What’s Happening Now

Fridays are usually a past photo, but I’ll have to break my usual pattern to get caught up a bit.

When we first moved here, the neighbors pointed to certain houses and said “Oh, they’re really nice, but you won’t see much of them. They’re indoor people.” But this summer, we’ve all been indoor people. 98, 99, 100… heat index of 106… the boys who used to do bike tricks in the culvert seem to have retreated into their houses to play video games.

The mosquitoes have been downright mean this year. They target Maggie. After five minutes outside, she’s covered with bites. I put medicine on them and protect them with band-aids so she won’t scratch them to pieces. She has also been carrying her play kitchen knife around the house, pretending to “cook bananas.” Between the knife and the band-aids, she looks pretty scrappy.

Sam has started writing. I don’t even know how it happened. One day he was drawing lopsided circles, and the next he was writing his name, Maggie’s name, and asking me how to spell rabbit. He’s been entertaining us with his four-year-old sense of humor, which currently means replacing key words in a song with the word “eyeball,” followed by hysterical laughter.


Ben is climbing. I’ve rearranged the living room to minimize the impact in case he falls, but stopping him is impossible. Mostly, he just wants to look out the window and laugh at birds, then turn around and laugh at the nervous look on mommy’s face.

One

One year ago:

Last night:

Friday Flashback

Cooling off in Post Office Square. (Boston, July 2008)

Chatterboxes

Some more conversations with our little chatterboxes.

Me: Maggie, would you like to play with play doh?
Maggie: Yeah! Dat be awesome!

Sam: Why is play doh spicy?
Me: Spicy? What?! Sam, you’re not supposed to eat it.

Maggie: (coughing, whining) I eat play doh!
Me: Mags, I told you not to do that.
Maggie: (pointing to her tummy) Get it out!!!

Me: Ben, do you need something else to eat?
Ben: Dwat!
Sam: He said “dwat.” That means “no.”

Maggie: Wead a book!
Me: Which one should we read?
Maggie: Missuw n’ Missuw Mawwawd?
[It took a few repetitions before I realized she was saying "Mr. and Mrs. Mallard.]
Me: You mean Make Way for Ducklings?
Maggie: YEAH!!!!

Austin: Good night, Sam. Sweet dreams.
Sam: What does “sweet dreams” mean?
Me: It’s like saying “I hope you have dreams about happy, sweet things.”
Sam: Like… chocolate? and cake?
Me: Yeah, sure!
Sam:…and strawberries? and chocolate? and ice cream? and chocolate ice cream?
Me: You really like chocolate, don’t you?

Architect at Work

Tuesday Photo Quiz

Glassware? What’s your guess?

Crayons


Water(melon)color

Berry

Friday Flashback

Another museum date with my man. That’s him on the bench. (Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, July 2008):

…followed by dinner at the Barking Crab: