"wha?"
(also, the eyebrow again)




someone fell over

this is why I love the porch. and the hammock. I love love love the hammock.








Max loves watching the cars drive by on the street. It's kind of hilarious to watch his little head whip back and forth to watch the traffic go by.


aw, my cute boys!


heh. someone is puzzled

So a few weeks ago, one of my authors, Robin Palmer, had an event out at the local mall here for her hilarious and charming new novel, Geek Charming. And since it was local, Max and I went to visit!

Yes, we're a little behind. sorry!



heh, he's totally a little flirt.



also? teething. OY.

I've been remiss in posting video lately, so here's a flash from the recent past of Max reaching new heights of, well, reaching -- grabbing at the butterflies on his playmat that were previously unachievable.

Jen's dad is now handling childcare on Mondays when Jen works from home, for which we are very grateful. They are having a lot of fun together. When Max is good, he's even allowed to wear the big boy hat.

We took Max over to Jen's parents for Easter; here are some shots of the egg hunt. I seem to have focused so much on photos of Jen & Max that I forgot to, you know, take any of the eggs. But hey, that's one cute (sleepy) baby, huh? Note tiny little basket for Max next to Jen on the wall.



Jen and her brother:


I like taking candid shots, though that means I have a lot of photos with this look of Jen's, roughly translated as "what do you think you're doing?"

If I were a pirate and Max was a monkey, I would carry him around on my shoulder all the time, like this.



Also I find it amusing that I think a small black square will somehow protect Max's dignity when this photo is inevitably found by his middle school classmates and posted all over the halls.

Jonathan and Max sent a gorgeous bouquet of flowers on Saturday, and they got all of my favorites in there, white lilacs, yellow roses, white hydrangea, and peonies:



Needless to say the kitchen smells fabulous. And with luck, Henry the cat will not try to carry off any of the blossoms and attack them (apparently flowers are his nemesis).

Then Sunday morning, I fed Max while Jonathan made blueberry muffins from Alton Brown's recipe, with last summer's CSA blueberries. YUM.




And then presents! Apparently I am oblivious, because Jonathan was able to get Max to do hand and footprints in plaster and some weird but cool foamy clay thing, and had one set framed. He also got me some very pretty earrings that are Max's birthstone.






Dude, GIANT feet on this kiddo.

Aren't they cute? They did good. (and right now? Max is laughing hysterically at a wooden spoon. I have no idea why.)

Max doesn't really like hats, but he needs them on sunny afternoons, and is darn cute in them nonetheless. He's also mastered tummy time at this point, leaving lots of time for shots like these.

Remember the olden days, back when spring had barely sprung and we had just visited Annapolis and the DC area? We spent one of those days in the DC suburbs visiting a few of my old college friends. I neglected to post the photos at the time but am now remedying the error.

Bert and Gena are great friends of mine -- Bert and I did a comic together in college, and we used to live near each other in Brooklyn. They have two adorable twin daughters too, which for some odd reason I can't find a decent photo of from this visit.


Jon here is another close college friend -- we were in the marching band together. Do not be fooled, we didn't actually march, more tended to run around making fools of ourselves in front of thousands of football fans, and imbibing various quantities of various inebriating substances.




Here is the kind of nonsense that we were so fond of from the band days, and a good example of why you probably not leave Max alone with band alums. Strange things begin to happen. Fortunately Max seems comfortable oblivious.

A couple weekends ago, my cousin Kathy and her husband & sons came up to visit. It was great to see them and we had a fun time having lunch and playing in the back yard. (For the record, Kathy makes an excellent potato salad.) Here are some photos.



Matthew tries to look tough, but reveals his inner softie:


Matthew and Max mug for the camera, with Kathy and Andrew in the background.


Kathy with Max; Max with teether.

All of the above of super entertaining. Case in point:



Why yes, that is the exact same expression on their faces...

and apparently, the cloth dipe is endlessly entertaining


but so is the penguin


and the monkey, well, don't we already know how fascinating the monkey is?

Max is starting to figure out textures a little bit, which is hilarious to watch. The pillow on his glider is both soft and ribbed, so needless to say, it's extremely fascinating