"Have your id ready."


This was the electronic advice we received on our departure to Phoenix over the holidays to visit my brother- and sister-in-law (and, currently, the most adorable 3-year-old on the planet). Big red pointillist sign over the departure gate. Don't you always have your id ready? I mean, it's not as if you have a choice. The best you can do is keep it under control. So say the object relations theorists, so say we all.

So Mama LK and little Acidophilus are doing well. (My colleague suggested "Urban" as a viable cannoli name, owing to its papal ring, but I don't know....people might call him "Street" as a euphemism....) As she moves from trimester one to trimester two, it seems that some of her old evening energy is returning, although I have to confess I'm as tired as ever. Ice cream is our primary calcium source (and although low in omega-3 fatty acids, Swedish Fish have less mercury than most others, so we are enjoying lots more of those as well). My goal here is to match her pound for pound over the next six months or so, and I am well on my way. The difference is that I won't drop it all in one cuddly chubby package in July the way she will, but you never know.


Music to Swim By

Grandpa Jack is all about ripping CDs these days (don't worry Dad, I won't be turning RIAA on you). As a birthday gift to LK he burned a CD with that title for little Aristophanes. It's a collection of Mantovani operas (if you don't know the Mantovani orchestra, they record very lush orchestral arrangements minus the vocals). So we popped it in to the CD player a couple of nights ago before going to bed and let the soothing sounds lull us to sleep. Oh, have I mentioned that both LK and I have been having wickedly vivid dreams these days? (I think little Fortunato might be a Scanner only, you know, cute and little and fetal). So that night I have this long and elaborate dream (with sound track) of little babies doing water ballet. Complete with sparklers and bubbles and everything. Kind of a Teletubbies-meet-Anne Geddes acid trip. Thanks, Dad.



Speaking of Phoenix and Monkeys

Weren't we? Anyway, here's a cute couple. We went to the zoo in January, which is terrific fun because January in Phoenix is like March in Philadelphia. Now we've all seen footage on discovery channel or maybe in our own little backyards where the monkeys groom each other, happily chomping on the little deer ticks and fleas and whatnot as they are plucked gingerly from the fur. But I always sort of assumed that the groom-ee was sort of a passive "okay, terrific" recipient of the gentle ministrations of its mate. Wasn't expecting 'Boon1 here to lift her armpit to allow 'Boon2 better access to the tiny critter bits in there. Just like people!



"So I says to Mabel, I says...."

I want the sun in the morning and the moon....in the afternoon.

Here we see the moon at 3:00pm. I think it's a plot by Bushco to lower our guard and get us to support the war. I don't know why I think that, but I bet it earns me a lot more web traffic in the coming days. LK took these. Boy we love our digital camera.





So these are vacation photos, which is my way of saying "what vacation?" It was a grand time until we had to leave, although we timed it (he said sheepishly) rather well because my brother in law came down with shingles right as we were leaving. Probably not good for LK and little Dante to be exposed just now, so I just loaded them up in a plane and whisked them home! How cool is that? Only way it could be cooler is if I flew them on my back. And given my new baby weight I suspect I would not stay airborne for long.

The work is piling up in big steamy piles. We are in the process of negotating for a house (will have to swing by sometime during daylight hours and post a picture for all to see). This is the kind of exhausting chaos that is supposed to make you appreciate having a beautiful wife and a warm cozy house to return to in the evening, and boy does it. But I appreciate that anyway, so enough with the chaos already.




posted by MT at 11:58 AM |