Wintry May

Just a few photos while I get ready for the second half of May's flu shot.





In random news, Rene H. has passed the Bar!

Hip-hip-hooray!
Hip-hip-hooray!
Hip-hip-hooray!

Wow, it's cold!

Good morning from Boston. It's a wicked cold Sunday morning -- November is finally acting like November instead of September, though we've got lots of green leaves on trees, still, with just a week and change until Thanksgiving!

Nothing terribly exciting going on here. We're still adjusting to the time change -- May is up a little early most days. We had brunch with the Tittlers and Hobermans yesterday, to celebrate Julie's birthday. Then laundry. Today we went to the Supreme Kitchen and then Starbucks (as we do every Sunday) and then... more laundry. The Farmer's Market in Davis has a new booth with a lady who raises sheep and sells fabulous lamb, so I'm going to braise some lamb shanks, too.

Tomorrow May and I will hang out with Max and Karrie and let Christopher sleep in a little on his day off.

Here are some photos of May from a few weeks ago, her making facing at Jen's camera. Hope you all have a lovely long weekend.

The Swirly Slide conquered!

There's a small park near Davis that we don't usually go to. (The daycare kids that frequent that particular park are a little too old, too loud, too rowdy for my comfort. May is fine, though.) But we went today because Julia couldn't get to our usual park and then back to school on time. There were no daycare kids there, happily.

Because May is young and the park is intended for older kids, she usually doesn't spend too much time on the climbing bars. She's more a swing kid, largely because I encourage her to stay away from the jungle gym. But today, with no kids there, I let her climb.

And she decided she wanted to try the swirly slide. It's a tall slide -- higher than C's head -- and goes down in a tight corkscrew curl. Unfortunately, you have to go past three un-fenced drop offs to get there, so I had to follow her every time. (The short slide, by contrast, I can let her climb onto and slide down without any hands-on supervision except at the bottom of the slide.)

So we went up the jungle gym and down the slide over and over and over and over and over and.... for half an hour. Nonstop. For a while I was running down the ladders. Then I slid down the fireman's pole. Finally I just slid down the slide after her. Thank Heaven Julia was there to catch her at the bottom.

Repetition is the key to learning. I know that. But man, I'm tired from that learning.

Almost as cute as May

Introducing Hobbs!

Just for Barb

So the broken appendages epidemic continues with Barb whacking her foot but good on a weights rack at karate. She's laid up all weekend with what may be a broken foot or may be a bad sprain.

In order to make her feel better during her convalescence, I will tell you all that we started our Christmas shopping today and only got about a quarter of it done. (Today is the annual Harvard Bookstore sale. You're all getting books for Christmas.) Barb usually yells at me for starting it in October, but this year we waited until November.

In other news, Jack and Grace have brought home a little (sorta) puppy. The as-of-yet-unnamed puppy is 17 odd pounds and 7 and a half weeks old, therefore "small" is a relative term. He's another brown Newf from Allison Acres, where they got Beau and Maggie, both. Mom promises a photo, soon.

We're taking nominations for the name. Thus far rejected: Bjorn, Arthur, Jig, Big Papi, Atherton, Papelbon, and Veritek.

Maybe we could go with some bear names (Newfs are known as "little bears"). Barret, Bernard, Oberon (oooh, Shakespeare reference!), Thorben, or Kuma. Or maybe brown, so Broderick, Duncan, Donnagal, or Bronson.

Anyway, May skipped her nap today altogether, thanks to the time change (don't ask), so I'm going to go try to make her fall asleep. Here's a video to keep you occupied in the meantime.

Facing down doom

So, the clocks change this weekend. Which means that May's 5 a.m. wake up times moves to 4 a.m. That's not an early morning, that's a late night. I know because our upstairs neighbors (both insanely busy grad students) often don't get home until about 3:30 or 4.

I'm kinda dreading this weekend.

That said, here's a video of May being cute and making animal sounds. Her exception cuteness is going to be key in dealing with the sleep deprivation of the next three weeks or so.

Also, my mom fell and broke her hand. In six places. Gotta admire her dedication to really earning that nickname, "Grace." We hope she gets much better very quickly.