Perfect picture

The kids know I'm a bit of a camera freak. Either of them will have a fine career on the runway or red carpet should they so choose. Monday morning as they "bumped" their way down the stairs next to each other, they stopped a few steps in and declared, "Perfect picture opportunity!" They then waited until I fetched my camera and proceeded to pose for this shot.

Adult weekend

It's a new era here at Merrilly Yours. Carey and I successfully spent 30 hours away from our children this weekend. It was the first time we'd both been away, together, from the kids for a night since December 2006. It was also the kids' first bona fide sleepover with their cousins. We drove to Rye, N.Y., on Friday after work, spent the night, then left the kids with my sister on Saturday morning while we continued in a northeasterly direction. Spent a couple hours in Northhampton, Mass., home of Smith College. Lots of nose-pierced women wearing tie-dyed shirts and prancing about in the beautiful tulip garden above. Our destination was Old Tavern Farm in Greenfield, Mass., where my college roommate Kipp was throwing a party for all the people who couldn't attend his wedding in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, last summer. Carey got this great shot of Kipp and me, celebrating a volleyball victory.

The semi-newlyweds (and new parents, Yakira Altan Diaz Sutton was born March 5) treated their guests to pulled pork and chicken barbecue, a bluegrass band behind the barn, and dancing on a spring-loaded wooden ballroom floor inside the bed & breakfast. They're enjoying another 10 days in the U.S. before heading out on Kipp's next assignment, a gig with USAID in Kathmandu, Nepal.

We resisted the urge all day Saturday to call and check on the kids and had no trouble forgetting about them once the sun went down. I did give in and call on Sunday as we were leaving. Here's my conversation with Uncle Peter:

"Did the kids behave for you last night?"
"I believe they were all asleep by 730 and nobody woke up until 7."
"Well then, we'll do it again soon!"
"Ehhh."

Thanks, Sara and Peter, for a lovely getaway. We owe you one.

Everyone loves bubbles

More from last Saturday's party at the neighbors. I almost had an award-winner with that last shot. Imagine if her eye was in focus through the bubble!

All better...

I woke up with this lyric in my head, after 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep:

Why worry, there should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now

Can anyone name the artist without help from a friend named Google?

Anyway, Lincoln's fever dissipated immediately after we shelled out our $20 co-pay. Doc said his nasal passages are clogged and he needs to drink more. She's not nervous enough to run a battery of other tests. So Lincoln is back at school, sticking his fingers in his mouth until he finds another good germ.

I didn't take any photos this morning, but the kids enjoyed Dinosaur and Dolphin pancakes to celebrate.

Sick boy

If there's a silver lining to Lincoln's frequent fevers, it's that he's a very high-functioning feverholic. He had a great day with Grandma & Grandpa -- building Lego towers, kicking a beach ball while being pushed in the swing, and riding around the block a few times with Grandpa. His temperature peaked at 103.5 and came down quickly with Motrin. To daycare or not to daycare tomorrow, that is the question.

Grandma & Grandpa visit

My folks arrived Friday and are still here as I type. In fact, they're being exceedingly generous and staying an extra day to be with Lincoln tomorrow, who is radiating his bi-monthly fever as I type. The fever just spiked today, after a very nice weekend. Did a little yardwork, shopped a little Ikea and ate very well. Our neighbors across the street had a birthday party for their 10-year-old son that featured a bounce house and a bubble machine, so the kids had fun with that Saturday evening. Oh, and Dad painted our living room trim. All doors, windows and molding are now a bright white semi-gloss.  A lovely and low-key weekend.

If you can dodge a wrench...

...you can dodge a ball!

Flat Stanley

One of Greta's schools had the kids make them a couple weeks ago prior to spring break. The kids were told to bring Stanley with them wherever they went on vacation. Since we didn't vacation anywhere while the school was closed (we simply had Greta attend her second school for the full day), we didn't take any pictures. On Monday, Greta came home from school and told us all about the books and posters kids made with their photos. She assured us that two other kids forgot to bring theirs. I suggested we take some photos around the house and this is the first one she suggested -- Flat Stanley visits Manhattan.

We then went outside, where Flat Stanley was posed with Greta's favorite narcissus flowers and was pushed in the swing until he blew away.

Weekend update

A lovely spring weekend in South Orange. Lots of playground time, cleaned out a few closets (six garbage bags of kids' clothes to charity!) and copious amounts of golf on TV. A couple shots from the Marshall School playground on Saturday.

Last hurrah for the Easter dress

Daddy's big girl

I created a chant a year or so ago, appropos of nothing, but it goes like this: "Big kid, little kid, all around the kid kids." It's used as an all-purpose greeting when Greta and Lincoln pick me up at the train station or when I pick them up at school, as well as random other times when it makes even less sense. I was chanting it to Greta on Sunday when this photo was taken by Amy.

Friends

I miss having them. We have mid-life acquaintances here in South Orange so far. Given time, perhaps, we'll forge lifelong friendships. I should use the more personal pronoun, sorry. Thanks to stay-at-home motherhood, Carey has made some tighter bonds. But 2 1/2 years into this second New Jersey adventure, I don't have any men with whom I do much more than share a spot under a playground tree or have an occasional beer with at a backyard barbecue.

This isn't meant as a knock against the fine people we have met here. Our kids genuinely like their kids and at 38 that seems to be the most important thing.

I mention this because my oldest friend visited this weekend. I met Aaron Reid when we were five years old. Mrs. Jones' kindergarten class, 1977. We were classmates through high school graduation in 1990 and then managed to both attend Middlebury College. To this day I'm not sure how that happened. Laziness when it came to college applications? Or simply a desire to not say goodbye? We both ended up marrying girls we'd known since grade school, too. It all led to speaking roles at our respective weddings, time spent living near one another in Washington, D.C., and now visits every four months or so in New Hampshire or New Jersey. I figure I'm almost half done with this life, and I suspect if he's lucky enough to outlive me, he'll say a few kind words at the funeral.

Easter hike

I don't look at a tree and see proof of God's benevolent plan. I don't stand in a grove of trees and feel like I'm tithing the Church of Mother Nature. But I do believe that if we don't preserve and protect our environment, we as a species will not have future Easters to enjoy.

So.

We spent a couple hours outside this afternoon, hiking to a waterfall in the South Mountain Reservation with Aaron & Amy before they drove home to New Hampshire.

The kids wore their new sunglasses, gifted by the Easter bunny.

Happy Easter!

We had a photo shoot among the South Orange cherry blossoms this afternoon. Let me know which you like best.