March Goes In Like a Lion, and Out Like a... Fish?

At least, like a very waterlogged lamb... we hope without the nasty smell of wet wool.

Asa and I took a walk along the river in town today.  "River" might be pushing it, even - in a lot of places, it's usually more like a slightly-overgrown creek.  It used to power the downtown mills and factories.  Now, they're considering opening it out to green space and promenades.  But first they might need to figure out the actual flood plain...

The parking lot of a local factory-turned-condos.  The normal course of the river can barely be seen as a ribbon of current in the background.

This school doesn't usually have a lake out front.

Yes, this is water making the manhole cover dance.

Straight ahead: that's a road.  Not a pond.  It's a road we take a lot.  Or at least, we used to.  Way over to the left, you can see a green footbridge that should mark the riverbank.

See?  a road.

Where the Sidewalk Ends.

Our street in the center of town, about 1/4 mile from our house.  Unfortunately, on the closest corner is the local jewelry store, which was badly damaged.  (It breaks my heart to see how many local businesses were waterlogged.  They're struggling enough.)

Ummm, I think we noticed.

I'm ready for April.

Giggle Monster

Random Recent Cute Baby Pics

I take TONS of pictures of Asa.  Seriously, it's hard not to.  But I don't get a chance to post them all.  So here's a post with no story, just images.  Which is probably what y'all want most of the time anyway.  (Besides, it's pouring again, and cold, so this is a lovely way to remember the warm weather a couple of weeks ago.)

Cute baby and crocuses!

Sitting up

I've been working on the sitting up with him, and he seriously could have cared less until... yesterday.  He's not actually using the gymini to hold himself up - I caught him chewing on it like a puppy.

Today, more sitting.  I put the boppy around him this time, because he has a tendency to throw toys behind himself, and then try to twist himself around to find them.  The boppy at least provides a softer landing surface.

The boppy is also for leaning casually and looking cool... while grunting?


This was a surprise.  "Can you sit back up?"  Answer:


Yes, the onesie says "World's Cutest Alarm Clock".  And it's true.  Which comes in handy at 11pm.  And 2am.  And 4am.  And 6am.  And we're ready for those teeth to come in, thank you very much...

Happy Feet

Sorry about the sideways video.  You'd think I'd remember.





And yes, this is typical.  When he's happy (especially when he's eating) he twirls his feet.  Completely adorable.

Block Island!

A trip to Block Island, and this time he was fairly aware of what was going on.  He wasn't too sure about the boat ride, but then, we weren't either - it was pretty rough this morning.

Grampa picked us up at the boat, and we installed the carseat and headed over to the house.

We saw all the new construction, but Asa seemed more interested in Grampa's beard, and nose, and mouth...

Asa also got to meet some cousins, which was a lovely surprise.  Unfortunately, Mummy didn't get as good a picture as she thought she did.

More snuggles at lunch with Grampa and Beth.  We tried a restaurant high-chair for the first time... it helped to have Mommy's jacket tucked behind him.  He actually did pretty well through most of lunch.

Then, because Asa fell asleep in the car, we took a leisurely drive around the Island, starting at the Abrams' farm.  Mommy had never been there, and couldn't stop talking about the yak.  If it was, indeed, a yak, and not a Scottish-longhorned-longhaired sheep, like Grampa thought.

Asa woke for a few minutes in the car, but went back to sleep with his favorite (and rarely-allowed) soothie.

Then back on the boat, which was much more fun the second time...

... I just wish I'd gotten a picture of his first boat-dog experience: two golden retrievers, one of whom took great pleasure in licking the rest of Asa's last meal off of his hand.  Mmm, peaches!

Sunshine Baby!

Spring came to New England on time, for once.  The end of last week just kept getting warmer and lovelier, culminating in the most beautiful first-day-of-Spring that I can remember.  So out came the short-sleeved onesies, the sunhats, and the baby sunblock.

Nonni and Poppy were in town for the beautiful weather, too.

In other news, Asa also chose this week to learn a bunch of new tricks: pushing up, sitting up, and rolling over.  The last two he doesn't yet do consistently, but enough that we know it's not a fluke.  This was about the best picture I got, although not the best pushing-up that he did - he got his belly button off of the ground several times.  We're in so much trouble.

I know - he doesn't have his hat on.  Turns out hats are made of fabric, and are therefore highly chewable.  Keeping it on him in the dappled shade of our backyard ended up not being worth the fight.

Happy Spring, everyone, and enjoy the sunshine!