we are home

It is always a bittersweet return after a trip to see family. It's nice to be back to your own house, your own bed, your own things, and know that you can walk around in your pajamas and not use a coaster for your drink if you don't want to. On the other hand, human connections and the love and friendships found within families are such a key part of human happiness (and stress :-) that it leaves a gap in your collective heart when you return home to a house which resounds with only your voices. We always leave with a heavy heart and this was no exception.

(family) party at the logan hilton

Here Schuyler is actually wearing Charlie's size 6-12 mos pants (which barely fit him)

Trapped in an airport hotel with two disoriented kids. What a blast! Don't touch that. Put that down. No, that's someone else's baby. Don't lick the steak knife. No, you have to pay for that first. Mmmmm. Fun. So we bathe the kids and get Charlie to sleep in the pack-n-play in the room and finish reading our book to Schuyler. And it's 7pm and lights out time. So Liz and I decide that we will order a kid movie and let Schuyler (i.e. us) stay up a bit later than usual. Problem: All the kids movies appear to cost $17 (when did Disney become more expensive than pornography?). So we decided to be Parents of the Year and order up a cheaper PG Romantic Comedy and let Schuyler watch with us. We justified it on the basis that it had a baby in it. Schuyler watches the occasional Sprout TV educational burst of Little Pim french videos but has never sat through more than ten minutes of television. Amazingly, she sat through the whole thing without moving once and cried when it was over ("I want to watch more tv!") which was funny and disturbing at the same time. I wonder what she would think of the Chucky films?

bye bye lake

While this isn't the balcony scene in Romeo and Juliet, I agree with that young lady that "parting is such sweet sorrow". We work the majority of our lives, surrounded by people who are ultimately peripheral to our lives and engaged in an activity which is not our first choice (most of us, anyway). Then, the job lets you have a sojourn into another world where you spend every day with people you want to spend time with and you realise that those people at work weren't so bad after all (just kidding, all!). It's an odd thing to know you will only see many of the key people in your life once or twice a year if you are lucky. I guess the only thing you can do with those moments is make them count.

duck duck...

...silly goose.

bathing baby

Charlie went for his first Vermont swim today. Aside from the obligatory hat he quite enjoyed it. Even though he has the complexion of an Englishman he may have the soul of a Bermudian so we let the lake water in the kiddie pool heat up to a toasty temperature before plopping him in.

picking blueberries

I really wish I had been on this trip. The girls went to a nearby blueberry farm and handpicked a bucket or two of blueberries - some as large as a small plum. And they were the sweetest, candiest little things you have ever tasted. Schuyler's Dad decided to unload a huge chunk of them in some blueberry pancakes for the kids and game adults. Incidentally, my french dictionary doesn't have the word for blueberries. 'Bluebell', yes. But not 'blueberry'. Odd.

tallwood, lake morey

We've had some ridiculously good times here.

popsicles

tubby (part II)

The second Young Family edition of Tubby: same sink different baby.

...let's just hope those bubbles are from soap.