Apples

Any sunny day in autumn is a great day for picking apples. For Tua's first apple picking experience, we made it special. A few folks from the Park joined forces for an en masse picnic lunch/apple picking session.

A Lone Northern Spy.

The End of The Road.

Tua discovers apples......

and seems to like them.

A cider sampling.

Bill samples the extra dry variety.

Jenny, Tua, and our picnic lunch chef extrodinairre, Lisa.




Liesbeth extolling the virtues of a Cortland, while Maria munches away
at a MacIntosh.

Daniel, replacing a wayward sock.

Blanche & Bills

This morning we went to the local pancake house and met up with some friends from my workplace who have a seven week-old baby, Samuel Hans. Here are some pictures of Tua meeting Sam for the first time.

LoveBug

Tua is not much of a reader yet, though that is not because she hasn't been introcuced to good literature. At this stage in life, Dr Suess might as well be Vonnegut, and Jonathan Franzen's 'The Corrections' passes handily for Sendak. It isn't, after all, how well the book is written, how well the characters are developed, or even how good the pictures are. Tua bases her appreciation of a book by its taste, literally. There is one book in particular which, not by any of our humble persuasions, Tua fancies above all others. It's a masterpiece of rhyme and color which should have been nominated for a Pulitzer just on the fact that when you open the book (and turn each subsequent page) a tinny jingle erupts from its spine. She loves everything about it - from the flashing lights on the inside, to the small photo of her which we put in the available cut out section (visible in the bottom picture). Her favorite thing to do with it (besides putting it in her mouth) is to open the first page, which starts the music, and then shut it again within a matter of seconds.

Sunday Picnic

busy bee

Tua has been busier than ever before. She is non-stop, although I think I have mentioned this before...here are some pictures of a typical day now:

I caught her trying to make a phone call from an old phone in a cabinet

New friends

One of her bumps that she has acquired and then the consoling that is required afterwards

Play-date

Today Tua and I went to Woodstock to run some errands and meet Tua's friend, Addison, for a date on the swings. Addison is 4 days younger than Tua and has just as much energy. She also knows how to smile big for cameras and share her toys. Tua was not much of a smiler and took to the swings with a heavy ounce of indifference.

The Checklist

Tua is checking things off her list of "to do's". First it was cereal, now it is climbing up the stairs. She has only had a few days of practice but now can go without stopping. Now whenever she is tooling around in the kitchen and gets bored, she heads straight for the stairs. She also has two teeth, which don't seem to be of any interest to her. Thankfully she hasn't lost any sleep over them and is ready for the next hurdle, walking. I'm afraid she is going to be walking by the time we visit Illinois next month. We will add some pictures of stair-climbing tonight.