in front of the camera pulling a cheesy grin.

Fair enough I suppose - Exile #2's glasses do make him look quite different. Talking of looking different, he was already in bed when I got home, but was awake and greeted me enthusiastically with news of his haircut experience today. It was quite hard to work out what he was saying - the only words I made out clearly were "lady", "clips" and "hairbrush". I turns out (Exile #2 explained it to me) that the (spot-the-words time) lady who cut his hair gave him some clips to play with so he wouldn't get fidgety while she was cutting - unfortunately he immediately tried to put them in his hair. In response to this, she gave him a hairbrush - of course he started brushing his hair. "That wasn't quite what I had in mind," she said. No, well, I can see why that would be - although it wasn't much of a stretch for him. We are more likely to be amazed at what else he finds to do with a hairbrush that he has been given to brush his hair with, but never let it be said that he is not able to surprise at every turn.

I'll try to get a post-haircut picture in the next day or two.  I've only seen it by night-light-light so far, but I think it's a good one despite his best efforts.

Day 2.138: Upgrades

Since I wrote so much yesterday, I'll keep it to three little vignettes from my day today:

1) E5N1's haircut (before and after):

2) Exile #4 realises that truth is fluid:
Exile #2 (in next room): Can you get your lunch box out of the fridge please?
Exile #4: Of course - I'm near!
Exile #2 (mishearing): Oh you're already doing it, good job!
Exile #4: (muttering)No...I'm...(cogs whir - how to explain? - moves towards fridge)...I...(light goes on - literally and metaphorically!)...Yes - I'm doing it!
Exile #2: Great!

3) An unexpected email:
A Facebook application that gives you a virtual fish-tank on your page that friends can fill with fish announces a slight change of direction:

"My Aquarium's name and functionality will be changed next week to SpeedDate."

Day 2.133: E is for E5N1...

Unfortunately, after our late night yesterday we had disrupted sleep thanks to this little one throwing-up in his bed. He seemed out of sorts all morning, but better after a long sleep at lunchtime (instead of eating lunch). Meanwhile I took the girls out and we all got haircuts. Afterwards we picked up some slightly-too-long pieces of trellis for Exile #2's current gardening project - hence the off-cuts.

Alas, we just had another 'incident' from E5N1, so I guess we'll not be getting out much over the rest of the Memorial Day weekend either.

Day 2.069: Show-off

We were at school at 8.30 this morning for a student-led parent conference (or something like that). Basically it meant that Exile #3 got to show off some of her work to us in a private showing in her class-room. She showed us a lot of her work - including testing Euler's formula and writing about spider's oily feet (there was the potential for a pun in there somewhere if you know that Euler is pronounced 'oiler'). I also asked her to show me this pop-up book the class made following their research of what various people do for their jobs since I had missed it earlier in the year. This is her own page about police officers.

While we were doing this, Exile #3's teacher was supervising E5N1 (not part of her job description - but they seemed to have fun). Exile #4 had a normal school day, but the rest of school was closed for the conferences, so Exile #3 managed to fit in a haircut and a play-date. When I got home from work she showed off her new look:
I think she's had a pretty good day all-round.

Day 1.260: Haircut strangeness

It all started with a half-baked idea to take before and after pictures before we all went out for four of us to get our hair cut this morning.

Since everyone else had stood against this wall to have their photo taken, I asked E5N1 to do the same, he happily stood against the wall and gave me the whole catalogue of cheeky smiles. His after pictures looked very similar - we're not ready for the rite of passage that is his first haircut yet.

Anyway, the photos weren't great by any means, but I had a play with a freeware morphing program (Sqirlz Morph) and came up with this - I don't think it will give you too much of an idea of our haircuts but I like it in a freakish sort of way:

Day 355: Cow 'n' down

So as British ex-pats living in the US but currently visiting in the UK, do we wish you a Happy New Year on the basis of midnight having passed here or not? Let's say not and save that for tomorrow.

We went for a nice walk this morning with friends who missed the gathering yesterday. These unusually-located Highland cattle seemed to have a rapport with Exile #3 I'm not sure why. Caption suggestions welcomed...

Day 335: Locks down

Here are the girls getting ready for the party on Sunday. Exile #4's expression makes me laugh every time I look at it. Tonight at bedtime she shunned her normal bedtime song (Twinkle Twinkle with a custom second verse which usually rhymes 'circle' with 'purple'). Instead, she gave us a very lively rendition of "Sally on a bicycle" which eventually (5th time round) dissolved into more giggling than singing and nearly resulted in injury when her excited bouncing around nearly saw her topple off our bed.

Although Exile #3 was extremely pleased to have enough hair to put up like this at the weekend, she and I had haircuts yesterday evening. Her efforts to grow it have not been thwarted however, she just had a fringe (bangs) -trim and a tidy-up. Mine was rather more dramatic. In an effort to avoid twirling her hair into knots with associated detangling requirements (and threats of enforced short-cuts) she has taken to carrying around a small doll and twiddling her hair instead. Long may it continue!

This (not entirely original, but still funny) sign is in the shop at the museum. I'm happy to report that our supervision was good enough to avoid these weighty consequences.

Day 271: Bean Sean

Although it is Columbus Day, and the girls had the day off school, it was a normal working day for me. I had temporarily forgotten my new haircut when I arrived at work this morning. It is quite dramatic. I think that the last time I had it cut was just before July 4th. So, holiday haircuts in the summer, holiday snowstorms in the winter. A curious summary of the first three quarters (fourths) of 2007.

I made it to the pool this evening - I had two lanes to myself as no-one else was swimming laps. The other two thirds of the pool was being used for synchronised swimming training. Quite surreal. On the plus side I did get to hear the music from above (loud but rubbish) and below (strange and metallic) the water surface. Anyway I did my regular kilometre - in time with the music - and didn't get hair in my eyes (well, on my goggles) for the first time in a while.

Day 108: Scissors & sisters

We had a family outing today (after Exile #3 successfully made it to her last-in-session swimming lesson). The first stop was for the girls to have a haircut (pictured). From there we went on (via lunch) to start shopping for a car.

After we got home I was looking at the "pre-owned" stock at the dealership's website. Exile #4 pointed at the screen and started singing their radio/TV advert jingle "We'll put you in the driver's seat!" She is surprising us every day at the moment - her (computer) mouse skills, use of language and sense of humour being today's moments.

We just saw the announcement of "Kid of the week" on local TV, she donated to something called "Locks of Love." Apparently it's about donating hair to make hairpieces and nothing to do with chastity belts.

By the way, did you know you can now sign up to receive this blog by email? See the new subscription option in the sidebar.

Day 40: Happy Birthday Mr President

Not that it is the current president's birthday, or indeed any president that I know of. However, it is President's Day (or maybe Presidents Day - no-one seems sure) a minor holiday celebrating a Monday near to George Washington's birthday. As it is the first day of Exile #3's 'Winter Break' and Exile #2 had an appointment with the midwife at her OBSGYN practice, I took a day off work. So, while Exile #2 kept her appointment, I took the girls for their first US haircuts.

Now, my first haircut here was traumatic enough. How was I supposed to know what a 'fade' was or whether it was what I wanted? But at least I was the one who would have to live with the consequences, today I had the whole family's well-being on my shoulders (well that's how it felt - really it was just a haircut of course). It was also Exile #4's first haircut ever except for a few fringe trims - and I was to give the first direction to her life of hairstyling. And those immortal words? Short back and sides? Can you do a Jennifer Aniston? No. Just a trim please. Anyway, they both seem to have come out looking OK. You can judge for yourselves over the next few days.

After that, we visited CMOST (The Children's Museum of Science and Technology). Amongst other delights, the girls paddled a dugout canoe (on the carpet), pulled faces in a two-way mirror, learned about low-wattage bulbs and watched a planetarium show about the planets (something of a specialist subject of Exile #3 after her day-sky/night-sky week at school. Pictured is her using her other specialist subject - operating computers. Her ability to do the right thing without being able to read seems virtually supernatural, and says a lot for both her generation's ease with technology and the interface design that so often makes the right choice more obvious than the wrong ones.

Tonight on the local news they said "Things are mostly getting back to normal after the Valentine's Day Snowstorm that buried all of us" Well the roads are largely clear, but our garden is still pretty much impassible. I went out about four steps to get a better picture for yesterday's post today, but I wouldn't have relished the prospect of going much further.