Guilford Beach!

Hello.  Moving back in time just a little to recapture some fine moments at Guilford Beach last Wednesday.  Ida and I went down there and had the whole place to ourselves.  Lots of shells there.  Many questions.

Ida was pretty much limited to a straw she found and her trusty Bud Light beer can, far as tools go, but then these "D.V."s showed up:

These guys don't play at playing.  They play.

Miki?  She's ferocious.  Don't start with her.  Just try to get her to give you some space.  And don't travel with her if you can help it.

Meanwhiles, Ida and D. Hawk had many adventures.  Did some homework together, made some terrifying masks, even played a game that was a winning game, where someone wins, which Ida abandoned.  ("Elsie and I don't like games where someone wins," she said.)

Ida is eating huge amounts of meat, though pushing us toward vegetarianism.  With tonight's dinner, she looked over the chicken and said, "What got shotted?"

(Tide coming in.)

I jetted down to the New York City early Thursday (thanks, DKV) for some big meetings with publishers and cohorts.  Ida made me this picture to take along and put on my bedside table.

Thanks, Guilford Vinings!  Note:  SHV was not captured on "film" because she was so busy cleaning up after us, and is also training for a ten mile race and therefore very quick.

Next:  more G-Toko and Grandpa V.

Narrow Escape from East Coast

Guilford, home of fury

So, yes, we got in the rental car and flew right up past "New York City" ("I'm going to tell Elsie!" Ida said.  "New York City, imagine that!") to see young Dan Kanju and his family in their fantastic rebuilt house. That's Hanako!

Soon, some Guildford beach pictures.  But hey, today after we got hosed at some other adventure by various school groups, we went to CITYKIDS and had all kinds of adventures.  Whoa.  Like this UFO.

But really, let's be honest, it was all about the Fishery.  We spent about three hours in there, harvesting fishes, jamming up various chutes.  Ida was carrying so many fish that DKV laughed at her and she's spurned him since.

Hanako moved some fish

and so did Leigh (note yellow fish being pulled up on the line...)!

Really we need a lot more footage, but this gives you some idea of the madness of the Fishery:


There were many minor miracles, too.  Like this train exhibit where Ida could stick her head up right in the middle, like some kind of gopher:

What's in Ida's head, these days?  Well, she's come clean, admitting, "Sometimes I think a lot about things that probably won't happen.

For instance, "If I had a string that went from my knee to my head, and it wasn't very long, I could only take very short steps."

Or, better yet, "Mom, what if you baked a pie out of my bottom?"

"What do you mean by your bottom?" Ella said.

"You know, my butt cheeks and my butt crack," Ida said.  "Well, I guess that probably wouldn't happen."

Hotter than the Hinges of Haddonsfield

Okay, eastern slice...we hit the Philly art museum right away.

Getting strong, now!

Meanwhile, Ella sweet-talked our way into a museum kid activity, but then Ida insisted we go on a tour for 6-10 year olds, which unfortunately took us back outside to the sculpture garden. Too hot for MIki.

So we hit the rooms full of armor, even for horses,a nd then bailed...

...and found us some water ice...

...much of which got spilled...

...and then straight back to Euclid Ave, where G-Toko had set up the pool!

Whoa!  Sultry and muggy, and tomorrow will be hotter!  Fortunately, we plan to sleep more tonight and be stronger tomorrow.

Also, both G-Toko and Grandpa Vining have been full of wisdoms, many of which I will share shortly.

the life with Miki and Ida

Ah, sisters.

So busy, so in love with umbrellas.

Here's a little late Mother's Day testimonial to Grambee...

I don't really know what this is about.

But I can report that the girls seem to fight worse and misbehave more extremely when wearing matching clothes. Odd.

Hoping to have some quick west coast adventures before heading east later this week. Arthur is going to take care of our house while we're gone.

Miki is Three

It's true. STill. She'll tell you the same. She's around 50 percentile for height and closer to 60 for weight. This is because she drinks too much (warm) MILK:

It makes her hair shiny, but still.

This is her 5 year old sister, Ida. Ida insists on "helping" to unwrap Miki's presents,and then immediately co-opts them as her own...

Oh yeah, at swimming lessons today, someone forgot to pack Miki's goggles! MIlk turns her into a WILDCAT!

Anyway, this here below is the sweet person who says, "Miki, your new Chihuahua looks very uncomfortable to sleep with, he should sleep with my dogs Calm and Runner in the dog bed in my room.  And is its name 'Dressa'?  Good."

Later, the birthday party!

And after that, at Martins St (thanks for a delicious salad, again, ARTHUR), this miraculous performance:

3

"My sister..."

What's up? I got some kind of karmic death-dealing illness. But the girls are fine. It's really funny how they're always talking about "My sister..." The other day Ida was eating lunch and very seriously looked across the room at me and said, "Dad, I have to tell you something very disappointing." "What's that?" I said.

"My sister won't be able to participate in the art class this summer, because she'll only be three."

Another word she's really trying on is "variety." "I think there will be a variety of cars in the parking lot at Reed College."

Renn Fayre, alas

Hello! Been busy here! Renn Fayre started up and the girls hit the Thesis Parade ("What are children doing here?" asked one half-naked, drunk, body-painted student, while falling down.)!

That's my friend Sara with the girls in the hammock. We could have hung around and watch ARthur make out with a bunch of students, but we had to rush back to Martins St

(wait, here's a late addition...a student just sent this to me...no explanation of what was going on, but a good depiction of how far Ida and Elsie were ranging, trying to sell flowers they picked to tripping seniors.)

to see Chandler! Hurray! She's getting married to her secret boyfriend! Secret's out!

Then Ida got a fierce fever that she still possesses! Right now she's home, and will be, and Arthur's coming home to help out. Hard to get babysitters on short notice, these days.  We did get a little Trader Joe's shopping done, though.  That's "Cowy" and "Pony," who are dirty, fabric-freshener-smelling stuffed animals that the girls got from a man with stuffed animals attached all over him at the Thesis Parade.  We agreed that they would return to Renn Fayre, but then Ida got that fever and we never returned...

Miki?  She's feeling good.

And we'll be all right.  Ida made this new friend, Johnjo, who's coming over to hang out a little later.

He fears no fever!

Hot Days in PDX!

Okay, the big news here is that Arthur got back from Egypt! Whoa! And he brought everyone back these dresses covered in little pieces of metal like coins so when the girls are running around it sounds like Vidamae is back on the scene! You can't really tell, here, but Elsie is striking her "walk like an Egyptian" pose.

Meanwhile, it got to be like eighty-five degrees, here. Miki likes to wear her snow pants when it's pretty warm; man, she got really hot and sticky today. Promises much for the summer. Here she is, boiling over at her betrothed Talu's 3rd ("troisieme") birthday party:

Ida is working a lot on her gymnastics and tumbling these days. Also her reading, but she doesn't want to watch the video of her cousin Leigh reading until she herself can read.

(That's Talu)

Ida: 5

She's our girl! Five!

This is from her messy art party, or after it;

I think there were pictures on the camera from the party itself but afterward while we were at the playground the thieves shattered the mini-van window and stole my backpack, including that camera and many other crucial items!

In any case, Ida got to sit on Kaito,

and later while I was trying to put my identity back together, Maggie made Ida and Miki some hot dogs. Ketchup!

Miki is very proud, and tells everyone, "Ida is already five years old; I'm not three, but I'm in goldfish swimming class." This, in a return to documenting Ida's photo-taking (with phones; that's all we have now, alack), is what Miki looks like, less than a month away from three:

And here is the last existent photo of Ichi. Ida sneaked down there to the basement bathroom, where he'd been exiled, and checked in on him. He got down to 15 pounds, in his last days! We had a devil of a time keeping Ida from taking him out of the box the vet put him in, and that was very sad, but Ichi and the box were taken to the Humane Society for cremation.

And there were many animals, many potential replacements, there. Ida was particularly excited about this rabbit, how it could sit down with its ears up like that.

Lately she's really been talking about rats. A white rat, in particular.