overnight(s) at Z farm

All three of them. Plus cousins and aunts and grandparents and a dog and a cat and a few dozen chickens and and and...no parents. For the first time, ever. Lucky kids. And lucky us. Feeling thankful for my family today...very thankful.

flower bombs

This is me. It looks like I might be pruning a hydrangea , but I am not.

 This is me defending myself from repeated attack by an armor-less soldier wielding only a dagger. And this is said aggressor throwing said dagger away and falling to the ground dramatically as I continue the deluge of light artillery.

putting his John Hancock right there

Construction of feather pen to match Hancock's pen: requested, meticulously supervised and impatiently criticized by a kid currently obsessed with Revolutionary War era paraphernalia. Baby bottle inkwell and handpainted ceramic parrot was his idea. So was standing there for 20 minutes repeatedly dipping and signing. 

Dad, Orson (and mustache)

O & Z 6 months old

V

Victoria makes it look easy AND she's very chill about the whole thing. Being the first to discover not one but two new teeth on two fussy babies? No big deal. Figuring out how to babysit tiny twins who yell at you all the time in their baby-language? Got it covered. Getting someone else's poop on your hands and puke on your shoulder at random intervals every time you see them? Just wipes it off. (And, hopefully, washes her hands). Completing difficult acrobatics in 99 degree heat with slippery babies who are screaming much of the day while she and they are confined to one small room? Best. Summer. Job. Ever.

And without her kind, patient, resourceful help, I'd never get to my desk again. Ever.

Ever.

first tooth: Orson

Caught poking through today. (And again, rapidly moving baby equals tooth-obscuring blurry shot.)

Chris & Jenn visit

And, with Ritik and Erin up too, Lincoln enjoyed plenty of QT today.

first tooth: Zeph

It's there, but since she won't let you touch her mouth without shot-ruining defensive maneuvers (a learned response to all the medication we have been shoving in her mouth many times a day since she was 5 weeks old) all I can get is this photo of blurry gums.

Zephyr sits

She's been trying to sit up for more than a month now...pretty much every time we strap her into the reclining bouncy chair. Apparently she's no recliner, not anymore. While she can't be entirely trusted not to topple forward, this week she's been sitting, happily and unassisted, for several minutes. Orson, possessed much of the time by the kind of frantic energy and rapidity of movement his sister lacks (and unfairly influenced by a larger heavier noggin), will not bend at the waist for long enough to warrant a sitting up post. 

visiting Gram

On vacation (or as well like to call it this year: "taking care of babies in another place") on Gram's fair island, with all the rain the heavens can muster for us. Photos to come...