The Moon in High Falls

Not as big as you thought, right?

Clove Cottages

We got out of town for a few days this weekend.  I highly recommend Clove Cottages in High Falls, NY.  Here's our cabin:

We did a lot of hiking, and splashing in the water, but some of the nicest parts were just laying in the grass.

This pretty much sums up the weekend:

But I'll post a few more anyway.

Sorry for the absence, we were gone for the weekend in upstate New York.  I really should be asleep right now, but thought I would let you know there are lots of great photos on their way soon.

Ground up sesame is bitter

Last night we discovered the tahini and applesauce go really well together.

I'm not talking about for Elliot.  This is for me.  They taste really good mixed together, you should try it.

But okay, yes, we originally (and by we I mean Hannah) came up with the idea of mixing them together because tahini alone made Elliot do his "I'm being poisoned" face.  But while it was Hannah's genius to mix them together, it was my genius to taste it.

I kept nibbling at Elliot's meal, to the point where my mom (who was watching on skype) had to chide me for stealing her grandson's dinner.  Hannah the peacemaker went and stirred together another batch of the stuff, and all was well.

Visit from Grandpa

My dad came to visit for a few days last week.  We kept it very local:  walked around the neighborhood, went to the farmer's market, made dinner.

Here's our lunch at Franklin Park:

I took Guy to the botanical garden, thinking he would be impressed with all the lush greenery.  But I forgot he lives outside Seattle, so nature-wise it takes a lot more than that to impress him.

Instead, it was people hanging out on their stoops that wowed him.  "Look!" he said.  "It's so New York!  It's so cinematic!"  Yes, my neighborhood is cinematic.  I'm quite proud.

I was the Elliot of my dad.  And given the effect that Elliot has had on me, I thought maybe my dad's visit would trigger a few stories about me when I was an infant.  But as the old Chinese proverb goes, "the worst-written blog is lasts longer than the most powerful memory." Or as Guy put it, "it all kind of blends together."

Thanks for making the trip, Guy.

Cucumbers

This is Elliot by candlelight, btw.

Furniture Updates

Okay, enough about Elliot.  So he's hitting all of his developmental milestones, so what?

How are the rest of us doing, as a healthy capitalist American family?  Are we hitting our consumer milestones appropriately?

As it happens we've acquired a few new items for the home, so I thought I would share them with you.

(It occurs to me that many of you who read this blog have never been to our apartment.  Hopefully over time you've been able to construct some mental image of the place in your mind.  And hopefully in your mind the kitchen has a big counter where you can actually prepare a full meal.)

 Crib.  no explanation necessary.

They call this a glider, but it's really just a fancy name for a rocking chair.  This chair taught me that you can apply WD-40 to wood.

We got these in Puerto Rico. Elliot loves them.  I won't insult your intelligence by explaining their significance any further.

Not a new acquisition, we got this when Hannah was pregnant.  But now it's in a new location.  And filled with new contents.

Elliot updates

Well, it's a beautiful summer night, and here I am on our front stoop.  I haven't written much lately about Elliot, I've just posted photos, which let's be honest that's what you really want to see.

But so much can't be captured by camera...

He's got two teeth now, right next to each other there on the bottom row. Left side.  Every once in a while he gets real crabby and we think maybe a third is coming in, but nothing yet.  As promised, I have tried to get a photo of his teeth, but dang if tiny baby teeth ain't a tough thing to catch a snapshot of.

He's pretty much in the most adorable phase ever.  It's a little terrifying, because so far the trajectory of his cuteness has been like X=Y² (right?  who's with me?  come on people), so if we continue at this rate my head will explode within the year.

He's doing a lot of examining of things lately.  A few weeks back we put him in the crib in his room to play with his stuffed animals.  Fifteen minutes later we were shocked at how quiet he was being, so we poked our heads in and found him gently prodding the tag on the butt of a soft stuffed duck.

Eating's going great.  He enjoys chomping down on the peaches we got at the farmer's market last weekend.  Last night he ate about 3/4 of an entire peach.  I think it makes him feel like the pain of the teeth coming in was worth it.

Also he likes rice puffs.  He's trying to learn how to pick them up, which seems obvious (bring the thumb and forefinger together, duh), but I now realize this is something we weren't born knowing, we all had to learn it.

Elliot hasn't learned it yet.  How do I know?  Because his preferred technique for getting the rice puff to his mouth is to attempt to "chopstick" it.

Chopsticking is using two index fingers to pick something up.  First he takes one little meal-worm finger and pokes the puff with it.  Then he brings the other finger in and pokes the puff from the other side.  The puff is surrounded!  Now all he has to do is lift both hands toward his face at the same time, which he does. . . . . and then looks perplexed when the puff somehow doesn't end up in his mouth.

Okay, that's it for now.  More if I get inspired...

The Ellen Chuse Connection

Hannah and I took a childbirth education class way back when.  And a few weeks ago we all had a reunion, on a few blankets in Prospect Park.  These babies were all born within about a month of each other....

...as you can see, the connection between the infants is still apparent.

In case you didn't have enough prunes

Filthy....

Hannah as a baby

 See the similarity?

(thanks to Kate for this photo...)

Emily and Jesse, Part 2

The pre-workout photo session.

Live action prunes!

Helter skelter eyes

Audrey Penelope Hay

Turned one this past Sunday. 

We were in Central Park, made it nearly til dark.

I plan to go back one fine day.

That's the album cover for the Feldman/Hay family rock band.

Cutest moment of the century coming up:

But as often happens with young love, things quickly got complicated:

If I had a dollar for every relationship I ruined by poking them in the eye and trying to eat their head....