Happy Birthday Lauren Deane!

She's two years old. That's just... ugh. Everything I want to say sounds so trite. All parents and parent-like people go through this. Yet it really is amazing to watch her grow up. She's so aware, so bright, so sweet. She's also turning into something of a... diva? Primadonna? (Yeah. We're working to correct that. The problem is mostly that she really doesn't like being told "no." Apparently most kids LOVE that.)

In other news... nearly everything at the house has improved lately.

It's really great to have Mike back, he's taken 90% of the duties with Lauren and Richie, he's extremely helpful around the house (that's such an understatement!), he's strict but fair with both kids, and respectful and friendly with both Corinne and myself. In fact, Jed might have some competition for "best roommate ever" if he keeps this up.

Richie's troubles have mostly passed. He's still more fearful than we'd like, but it's not as bad as it used to be. He's eating quite well now, and in fact has some very cute, chubby-cheeks! Kid talks like no other child since... um... me at that age, I guess. So I'm told. (It's all lies!) He's even sleeping through the night without any nightmares!

Friday, August 1, 2008

This ride was epic.

There were fifteen of us, as shown in the picture below:

15 at the Start

From left to right: Scott, Joel, Jon, Tom, Mark, Dave, Tim, Not Sure, Ellen, Me, Steve, Mike, Mark, Not Sure, and Steve.

Could someone fill me in on the "Not Sures" please?

Did I forget to mention that I was riding with Lilliputians? They may be tiny, but they make up for it with numbers!

Click the image for higher resolution. (This is Mark Stockwell's photo, used with permission.)

Not pictured...

Read the Full Story

Corinne, Lauren and I went to Isaiah Drake's birthday party on Monday. He's one year old. Monday was actually his mom's (Michelle's) birthday, his is today, but we were mostly celebrating his because it was his first.

I took 134 pictures (good grief), and managed to whittle that down to “only” 104 before uploading them all to Facebook. The flickr set contains a more manageable 55 pictures: I recommend the slideshow.

The party (cookout) was held at Ben & Mandi Isbell's house on the Bradford River. Games, canoeing, lots of food, cute kids, friends, and loads of presents for Isaiah. Ben even started a big bonfire on the ground near the deck (but more than one story below) that made some of the kids a little nervous.

(If you're reading this in email, make sure you see it on the web for the pictures.)

Remember the noisy fox I wrote about last year? It's still out there, making its calls a few nights per week. I rather like it.

Well, someone answered the call, because now there's at least one baby.

This is only the second time I've seen the kit, but it's the first time that it stayed put long enough for me to get a picture.

Update May 21:

The mother brought at least two kits into the back yard for a little playtime yesterday. Couldn't get a shot of the babies, as she called them back into the woods as soon as I went on the deck to take pictures, but I got her staring right down my lens.

Lauren and I drove down to the Mystic River for some reason... i don't even rememeber why we were there, now. I had my camera with me (surprise!), and loved the light, so I took some shots. They're a little dark, but I like how they came out. The river was smooth but not quite glassy. The sun was setting behind us, but it lit up the clouds over the river.

Would love to know which one(s) you think are best. Leave comments on the photos, or post something here, please.

Because of Firefox's unfortunate color-space issues, the pictures will look best in Safari or Internet Explorer. They're already dark (intentionally), but they're practically black in Firefox.