Must stop blinking.

I keep blinking. And I guess when I do that, this little Atlee on my friend Gretchen's back...

becomes this young lady heading out the door to school.


And you know what else happens when I blink? This one?...



She gives herself a manicure with my bright pink nail polish.


Is it still a manicure when it's the whole hand and not just the nails?

You know the witch from Hansel and Gretel?.

So, I went to transfer the photos from the camera and this is what I found.

The homemade granola bars I made two days ago.


A snapshot of the quiche from that same night. I know, I know. Saddest, sorriest pie crust ever. My mother and brother are no doubt ducking their heads and pretending to not be related to anyone who produces such a sorry, raggedy looking pie crust.


Moving on, we find more bagels. I figured out how to add dried cranberries to them. Yum.

And I tried to add garlic, but it didn't work so well. Whatever, they were for Rich anyway.

And twelve more plain bagels for my oldest ray of sunshine.

I've been sort of wondering why the baby weight isn't just melting off this time. Looking at the selection of pictures up there, I'd say the cause might be the increase in baked goods around here. But, come on, I clearly have to keep up with Patio Boat- sibling rivalry and all. And he's making beurre au citron .


But, do you know what's calorie free to gnosh on? That's right, Emerson.

Wait. It's kind of blurry.

Ah- that's better. Even an almost smile.


And then it's gone.

What about Emerson with a beurre au citron?

The Return of Name That Offspring.

There's been a slump in the number of comments. Oh, I understand. We all get busy. But really people? One? You're f0rcing me to bring back the big guns. That's right. Name That Offspring.

So which one is it? Voting for a week means polls close on May 2.



So- to shy to comment? Go vote. And thanks for stopping by!

A good Thursday, indeed.

OK, OK. Before we get to what was just so awesome about Thursday, we need to discuss a few other pictures. Otherwise? They get all lost in the shuffle. And that's not fair to these perfectly delightful photos.

Like this one of Atlee and Greeley helping to remove the bricks from my flower bed out front. Unfortunately, I don't actually seem to have any of the new flower bed they helped Rich build me.


And what about this success this week? Bagels! Why yes, I did. I did make my own bagels. Shea approved.


And how could he not? Chewy? Check. Golden yummy good? Check.

Moving on then- without any sort of good transition- yesterday was indeed a good day. Why was that? You didn't think I'm going to say Earth Day did you? Because that wasn't it.

Reason One:
It was that my sister-in-law Cathy (of the Wyoming family) is on the East Coast. She came to see us with her daughter, Zoe. (Not to be confused with our cat, Zoe.) She stopped and grabbed up a Jamie and Ava on her way here!

Greeley couldn't believe her good fortune. She was not previously aware that they made cousins in her size. She knew they came bigger. And she knew they came smaller. But in a Greeley size? A whole new world.


Emerson, as usual, supervised after eating lunch. What was he supervising?


That crazy cousin, Ava. She's always all over the place. See?


In the mean time, Greeley and Zoe went to check out the tree house. Just in case any of you thought I hadn't updated the picture lately.


After lunch, Ava tried to teach Emerson how to have belly time. He wasn't interested. He hates tummy time.

I'll save you all the horror of the disgruntled grunts he makes when on the belly. He prefers a comfy bouncy seat with a view of what Ava's up to.



And when Cathy holds Ava, I can get pictures of Jamie, without a small person attached to her. Don't get used to it, sister.



Company's coming? Clearly we need cupcakes. One of Cathy's nieces calls them birthday muffins. Oh yeah- cuppy cakes are reason two.


Greeley introduced Zoe to the wonders of Strawberry Shortcake videos.


Here's reason three. The patio umbrella Grandpa bought us arrived yesterday. It'll make the deck much cooler this summer.

Then before the ladies left Cathy wanted a group shot. Rich pointed out at one point that we were all house wives. The Real Housewives of the Magee Family.

The Real Housewives need wranglers to get all those kids lined up.


Let's try again.


And again.

One more try.


Whatever. Thursday still rocked! Thanks ladies!

It's about Greeley, again.

Last night as I was putting the finishing touches on dinner (you know, a smattering of kale and twisted slice of orange- just like we always did at Hojo's), Greeley hopped up in her high chair at the table. She settled in, looked at me and said, "Can I get some frickin' dinner here."

I swear I haven't been watching The Jersey Shore. Lately.

Greeley's Nightmare.

Greeley crawled into our bed in the middle of the night. This morning I asked her why.

Me: Did you have a nightmare or something?

G: Yeah, I had a nightmare.

M: Oh? What was your nightmare about?

G: Pirates.

M: Pirates? Wow. Were they vegetables like your veggie-tales movie?

G: (With annoyed look) No, they weren't vegetables. It was one. One pirate. It was a person.

M: Oh. Was the pirate being nice?

G: No. He was being mean.

M: What was he doing?

G: He kept turning off the TV while we were trying to watch it.

Oh! The horrors of pirates!

Five Ladies Walk Into an Indian Restaurant.

Friday night, we all went out to celebrate Amy's birthday. And by all I mean Amy, Tammy, Kerri, Heather and me. See? We're all here. And nobody's wearing yoga pants either!

Tammy drove so that Amy and I can sit in the backseat and take pictures with her phone. I was very careful to not make a duck face. The urge to do so was powerful. Very powerful indeed.

We drove and drove to reach a restaurant that serves Indian food. We were a little thrown by the neon signs in the window. (I believe Kerri's quote went something like, "Awww man- we totally could've worn our hoodies.") But! The inside of the Masala Bistro was lovely.
We had a yummy, yummy meal. And a couple of beers.

Which maybe helps to explain pictures like...this:


Or this:
Tammy wasn't drinking beers, remember? Perhaps explaining this look:


Can you tell Amy and Tammy were across from me at the table? Here's another picture of them.


Then we went back to Amy's and put on some comfie shoes. We went to a bar in town that was kind of loud. And crowded. And full of college kids that made me feel old. So, no pictures of that place.
So instead we ambled on down to the Parrot. Heather was happy to find a Guinness. See? Happy Heather.
And we found a Rich, Travis and Adam. Remember Grandma Lynda from the Emerson gets born story? These are her sons. The girls crashed their boys night out.

Adam put up some resistance, but Amy beat him down.

They must have been OK with it though, because on Saturday Travis invited us to his house for dinner.
Grandma Lynda was there- making a volcano cake. A cake that bubbled and oozed lava. Video to follow hopefully!

Greeley was excited to learn Travis owns one of those beads things. She's played with it before, mind you- she's just always surprised to learn he has one.

We brought Uncle Michael with us. And look! Rich is holding Emerson! A rare, rare snap shot indeed.

Oh? You can't see the cheeks? Here.

I'm glad I enjoyed my ladies' night out. Rich says I can have another one when Emerson leaves for college.


ETA: Uncle Michael returned to DC today, and I forgot to get the video off his camera first. So, instead, you'll have to make do with this snap shot swiped from Travis' Facebook page. It really isn't every cake that requires dry ice to fulfill its cake destiny.



And anyone want to guess who's little leopard fur covered arm is resting next to the cake?

We're Busy.

We're busy partying this weekend. I'll post details tomorrow.

Welcome Back!

Greeley, Emerson and I are leaving to go get Uncle Michael in a few minutes.


As I just notified my Facebook friends, I'm thinking I'll pretend I don't have enough gas money to return him for a month or so.

Damn it. He's a friend on Facebook AND he reads the blog. Must remember the internet is public.

Thursday Bonus. Alternate title: I'll front ya three comments.

Comfie? Do you have a drink and a snack? Because I've discovered that with a computer made in the twenty-first century, I can load three times as many photos. And I am. Even though we didn't make the ten comment minimum for our last post, I'm willing to go ahead and publish new content. Just for you my loyal readers. Well, and the kids someday. Because I'm sure as heck not keeping a baby book and a blog.

So, today is Thursday. That means Story Time at the library!


Today's theme was mice. So we made a mouse.


Last week we made cats. We had to leave our cats there. Do you see Greeley's? It's that one, right there.

OK, I'll help you pick it out a little.


The weather has been so beautiful lately, we've been trying to take walks in the neighborhood in the evenings. Except Emerson. He rides in princely comfort.


I made Atlee pose in front of the neighbor's statue. I love their statue. How am I supposed to compete with lawn ornaments like this? I'm thinking a pink flamingo is going to look a little tacky now.

Greeley wasn't walking either. She was riding in comfort in the backpack. Our self-portrait effort was a big, fat failure if the point was a shot of both of us. On the other hand, if the goal was a cute picture of Greeley: SCORE!


We came across these crazies jogging. Atlee assured me we not only knew them, but were related to them.


These are the blooming trees in the little square in our neighborhood. I just took a picture because I thought they were purdy.

And if you look really closely here, you might glimpse the bunny we say hello to on our walks. The bunny owner offered us this bunny last week. I politely declined, explaining we were all full on our rabbit quota.

Further on, we came to this fountain. I want a fountain. I was also beginning to wonder if a neighbor was going to question why I was taking a picture of their yard. But I wanted you all to enjoy this beautiful spring evening with us.

You New York people may need to imagine a lovely August evening to capture that feel. An August evening with tulips.


And purple trees.


Our neighbors have wonderful lawn ornaments.


And house ornaments.


One last flowering tree.


The painting on the outside of our house that my brother-in-law hates. Not Michael. But, speaking of Michael, I'm going to scoop him up tomorrow. I'm going out for Amy's birthday and need to import childcare for Emerson. Yes, Rich, I did just tell that to the whole wide internet.


And one last sunshine. He started out on a boat house in Tupper Lake, NY. Many houses later, he seems happy here with his forever home.


Thanks for joining us on our walk. FEEL FREE TO COMMENT about it.

(Any of you pitying Rich for living with a shameless nag such as me yet? )