Teefs!

Ladies and gentlemen, we've got 'em. C is delighted. I think he was beginning to think we would have to get her tiny dentures.

Just to be different, Z decided to have the top ones arrive first. They just showed up yesterday, and various family members have already called her "Cletus,""Bucky," and "Kukla." (I'll let you figure out the generational divide on that one.) Halloween being just around the corner, and us being the kind of ignoramuses that we are, we briefly entertained the idea of going for the "most offensive costume" award by dressing Z as a caricature from a WWII propaganda poster, a la Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Very briefly, indeed.

Eight Months and Fourteen Days

Late again.

We have had a nice August/September. We saw family, friends, arch-nemeses (Violet von Doom). Of course, being the person I am, I have no photos of any of these encounters here with me on my computadora. Soon, perhaps.

Zora fared much better in her second encounter with Violet. There was almost a toy phone incident, and mild hair pulling, but the manacles and leg-irons on Violet evened the playing field for the most part.

Hmm... what else?


Z finally had a reason (Rosh Hashana) to break out one of the fancy Par-ee French dresses Auntie Stef gave to her. It's an amazing thing-- it has more detail on it than any piece of clothing R or I own. It fits her perfectly.

I don't quite remember the rule about plastic bags, but I do remember one is bad for babies. I'm pretty sure then that several wadded up and stuffed in a large plastic bag-- which is then tied to the wall for easy recycling that never happens-- is the perfect toy for a baby to play with.

Contemplative polka-dot elf.

More to come soon!

Zeven Monthz! (Again)

Raspberries from Vermont (mixed with rice-- it looked like she was eating steak tartare) were a big hit.



In what is probably a sign of teeth to come, Z's favorite baby bin toy is a book held together with a string and a large bead. She likes to put the book in her mouth and stands up to show whoever is on the outside looking in her trick. CONCERNED GRANDPARENTS AND OTHER READERS, DO NOT WORRY. I AM WATCHING HER AND THE BEAD AS SHE DOES THIS.

An evening walk with Mom. Boy, does she love her Mom.

Belated Seven-Month Post!

We're always late.Never getting dressed on time...

Playing with stuff while we should be concentrating on other things...

Spacing out at the breakfast table...

Staring off into space...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Amazing Panty-Head!

"Fun" folding laundry!




Fun time's over.

Some of What We Did on Wednesday...

Took a morning walk to the park...

Took a swing in the morning light...

Watched our shadows...


Ate copious amounts of brown rice blended with peaches. That is a bib, not a shirt, unfortunately.


There were also naps and X-treme poos, but you don't want to see those pictures. Really.

Hope your Wednesday was also good, dear readers!

Auntie Stef Came to Visit

Teeth were checked...

All clear! Yay!
Zora had a great visit (except for the car bits) with Auntie Stef.

What's That?

It's Zora!

Having a little avocado.

GUYS-- YAMS!

YAMS.
YAMS.
YAMS!
GUYS... YAMS!

YAMS.

YAMS.
YAMS.
YAMS.
YAMS.
YAMS.
YAMS.

Beach Day!

Maya came down from the Green Mountains to visit Li'l Rhodey for the weekend. We had a belated kickoff to beach season at the local edge of the world. We ate clam cakes, underdone fries and lots and lots of sand.

Here are my two favorite daughters:

SIX MONTHS OLD!

Hooray!!!It's official: only six months left on our no-questions-asked return policy. So far, so good, but I'm waiting to see what happens with those ears and that hair before I make my final decision.


No, I'm only kidding. It's character! She's a keeper.

We were a travelin' family in the month of June. We visited our Western Mass fam, our Vermont fam and our O-high-in-the-middle-O fam. Zora flew (in a plane) with no complications, and drove across several states (in short chunks) with her usual protestations. She hates the car. We try to accommodate her by breaking up drives across this great land of ours into two-hour chunks (coinciding with naps, of course), but even that sometimes is too much. Inevitably she stops crying as soon as she hears the e-brake click into place, and by the time I unfold myself from the front seat, she's smiling through the leftover tears.

Some photos.
Asleep in the sunny guest room of our dear Somerville friends, saving up the shouts and accusations for the ride to Vermont.

With the VT Family.
I couldn't get a photo where everyone was looking at the camera. Here R considers her daughter's patchy curls.

Of course she was fine in Vermont and even seemed okay at the outset of our return trip. She didn't disappoint, however, and decided she'd howl and sob from the Massachusetts border to our home in the Ocean State. Good times!

Zora did well on the plane and had a good time visiting Ohio. Wherever she goes there is no shortage of people who want to hold her, and the Buckeye State was no different.

Here we are on the lawn of the beautiful Toledo Art Museum.


Here we are in an enormous and strangely beautiful cemetery in Cleveland. She's being held by her Uncle Joshua.

Here she is in an Akron restaurant that had its own special kind of beauty: a sundae bar and more types of pie than you could shake a stick at. She's being held by Nana.


And here she is on one of the two worst beds I've ever had the misery of trying to sleep on. Incredibly, they were in the same room! Comfort Inn of Akron (the one off of Market Street, right off of 77), you need to step your mattress game up.