Before we moved and in the midst of utter chaos, Ziggy turned three! He is the funniest little monkey. Sometimes I feel a cold fear grip my heart as I imagine what that strong will of his might mean in his teenage years…but he really is so delightful and hilarious now, I'm trying to remember "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" and so forth. With any luck I will be SUCH a good parent in ten years that we'll breeze through it easily. Or we will have begun the Millennium by then and Satan will be bound. Problem solved!
His sisters carried him around on their shoulders like a little Birthday King. He loved that!
AND also on Zig's birthday, we got to go visit my friend Emily and go swimming at her new house! It was so much fun.
The best part was running around on the pool cover after they closed it up. I was VERY dubious about this but Emily assured us it was okay. The kids felt like they were walking on water!
Other happenings: Goldie had the brilliant idea of making these edible necklaces (kind of like Froot Loop or Cheerio necklaces, but…less appealing) out of our homegrown chives and mint. She even made up a catchy name: the "Eat-it Necklace"™. I expect royalties to come pouring in any day now!
We fed Gussie this baby food, "Ban Blab Blub." Yum!
This was how the girls dressed Gus up on a day they were playing that they were an old-fashioned family, like in All-of-a-kind Family or Roller Skates. As everyone knows, both boy and girl babies in the old days wore gowns!
Goldie went around the house leaving sweet little notes for people, and I got this cute one with bunnies on it. I was quite flattered to have been so honored, until I found this outside on a tree for passers-by:
Junie found a teeny-tiny snail.
Seb took this self-portrait with perfectly and artistically-placed sunflare.
And Daisy made a tiny toilet and toilet paper roll for her dolls (!).
My nephew got married in September, which had the side benefit of bringing all my brothers into town AT THE SAME TIME! I don't think we've all been together since my dad's funeral eleven years ago, and that is too long! It was wonderful to see them all. We rode the tram up to Hidden Peak one afternoon and enjoyed some beautiful views!
Ziggy and Teddy
Teddy
Gus and me
Junie, my mom, and Ziggy
Abe and Kenneth, likely up to no good
Daisy and Junie
Goldie and Rachel
And this is at the wedding reception.
We took a group photo. Sam had to miss the reception because he was giving a presentation, but other than Kenneth's kids, all the rest of us were there and it was so great! What a beautiful memorialization of the occasion. Wait…but where is Sebastian? Let us look more closely…
It really took some commitment for him to duck down like this, since he was standing on a little wall and easily taller than Sheila. And as we were taking a LOT of pictures, his crouching stance had to be maintained for quite a long time.
Oh, look. There is the darling boy in an unguarded moment. Looks like he couldn't quite maintain that crouch the entire time after all! Perhaps he wouldn't wish to be singled out in this manner, but if so he ought to have just posed like he was supposed to for the group picture! Ha ha.
Lastly: we got a big rug and it came rolled onto this huge cardboard tube. The kids all played with it, of course, and it broke within hours, of course, but not before Gussie had been given it to use as the Biggest Whacking Stick of All Time. Scary! He was so pleased with himself.
Well the trouble with these posts if so many bits and pieces is that I think of something to say at nearly every picture and then forget all the various comments by the time I’m at the end! But what I do remember: I love the Fox blanket! And Seb’s bike portrait was superb. And your girls are always up to the most darling things. And it’s fun to start seeing this NEW house in the background of pictures! Oh! And the baby snail! You were right to move IMMEDIATELY! We had no snails here for a few years. And then one (or, well, probably TWO) cute ones one day. And that was it! We have been overrun! There are millions now! And they eat almost any flower we ever plant. I can never get my beloved zinnias through them or even a boring old marigold. They are ruthless. Lastly, how lovely to have your ENTIRE family together. I realized an odd thing as I looked at that picture. I don’t think we could or will ever have ALL of my parents’ posterity together at once again. I’m quite certain we won’t! That seems such a sad thing! But there are just ... too many! Scattered to the four winds. Grandkids and great grandkids (some of whom are almost old enough to have kids! goodness! my mom COULD possibly live yo see great great grandkids! good heavens!). Anyway isn’t that a wild thought? To consider a time when the people coming from just you and Sam (or just me and Mike) become too many and in too many places to make “everyone together at once” an impossibility?
ReplyDeleteGoodness, I didn't know the snail situation was so dire…we got out just in time! Even my sweet, gentle mom throws them into the road 😄
DeleteIt is SUPER weird to think of having that many posterity some day. And to think that the times we will EVER all be together, even our immediate family, are numbered! Already it feels like dinner where everyone is home is a rare, strange thing.