This morning we have boy, with increasing chance of young man by the afternoon.

This somehow captures the 143 different personalities of my son. Or maybe you only see 1 of them? Or a few, depending on how well you know him? These are the mysteries of portraiture. Please post the definitive explanation of portraiture, in essay form with footnotes and any other related academia, in the comments section. Your assignments are due immediately.

Or you could just tell me what you see.

I see my father's heavy eyes, which is strange because he looks like me, and I really look very little like my father. I see his confident nature, salted with the fatigue and resignation he uses to cope with the puberty he's not ready for. I see a child who is increasingly uncomfortable in childhood, terrified of anything else, and just beginning to flirt with the excitement of true independence. I see the doors of parental control beginning to close, I see the rising dawn of parental influence, and way way back behind those heavy hazel eyes I see his big heart shining. Then I'm assured that even though the coming years will be awkward and painful, he's ultimately going to be a very happy man. There are hundreds of reasons, but in this photo I can't help but see what he's not showing: a laughing loving boy-bordering-on-teen who yearns for nothing more than connecting with people. And how wrong can you go with your heart out there on your sleeve? For all to share? Yeah, it gets dirty and hurt out there in the elements. But in the really big picture I believe that's a good problem to have.

In other news, Spring has finally sprung. See AK's blog for sun-related excitement. I'm feeling overwhelmed, as though I need to hurry up and get cracking on every single thing I thought of all Winter and concluded "I'll do that when the sun comes out". But meanwhile Lux is still driving the Breadwinner Bus so it all takes a backseat to paint & copywriting & any other venue I can find for whoring out my meager skills. It took me almost one whole year, but I finally managed to get myself and a fully functional unicycle to a meeting of The Wobbling Lions. That was a hoot, I met lots of interesting folk, and it was all the excerise I thought it would be. I hope to be maybe touring or doing "Muni", mountain unicycling, by the end of the Summer! Do they have trailside defibrillators I wonder. . . . I used the impending meeting to finally get a helmet painted, and I have an order in for two more already. So who wants a custom painted helmet? Motorcycle, batting, bicycle you name it. Much bigger market than the one I've focused on so far, much more potential.

Planning is underway for our next video! Max is leaning towards any of his favorite songs, which tend to be house/dance music. This would be good for a storytelling video since the songs themselves offer little story. I've got it in my head that I want to do "Mo' Money Mo' Problems", maybe then I can move on to another genre and give up trying to be Spike Jonze. And long term AK and I fantasize about a Christopher Guest-style mockumentary about homeschooling, though I'm afraid only homeshoolers would get most of the gags we've thought of so far. Any ideas?

:) Enjoy your Spring! As Dy says, Kiss Those Babies. . .