hide & peek

g is beginning to love 'forts' and really any small spaces. here he is inside a bureau door playing with beloved Aunt Phoebe..

hat

trying to talk him into it...

trying to talk him into it..



but he's not, as yet, so keen on the cold, and immobility, and noise (evidently) involved in snow-play.



poor thing.

lovely lil ladies. a story for m & s

today gideon was suddenly fascinated by the (growing) collection of ladybugs in the corners of our sunny bay window. at his persistent request, i carefully caught one of the wee creatures and knelt down to show him how it crawled up and down my hand. he made numerous excited exclamations, as he is known to do, then he promptly grabbed the lady from me. and, with the total lack of remorse that can only come from pure, unblemished curiosity, he smooshed it into a tiny, spotted ladyburger.



i decided that was too brief an encounter with this newly discovered wonder; that he deserved another chance. i poked an air hole in a small plastic container, caught two more ladybugs and gave them to him, this time with some protection from his eager fingers. i left him alone for a moment studying his new pets.



it was but 30 seconds later that i came upon him with both ladybites in his mouth! judging from his expression (not shown), they are not particularly tasty.



these images are from our 3rd try: reinforced protection from an overly curious keeper..

a day for the hysteri books

he walks! as of this evening. he is so psyched. and so are we; although i am really surprised how quickly these things become just... commonplace. 'sure he walks, we all do.'

a walk in the woods

14 months boy

window

did i mention that our house is very small? one good thing about that, though, is that the windows are low enough for curious little boys to get their fill of whatever is outside... be that his first real snowstorm, or the raging, flooded river, or the giant, mechanical dinosaur chewing a larger-than-this-HOUSE-sized hole in the lawn and spitting out great, granite boulders into a pile as it goes.

mud, mud

one of the reasons i love joe 'smuch as i do is his ability -- indeed his unbelievable talent -- for making fun out of...whatever he's got on hand. this particular day, all we had was... mud. it was still hunting season, a time when exploring & enjoying the woods and the river (which is basically the ONLY thing to do in these parts) is off limits. so he started running around, i encouraging him to run ever faster so he'd be more likely to fall, and fall he did, several times. and i laughed. hard. all several times.

shadow muppet

one of the (many) wonderful things about our tiny new home: bright, warm, furnace-shaming morning sun. no matter the frigid weather outside, we've got at least 70 degrees of purely solar heat. and we've got shadow buddies, who have proven themselves pretty entertaining. i can't decide which image i like better; of course i'm rather bothered by the presence of my (and my camera's) alter ego, but nonetheless... your pick?

hella

clevage

sweet cousins

our friends, hella 22 months, and lila 14 months.

BEST one so far. by far.

we ventured to vinalhaven again today. this time with bikes. joe, andrew, chris, gideon and i jumped in a boat from brown's boatyard, bikes, backpacks, babies, and all, and rode the 11 or so miles to the largest of the "perfectly refreshing" vinalhaven quarries. joe was a hero, riding an ergonomically problematic granny-bike, complete with a handlebar-mounted child seat filled with a fussing -- then flopping and bobbing-- brick hunk of a boy. the positioning of this child seat (i would strongly discourage ANYONE from getting one) is such that it can't be used on a road bike, and, on a bike whose awkward design CAN accomodate it, well, the rider needs to pedal with their knees splayed out like a... like a... bicycle-riding pregnant duck? anyway, both my boys were good sports... it was at least 90 degrees and quite humid.



getting to the quarry was like coming upon a cold glass of water in the dessert. and finding a cool, fresh water swimming hole underneath the glass of water. and then suddenly being surrounded by ice-cream wielding unicorns whose only wish is to take you on scenic flying tours of their magical home. in other words, the water was absolutely perfect, and surprisingly clean and clear. we put gideon's life jacket on him at one point and even HE went in! and we ate cherries, and bread and hummus and cheese.



in the late afternoon, we rode back. and again, the boy slept. and flopped. in his dapper new vinalhaven thrift-store threads.





i wanted to get a cheesy picture of all of us at the end of our adventure, but i suddenly couldn't figure out how to turn on the timer on my own camera. honestly, that's ridiculous. i have only used it 15 THOUSAND times. i think i was distracted by andrew's burgeoning grumpiness...



we had arrived back at the thoroughfare just a few minutes too late to get a ride from anyone at brown's, so.. we had to 'borrow' a row boat. the borrowing-without-asking made andrew nervous (probably because on vinalhaven people do crazy unspeakable things when they get angry), AND it meant he had to row us all back (cuz he's the best rower-- well, i mean, except for me, but i had the baby and the camera). at least he looked good doing it.

sleepy

he rarely sleeps as soundly and as often as all these pictures might lead you to believe... all the more reason to capture him when he's there at his most serene..

fat guy in a little hat...

oldie

gid and cousin ethan

vinalhaven day off

joe rowed us across the thoroughfare to vinalhaven where we paid WAY TOO MUCH (but had no choice, really) to get a ride to town, then ate ourselves silly, first with big sandwiches, then with penny candy, then, for those who were really ambitious, with 2-scoop ice cream cones! needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves, and each other, and i realize now that i really didn't take any pictures that show y'all anything of vinalhaven, but rather a change of background scenery for the usual subjects...












look at those teeth!


trying to pic a fight with me. yah. nice try.


tickled!


pinned!