Ringing in the New Year with New Photos

I've barely posted anything in two weeks. Here's where I make up for it.

To begin with -- baby C. enjoying her toes. On that particular night she was double-fisting it (double-footing it?) but I couldn't get a clear shot of her with both feet in her mouth.


Also, we have Caroline showing off her standing skills. She really likes to stand. She's started to cruise (that's the term for babies who hold on to things and walk along holding on to them). At this point, her cruising has the same ease and confidence of a novice mountain climber edging along an icy crevasse, but she's doing it, by gum. (Don't ask us about crawling, though. Young Bartleby prefers not to.)


"Mary was a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb ...." Mary was a lamb in a Christmas pageant. She was pretty excited about it before and after, although she made rather a solemn little lamb in the moment. The angels and wise men did a good job, too, but the BVM was totally phoning it in.


Dad and daughters. So fun to see.


Santa hat. And when I say Santa hat, I mean Santa hat! It's practically bigger than she is.


Here's a handful of photos from Christmas day. I haven't gone through any of these to fix lighting issues, I'm just throwing them up here because I have a limited window before I collapse somewhere and get carried upstairs and dumped in bed. Mary and Caroline had a good time. Caroline's favorite present seems to be a red plastic mallet that came with a toy. She hits things with it. The joy. Mary was perhaps most excited about a pair of booster seats "because I'm a big girl."







Next, we were graced with a visit from our friends from Florida. They're one of the three couples whom we know who met at the same bookstore, started dating, and ended up getting married. All three of us twosomes have two daughters, and, well, it's just funny. We're always glad when this couple makes a loop through C-ville to catch up with us, and the girls have a good time.





Last but not least: we spent New Year's up at my dad's in Maryland. Here's a family portrait. It's a little like the American Gothic couple hosted a family reunion in a room lit for a performance of 'The Masque of the Red Death,' but what the hey. Bonus: a picture of my brother, his wife, and their adorable baby Esme.



And other tidbits:

Mary's Christmas day grace: "Dear God, thank you for glasses, and juice, and water, and eggs, and Taylor ham, and special feast, and Christmas Day together." Awww.

Also on a religious-ish note: "Mary, did you do that?" "No!" "I see. Who did it, then?" "Noah the Ark! Ha ha ha ha ha ...."

Also, that child can spell. Tonight:
Jared: Hey, do you want to go for a W-A-L-K around the B-L-O-C-K?
Me: No, because I have already got my P-A-J-A-M-A-S on.
Jared: Oh, so I guess that's an N-O.
Me: I S-U-P-P-O-S-E so.
Mary: Mommy, you say you have pajamas on?
I guess she could have extrapolated, but she's been spelling other things lately as well. Very cool.

And in happy news: Mary's tastebuds are back! We have long suspected that she had little sense of taste and no sense of smell, but tonight she ate part of her supper and then commented that she wanted a part that didn't have mustard on it. Now, there was no mustard in sight, there had been no discussion of mustard, and the mustard in question didn't look like mustard as it was part of a great dijon topping for salmon, and included bread crumbs and lots of other stuff. She wasn't even in the house when I made supper. Whee!

Stay tuned: sources are telling us to anticipate BIG developments in the dental arena for Caroline.