Esti is a biped!

Esti took her first steps today. She took three steps at the park with
Nirmala, then took a few more after I showed up to pick her up. She's a
bit earlier than Henry, who took his first steps a couple of weeks after
his first birthday:
http://andthewhale.blogspot.com/2007/06/first-steps.html

Relaxing in Richland Center

And this was only lunchtime!

(Mid-)Western Days

We are having a good month. Henry and Ken are in Wisconsin, and Esti and I are back and forth between being with them and being at home. Right now we're all in Madison. Last week, while Esti was spending days at Nirmala's and I was scrambling to do some last things to the manuscript (wrote the epilogue last Wednesday -- quick, submit the book before something new happens!), Ken and Henry drove with Ann to her childhood home in Chatfield, Minnesota. There's an annual event called Western Days at which her family gathers. Henry got to see his great-aunt, two great-uncles, and many cousins, plus Aunt Kate.
Ann sent me these photos of Henry attending the parade.

He was very excited about this, as he told me on the phone. Largely because people threw candy from the floats.

At some point he even told Ann he wanted to live in Minnesota when he grows up.

Later there was a hayride at a farm, a barbecue out at someone's house with a pool... and apparently, an introduction to local politics?

More photos from Wisconsin and Arlington to come.

Ba-bye!

At the Harvard library; nowhere else to be till 5:30. Ken and Henry are on the plane to Madison; Esti is at the babysitter. She used her first word at the airport this morning: "Ba-bye!" complete with the populist politician wave.
It will be mid-September before K & H are back: two weeks after Labor Day, definitely after the end of summer. Not a great tomato crop in our garden this year (should be a different story in Wisconsin), but it has been a good summer on the whole. After answering the "How was Morocco?" question a number of times and watching people react, I've recalculated. Decided to ignore my anyway completely imaginary "things to do" list and refocused on the "things done" list. (For me: a totally new Arabic dialect, some contacts, some research leads. For Henry: the knowledge that the world includes pistachio croissants.)
Now the idea is to make one last big push on the manuscript before delivering it by the end of August. It feels kind of like a third child at this point. Except the analogy is backwards: hopefully I won't have to discipline and care for it once it's delivered. Despite all my complaining it's been asymptotically approaching completion -- will never be finished, and at some point a few weeks from now I'll just call it done. Ba-bye!

Geometry

Left Plainfield in pajamas, woke up in Andover on Sunday. My mom taught Henry to make geometric figures out of straws and strings.

Ken tried his hand at a dodecahedron -- 12 sides, 30 straws. Harder than you'd think.


Henry took the photo below.

While Esti just hung out on the lawn. Do you think she might be a redhead? How funny would that be?

Dacha life (Plainfield, Saturday)

Ken says his definition of dacha life means having chores to do. Fun chores. (Considering we know some people who spend time doing virtual chores on their computer, that's not actually that weird.) Plainfield offers a lot of stone-wall-mending, wood-piling, apple-picking kinds of opportunities. Even some riding around on a tractor while Henry and Isaiah look on with rapt attention.

Splitting logs. (I was changing a diaper -- boring chores don't count -- so missed getting a photo of the actual ultra-manly axe-wielding part. But it was impressive.)

While everyone else was napping after lunch, Esti took the opportunity to water Lina and David's lawn.

Serious business!

Orpheus door

Plainfield, Saturday. Anya and Nick were up from New Haven. Isaiah is 20 months, and very sweet.

Who wants to go out the human door when there's a cool doggie door to try? This time it was Henry copying everything Isaiah did.

Don't ask how many times they did this.

Walden Pond, Friday

Here the park ranger at the replica cabin had the nerve to ask if Henry was named after Thoreau. We hastened to disabuse him. None of this "grossest groceries" business for us, thank you.

The third blondie is Blaise, who belongs to our friends Andrew and Amelia. They've had three kids in the time it took us to produce two. Fridays at Walden with them have been nice.

Elephant Rock

Andover, July 31. "National Trails Day," believe it or not. My mom was teaching a workshop in New York so we came to take a walk with my dad.

Henry made it through all of the pretty steep 45-min hike to Elephant Rock. And nearly all the way back.

Good thing, 'cause not everyone had a lot of energy to carry him.

Only Esti got a free ride. Then again, only Henry got a Park Service-provided hot dog at the bottom.

Big Esti

She is eating (and pooping) constantly these days. She's huge. This is last weekend with Amahl and Nidal's daughter Zaha (who can make eye contact!)...

And this past Sunday night at my parents' house, at the end of a hectic but fun 3-day weekend (Walden Pond, Plainfield, Andover). We've just about perfected the put-the-kids-in-pajamas-and-hit-the-road strategy. Doesn't she look ready to roll?

Growing up

Tomorrow is our last day at Deb's house. In an effort to keep in touch with some of his friends from there, I just signed Henry up for youth soccer. It's in the neighboring town of Somerville: they have a game every Saturday morning and a practice one evening a week. Does he know anything about soccer? Whatever. Anyway, I told my dad that I was going to do this and he joked that it was "a very emotional moment" for him.
His little girl had become a soccer mom.

Some Henry malapropisms

Before I forget, here are my favorites:
"fire distinguisher"
"remembory"
"threshholder"