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After I had tucked Art in tonight he called from his bed and said he wanted a snack. Relenting, I brought up a couple slices of apple. "He took a few bites and turned to me, surprised. "This apple taste really good, Papa.. Where did you get it?" "I bought it at the grocery store with money. It's called honeycrisp." "Oh."

So, Art and I had our lovely little weekend at the cottage. Actually, no real highlights , per se, just a very pleasant two and a half days. The drive took about five and a half hours or so, including a stop for french fries and coffee and lolly-gagging near a soybean field. It was really nice. We had nowhere to be, no errands to run, no schedule to stick to and no one else to worry about other than ourselves. Well, no one to worry about except Art, really. I just followed his lead and enjoyed the ride. At the beach he would sit for 20 minutes or more "washing" snail shells in the hollow wheel of his dumper truck. "You gotta put the sand on there. You gotta do it," he would say and put shells in the wheel, pour sand on top and turn the wheel. Over and over again. It was great to just be able to let him take his time and do that as long as he wanted. We went on a couple rides in the row boat and he "rowed" me around. I let him sit in the rowing...

Isn't that incredible? Jessica has taken to drawing in the past couple weeks. She's been doing lessons out of a book and she's getting quite good. Which is the real banana?

Bubbe had everything she wants in life this weekend: Obama and baby.

We stopped by Adria's work and her friend Esther got in a little Lew time.

Jessica and Arthur left this morning for a four-hour drive to the cottage in Wisconsin. They're gonna have some 'special time' together riding bikes, dangling feet in the water, and eating lots of meat. I got a call from a rest stop just now and was told they had a wonderful time eating rasberries on a hill and picking soybeans out of a field. Jess will write an update when she returns Sunday! in the meantime, it's just Lew and me holding down the fort.

After poking around and learning more about Picasa's web albums and blogger, I've learned that nearly photos posted to our blog over the past few years are now accessible (and printable!) through google's web albums. They're slowly uploading all our old photos. Currently there are a little more than 500, all of which are hi resolution and can be printed up nice and big or nice and small. This is especially great news for my mother, who has complained about not having prints. Anyway, for those interested in getting prints of old photos (like the one below), embeding photos on your own blog, downloading them, replacing heads, or just poking around, here's a link to the archive . and more recent stuff.

We're experimenting with ways to increase the photo sizes on the blog. In the meantime, please ignore the construction until we iron out a new layout. From Art photos on March 24, 2007.

From Igloo!

This was a failed attempt at Lewis' first solid food. Bubbe tried, Lewis rejected it, adding "get this shiznit out of my face, yo!" beautiful photo by Jessica

Lew trying desperately to get out of the car. Lew's first time in the park swing. Alien hiding. Mega-legs.

Bubbe brought over some early Halloween costumes, and art spend a good part of the day in them. And she brought a cool little go-cart thing. It's more difficult to make go than art's tricycle. but it doesn't deter him at all. Within an hour he had zipped around the block, twice. And even stopped to tell his friend (and princess today) Alma about it.

Here's a picture of Lew and Art (left to right), both at around 5 months. Notice anything different? Arthur has EYEBROWS! And his head is more round than oval. And, dude, he is FAT. -Jess

What pristine, beautiful weather, a new baby, a growing Art, tricycles and swings, ponds and parks, ice cream cones, peeing in wood chips, somersaults and gymnastics, strawberries, rasberries and "popsticles". I wish I could bottle it all, but I'll have to settle for wonderful memories. Take a look at these faces because next summer they won't be quite the same. - Jess

Here's some of the stuff Art has made in school. There are 15 kids in his class with just two teachers. It sounds like a recipe for chaos to me, but I think the group mentality takes hold because what little I've witnessed looks nothing like chaos. Looks pretty orderly, in fact. But still free. Anyway... They do at least two art projects a day. The kids don't have to do them - they can always just play with something else - but there are opportunities. The first one is from Monday. The projectd had something to do with pasting figures and painting something, or at leats that's what a lot of other kids were bringing home. But Art(ie) decided to paint with brown that day. I really like it! The next two are from Wednesday. They did Japanese fish stamping with big rubber fish and "wax relief" with crayons and watercolors. Apparently Art(ie) had drawn a duck, bird and dragon which were considerately labeled by the teacher. Art has also learned some seri...

Jessica left early tonight to go to choir practice, and I took Art and Lew on walk. Halfway through I realized it was colder than I thought, and did my best to cover Lew up a little more.

I just got back from a three day Momcation today.  I went to my cousin Sarah's wedding in Milwaukee sans children and sans Ben.  I missed them all, periodically, but I have to admit that I had a GREAT TIME!  I shopped a little bit, went on the Lakefront Brewery tour, went swimming with my sister , Emily, and her husband , Mike (also my suitemates at the awesome Doubletree Hotel, which gives out warm cookies upon check-in, or, apparently, whenever else you ask for one since we asked for some at 2am after the wedding and the concierge just said, "Sure.  How many?" to which Mike said, "I'm telling all my friends that Doubletree kicks ass!") danced for hours, literally, and jogged three miles with the bride, her mom and sister and Emily (on the morning of the wedding.  My sister did the same thing on her wedding day.  Is this a common custom?)  My legs are sore and I have a screaming blister on my pinky toe but, man, it was a good time.  When I got home Art g...

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnVY-6e7idk&hl=en&fs=1&w=425&h=344] a video of me spinning a little plastic spindle and Art laughing like it's the funniest thing he's ever seen.

On a recent stop by the office we ran into May, a friend and mother of five who works in the photo department. See her here showing off her superior motherly abilities.