Immortalized

Ben made a book for my brother Michael's birthday. It's called Train Smoke, and it's the story of Uncle Mike driving a train to Seattle, Portland, New Mexico, etc. It's not much of a story, really, but it's priceless nonetheless. Ben rarely does figurative drawings, but he made a pretty marvelous depiction of Uncle Mike in this one, don't you think?

Farmer's Market

Not a great photo of Ben, unfortunately, but it's because he's intently listening to a steel guitar player at our local, excellent farmer's market. My brother Michael and his friend Kathy came to spend the Memorial Day weekend with us, bless their souls. We don't go anywhere these days, so I'm lucky to have a brother who's willing to haul his tuchus up here regularly to see his nephews (and Glenn and me, sort of). We're having a lovely time, especially since they have infected us with a holiday spirit even though we're still getting up at 6 or 6:30 AM. But after the kids are in bed, we can drink beers and hang out. Heaven!

We also went to Folklife yesterday, which was a sea of humanity. Tricky with small kids. But worthwhile because Ben has been on a kick lately to identify various instruments from the sounds they make. We listen to music mostly in the car, so it's been pretty academic until yesterday, when he got to see guitars, bass fiddles, banjos, accordions, fiddles, drums, marimbas, saxophones, trombones, mandolines, dobros, bass guitars...and the star of the show, his first WASHBOARD! Absolutely eclipsed every other instrument. You strap metal to your chest and bang away at it and no one asks you to stop? Get me one of those!

Rex on the cusp of walking

I realized a few weeks ago that Rex would love to have a push toy, the kind of toy that he can propel while "walking," even though he would only be able to walk because it was actually holding him upright.

But most of them are cheesy and plastic and I realized that in our little bungalow, it would really be more of a bumper car than anything else. So I didn't get him one.

Nonetheless, he's getting closer and closer to walking. A week ago he started standing without support and he's taken as many as three steps when he gets distracted and forgets to tell himself that he can't walk.

And today he simply created his own push toy. He liberated my Grandmother's Hitchcock chair from its accustomed place along the dining room wall and pushed it the length of the entire dining and living rooms. I'm a little sentimental about that chair, but I have no doubt that Mom mom would have been delighted to see it put to such good use by her great-grandson! Glenn, Ben and I got a great laugh out of it and Rex was clearly very pleased with himself.