Jess: Starting at the beginning of this month Art started going to his new school. Actually, it’s in a woman’s basement. Last week he actually said, “This is not a school. It’s a house!”

Several weeks ago we found an “old died bird” in the backyard. We look at it, talked about it and even moved its broken body around a bit before we buried it in the backyard so, as I always say about our vegetables in the compost bin, it could “turn back into dirt”. Art wanted to give it a toy so it would have something to play with. Ah, three-years-old. I love how he can protect himself from hard things by creating a story that makes it feel better. Of course, it helps that he doesn’t really know better, but its rather nice.

These photos were (I think) from the first year Jessica and I knew each other (bottom left is my favorite). She would often come up from New York to visit me in Rochester where I was going to school. It was a thrilling time and I was really proud to introduce this beautiful cellist from New York City to my photo friends. We baked a delicious apple pie together that weekend in my ugly little apartment. Man it was tasty.

And here’s a couple more from her trips up. Look at all the hair I had(!).

Jessica got each of the kids a kazoo the other day, and Arthur has been loving it. Tooting all over. This morning he woke up early, came into our room, and asked where his kazoo was (and got very upset cause we wouldn’t immediately go downstairs to find it). So tonight he’s not taking that risk.

…that Lewis says Mama now! Well, not very often, but he does say it. And he said “Bau!” the other day! That would be ball in toddler-speak. Right now he’s playing by himself while I compute. Art is taking a nap. He doesn’t take one every day lately, but today he is. He’s going to a new, quiet and small preschool in a woman’s house which is going really well. We’ll post something about that pretty soon. On Art’s language front he has grown out of one of my favorite mispronunciations, todegger. He now says together like the rest of us. He still says oat-ah-meal, though, and I think that is my very favorite.

We finally picked the apples (rather, apple) from our Honeycrisp tree in the backyard. All summer our whole family has been lusting over one big, juicy thing. We planted the tree a couple years ago and this was the first time it’s ever grown an apple. Over the summer we had many close calls as Lewis grabbed it, “NO NO! No, Lewis!” Tsundi nearly pulled the thing off before Jessica intervened. I can’t tell you how many times Jessica would admire it and suggest we pick it before a squirrel or something gets it. So you can imagine how excited Arthur (and Jessica) was when he finally decided to pick the tasty apple.

We passed the fruit around in a circle each taking a bite until the kids lost interest. Not Jessica or I, though. We polished it off. It was entirely delicious but also had a strange oniony aftertaste. Maybe we created a hybrid?

And here’s something Art has just recently grown long enough to do on his own:

Jess and I are headed to a nice restaurant for a nice date! –Sent from my handheld device.–