happy baby

research

So this morning I was doing a little research, barking up one of the branches of Anna's family tree to see if I could gather any information about when our beautiful baldie might grow a hair or two. No rush, of course, just curious. I found this photo, taken over 34 years ago. I must be about 6 months old. In the hair department, you might call that growth pretty sparse. But I've got a full head now, which is reassuring. What strikes me is the steady way, in this picture, my skinny daddy and I look into the camera's eye. It's one of those pictures that make you feel stared at. And while the eyes of the subjects are 34 years older, the quality of the looking still seems immediate. Which sort of collapses one's sense of time and space. Which makes me think that while all of these pictures of Anna we're taking will become part of her own long, long ago, the quality of her steady gaze into the camera's eye won't age.

Four Months Old

She drools, she kicks, she rolls, she yells. She has forsaken the radiator and the fridge for the big poster of Nelson Mandela hanging in the kitchen. She grins at Nelson. She converses with Nelson. She bats, she chuckles, she gnaws on things. Four months old! She grabs our faces and holds on.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Anna dances an Irish jig. . .

(wardrobe furnished by Meme)

work, rest.

work


rest

a good day

First we practiced for the butterflies at home.


Then we saw the real thing, a steamy room at the American Museum of Natural History filled with flapping wings. You could feel the wind when they flew by. You could hear the whir. When they landed their little weight made the leaves dip. There were many of us, many babies, many butterflies. Everyone looked around. The volunteer told us that when butterflies are in the chrysalis, "they completely liquify and rearrange." I can't stop thinking about that.


Then we said goodbye to the other babies and mommies. Anna had a full meal in the Hall of Central American Peoples while I reread the same information about ancient ocarinas. It was interesting each time. I didn't take a picture.

I didn't take a picture of our walk down Central Park West either, because both of us were so busy staring around at the birds hollering in the evergreens. We couldn't see one bird, but the trees were very loud. We talked to Anna's daddy on the phone in DC and wished he was with us and staring too at invisible birds in loud trees.

new trick