Ida vs. 18 month percentiles

Ida is kind of famous at daycare for out-eating Elsie and everyone else. Many have remarked on her belly. We've been worried, slightly, that the doctor would pronounce Ida obese . . .



...so we were quite surprised to hear that she was at 95% head circumference, 50% height...and 20% weight. 20% weight?!?

Ida vs. Autumn

Ace Frehley once sang, "I'm back! Back in the New York groove!" Well I, Pete, am now back from the New York groove, happily, and have found that Autumn arrived in PDX:







Bye bye.

Ida vs. Lake Quinault, WA

Look at this cool cabin Ida's mom found for us! You can see Ida's little face in the lattice if you look carefully. She's saying "Hi-eee!"



Here's a bigger picture of her face. That first day sure was rainy, but she wanted to ride in the backpack...



Look who else we found there! Some late-breakfast-arrivers!



Even Baby Theo was on the scene!



Pancakes, eggs, you name it.



Aunt Maggie ("Meggie") shared her eggs and also was very generous about reading Creepy Castle and all about "Melmo."



Uncle Arthur ("Art-er") was a little more focused on a) fish and b) cold ones.



But he was willing to paddle Ida around in the boat. "Ida boat!"



Of course it was mostly about Elsie and her dangerous teeth:



Screaming and climbing into cupboards was key...



...as was red light/green light . . .



...and wrassling, of course:



Here's another stair video (aficionados can look back to see how much has changed in three months or whatever...



(I told Arthur I knew how to rotate these videos; I lied, I guess).

One more:

Ida Hat, Moy Geeps, etc

Autumn is upon us. Ida has this hat! As she would say, "Ida hat."



This hat was made by Ida's special friend.



It keeps her ears warm while she's riding her "cruck."



Lately one of Ida's favorite phrases is "Moy Geeps!" She loves grapes:



And also Baby Theo, who can now sit in a Bumbo!

CHANDLER = CHAMPION!

(More on the SLC visit, probably, very soon, but meanwhile...)

Ida's moved on to daycare! It's a slow and tearful process, but reunites her with Elsie and Theo (Theo will be there in January).

Fortunately we'll still see Chandler a fair amount, but the careful, loving daily care she's given Ida is phasing out. Alas! But Chandler has to go to graduate school, live her adult life with the secret boyfriend and all; no matter how hard we reproduce, it's just not fair to hold up her life this way. Even though we'd like to. Anyway, Chandler is great. An outstanding person. Everyone should get to have a nanny like Chandler. It would solve everything.

Phenomenal!

Here's a picture of Ida saying goodbye to Chandler on her last day.



And here's a reminder of their first day, 9/5/07:




Still looking great ECJ!

Rock Cousin Showdown vs. Ida

Okay, so Phoebe, Bonnie Kate and Margo came to show Ida some tricks:



Ring-a-round-the-rosie, for instance:



Ida's crazy for the "all fall down" part, even if she delays and then stages several falls...



Wait, who's this guy! Oh, yeah, cousin Matthew! And Uncle Jim, too.



Rain threatened, so we went to OMSI, the science museum, where Bonnie made some science out of this necklace. There's Grace!



Did you honestly think that Grace could keep from putting some bows in Ida's hair?



It was Margo's second birthday! She was willing to loan the pink bows, as she decided to get naked before eating Ella's pasta with meat sauce. As Ida would say, "Margo naked."



After dinner, the cousins read some books:



Many questions remain: will Jim finish the Portland marathon tomorrow? Will Ichi really lose it and bite someone hard? How will Bonnie's forehead look after that harsh tumble? We'll get to those. Meanwhile, bye bye...