Downward Facing Copycat

From our trip to Governors Island today:

This nice lady in the background lent us her hula hoop and then got to work (inadvertently) leading a yoga class.

Grandparents' Summit

Rosie was lucky to have all four grandparents -- Grandmama, Baba, Grandma, and Granddad -- all in one place. My folks came to the Berkshires for a visit. They arrived while she was down for a nap, and when she woke up and saw everyone standing in the kitchen, I honestly thought she was going to lose it for a second. Wonder, confusion, and finally excitement - all in quick succession. Then she settled in for a fun weekend of being the total center of the universe. We spent most of the weekend poolside:

Just One More Reason to (Heart) NYC

We finally got down to visit the Highline, a new park that is up on an abandoned elevated train track in Chelsea, my old and beloved neighborhood. I can't count how many times I've gone under those tracks, always kind of pathetically race-walking to avoid the fat, random drips of water and (worse) pigeon poop. So, wow, what an amazing thing it is see how different the city and all those familiar places look when you are just a couple of stories above it all. They did all these plantings of native flowers and grasses, and played up the old railroad tracks in utterly simple and fantastic ways. I'm smitten. (We went back three times in four days. The last time was with my cousin Kev, when he visited, but bad blogger me did not have my camera that day.)

What I love most, I think, is how varied the vistas are as you walk along. There's Phillips auction house, which makes the most of its Highline-side real estate by displaying a batch of contemporary art to be auctioned off, and then there's also a stretch that borders some sculptor's moldy old backyard, which is filled with towering stacks of removed insulation, a very sad looking Statue of Liberty replica, and some other junk. I'm sure that'll change - probably just as soon as that guy's landlord figures out how to shoehorn him out - but for now it's a little slice of life up there.

Little Piggies

Learning about the little piggies and the market and whatnot with cousin Mimi, when she and cousin David came by for a visit in early August.

W-A-S-H-ING-TON, baby, D-C!

Does anyone else get that old Magnetic Fields song running through their head when they say the name of the nation's capitol? Just me? Oh. Anyway, we went down to visit my folks in Bethesda, MD and for a very fun, very whirlwind afternoon at the Farbrother family reunion in Reston, VA.

Our cameras spent most of their time in handbags and backpacks so there are only a few pix. First, a pic of my mom and Rosie hanging out in my folks' backyard:

Dash and the world's best and weirdest party favor:


Two cousins:
Hanging out poolside with Elijah and Dash, and Aunts Sonja, Laura, and Sam

Looking Way Back: 4th of July in the Berkshires

Here are pictures from the golden, olden days of 4th of July weekend, which we spent in the Berkshires with the Sanders fam. This first picture reflects the difficulty of getting all three kids in one shot (forget getting them to all smile in one picture!). We corralled them for about five seconds in the sandbox and got all 3 kiddos deep into their doing own pensive thing:

Heavy rains created a chilly creek right in the backyard. Too cold for adults, just right for toddlers:

Dash and Elijah, hanging in ye olde smoke house:

Back to the sandbox:

Eating fig newtons (included just in case you thought there was no adult supervision):

The frog whisperer:

Thanks to Sam who took every single one of these pretty pix! A bunch more loaded up here.

It is Done!

Lovely Latoya the baby beautician, Elmo on DVD, and a snack trap of cheerios got Rosemary through it. She wasn't too happy about the whole sitch, but it was over before it had half begun. Really her new do looks pretty much the same, maybe just a little less shaggy on the sides. Hair still flops inconveniently in her eyes until we can chase her down and get a barrette all up in it.

Finally

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair...

...will be a little shorter after tomorrow morning.

Germaphobes Read at Your Own Risk

Yesterday's Highlight: Listening to Jason patiently, sweetly explain to Rosie that just because a dog licks her on the lips doesn't mean she has to lick him back on his, at the same time. Apparently there was some pretty serious action going on between her and our neighbor's sweet-natured yellow Lab in the elevator.

Little Miss Defoliation

Well, I'm a little behind but hey, summer days drift away, don't they? The refrain around here has been pine cone, pine cone, pine cone. These pictures are from June, which was probably the height of Rosemary's pine-cone picking obsession. We couldn't walk outdoors without her asking for a "pie-known." (Later in the summer she doubled down, asking for "couple pie-knowns" at a go.) She started out because she liked to count them, or have them counted for her, but mostly I think that she's got the magpie bug (like a lot of toddlers) and likes to collect fistfuls of the same thing.

Rosemary owes me a Coke

Since I last posted we moved, went to DC for a sprawling family reunion, spent a bunch of time in the Berkshires...but more on all that later after I sort through the pix and video. For now, just a quick little anecdote from breakfast this morning. I handed Rosemary a spoon and a big bowl of yogurt. I mused out loud that I had no idea where her bib was. Watching her take a big, messy spoonful, I was about to say "Oh well!," which I did, but not before she said it too, first. Which I suppose means it wasn't technically a jinx. I guess that's not the first time I've said that.