May I interest you in my acorn collection?

Autumnal

It is election day. Halloween came and went, and it is cold and sunny outside. There are still leaves on the trees, but they are all gold, red, or brown.

Celeste took her first steps last Monday at my grandmother, Granny L's house! It was fun to see Granny L, but strange that Daddy L is no longer alive. It was exciting that Celeste saved her walking up for Granny L. I guess time marches on. Now she prefers to hang onto our hands while stepping. She does like to stand still in one place, and she looks as if she's surfing, her concentration is so intense. She also says the word "up!" all of the time.

We went to an interesting park in the Poconos on Saturday, filled with Stonehenge-style monoliths. There were new-age druid types wandering around with walking staffs, sitting in pools of sunshine writing in notebooks. It was great to see all of the eccentricity and passion on bold display.

Hope you enjoy these photos.

Sunday Nature Walk

Peter's been sick. Celeste's been sick. Suddenly today, everybody seemed healthy. We packed up the car and went on a hike in a wooded nature preserve close to our house. It's cool and beginning to feel like Fall.

We're having some friends over for dinner tonight and we're going to have many vegetarian dishes and some hot apple cider.

We wish we had been able to drive to Delaware this weekend to visit with my mom and grandparents and Aunt Toini. I am sending my grandfather, Ed, wishes of peace and grace. He has had a long, rich life and is facing the end of it. We all love him so. I am so thankful that he knows that and hope that I can get out there soon to give him another hug.

Take care, friends.

The Zoo

Do you ever make new year's resolutions in the fall? I do. There's something about the earlier evenings, the bite in the air, and the falling leaves that makes me feel like I need to buckle down and be virtuous before winter sets in.

I've been going on runs in the evenings, we have adopted an inflexible family budget, and we've been cooking many good meals. Another one of my autumn resolutions is clearly to become a blogging maniac. I don't even know if anyone's looking at these posts or photos, but the act of putting them up here makes me feel better about how far away so many friends and family members are.

Here are a couple of photos of Celeste at the zoo today. It is in a nature preserve where you can see hawks soaring above the modest exhibits. It's staffed by eager volunteers and was close to being empty today. We took a picnic lunch with us. She was at first intrigued and then ultimately frightened by the aggressive goats in the petting area of the zoo. She spent a long time standing and leaning on the railing, observing the ostriches stretch their broad wings and pump their space-alien heads around. I picked her up and could hear her breathing heavily.

As you can tell from the photos, she's really not a baby anymore. I predict that she'll be walking within 2 weeks. I am looking forward to that because these days I spend a lot of time stooped over, holding her arms while she marches around. I keep picturing myself with a hump. Maybe independent walking should be Celeste's autumn resolution.

You might be able to tell that Celeste fell asleep 3 minutes after that last photo was taken.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

We've had a relaxing weekend. It was hot today and we took Pablo for a nice long walk through woods in Doylestown. We stopped for ice cream on the way home and Celeste went bonkers eating icecream. Above are some photos of her, topless, after the sugar crash. Do you like her new haircut? I did it. Please don't look too closely because the bangs are crooked. I think she looks hip.

As I type this, Peter is hard at work making me a fancy dinner because he lost a bet. The bet had to do with the meaning of the phrase "robbing the cradle." He has requested a "no gloating" rule so I won't divulge the details. Meanwhile, Celeste is in her room, under her pink knit blanket (who is named "Pinkie"), singing herself to sleep.

A couple more cute ones...

We're Back!

I just wrote a long, descriptive, apologetic entry. The first entry in months. I offered excuses for the lack of posts (our camera was lost); typed clever jokes and observations about life with sweet Celeste (they were awesome); and explained that we have a new camera courtesy of Topper and Opa (thanks, Faith and Dion!).

The post was phenomenal and would probably have netted me a bloggie award (or whatever they give to recognize brilliance in on-line "journalism.") Alas, the entry was lost when I mistakenly navigated away from the page.

So I'm just going to give you some photos from this morning's trip to Mackey's Apple Orchard in Belvidere, NJ. We had fun with Katherine and Annie.

I'll post more soon.

Summertime and teh living is easy...

We've been having a series of relaxing, blue-skied days.
A bird built a nest in a hanging licorice plant on our front porch, filled the nest with eggs, and the eggs have now hatched.
We've had some visits from good friends. Jodi, Stacey, Simon, Casey and Steve all came out a month or so ago for a couple of nights. The babies took a bath together, which was darling.
Matt and Steph visited and appreciated our pretend Celeste voices. Steph helped encourage me to reapply myself to mastering the ukulele. We went on neighborhood walks, and ate dinner in the backyard with fireflies twinkling in the long green grass.

Celeste has been enjoying the park and her baby friends. Here are some photos that Dyla snapped of Celeste at Nevin Park last week.
Happy Summer to you all!

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Lots of pictures now. Words coming soon.

A mother, a grandmother, and two great grandparents