In Training.

I have very exciting (parenting) news: Henry is learning to use the potty! He went two times yesterday, right away this morning and once this afternoon and before bed! He has also discovered the joy one can glean from M&Ms; not only can counting and naming colors of M&Ms be fun but they also can stain fingers. We have started letting Henry watch Sesame Street clips on Hulu. Henry, in just three evenings of exposure, finds Cookie Monster a little scary but that Elmo is delightful. Max has this incredible memory, much like my brother Adam, he remembers all of these episodes of Sesame Street he enjoyed as a child. We watched this bizarre cartoon, Lost Boy Remembers Home (http://www.hulu.com/watch/38842/sesame-street-lost-boy-remembers-way-home), Buffy St. Marie (Max said she was his favorite to watch) and others like Bobby McFerrin.

The last two weeks I have been making Artisan bread loaves about every other day. Max and Henry love the loaves. The best part is that the dough is so easy to make. I checked out MFK Fisher's collected works to supplement the Emerson, Thoreau, and Voltaire.

Sadly, reading Emerson is not so easy. I am reading Emerson's essay on Self-Reliance. I kind of wish I had my 10th or 11th grade English teacher around to help with the dense sentences, to make sure I am understanding correctly what I am reading. I think he makes some fairly good points. The one has stood the most was,

"Virtues are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule. There is the man and his virtues. Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world, — as invalids and the insane pay a high board. Their virtues are penances. I do not wish to expiate, but to live. " RWE.

Now, there are two ways I could think about this: one as an engineer and the other way not as engineer. I can't help thinking engineers' "works are done as an apology." My own thought on that is still maturing. I will continue with the effort, though it is a bit ironic I am quoting a RWE as he rails against such a thing in the essay.

Except for today the heat, humidity continue to be oppressive. On Sunday our time at Hickory Dock Park was limited. Both Henry and I were reddened and sweating to the point of uncomfortableness within a half hour. We have backyard but it is not really a play area. Our backyard is wild. There is a fence located about 20 feet from the patio door and then an other fence 50 feet beyond that. It is odd. The area between the first and second fence is full of dense foliage and who knows what for spiders, insects, and small, rabid mammals. Isabelle, aka the terror this last week, has been the only one of us to investigate that patch of the property and return unscathed. But because we do not have one of those collars that translates dog to English the wild patch remains a mystery.