Smiling Ben Montage

 Ben is nearly three months  old and he has leaned into the smiling thing in a big way. 

 Sometimes at Margarets funny face...

...but also at my funny face....

...but most of all, his brothers funny face.

Cats!

They sure do love the low winter sun, heating up all the comfiest spots in the house.

Caught!

Mo-cat's doppelgänger is teasing them outside.

Whoops! These aren't cats! We tortoise-sat for our friend Andres, his are the small, smelly ones. Genuine Drexel is eating, and Golden Beans is drinking.

Oh, Sneakers. It's really quite nice having the cat-mayor come by to say hi.

Cats on the Baby, a trilogy:

Sneakers again! What should we do with him?

Of course! Transform him with our magic wands!

The cats get so mad when they have to share the sun with Ben, especially if I don't let them sit on him.

 

The Goldilocks paradox

Once upon a time there were three bears who lived together in a lovely home in the woods. One morning Mama bear made some porridge for breakfast and put some in a big bowl for Papa Bear, a medium bowl for Mama Bear, and a teeny bowl for Baby Bear. The porridge was too hot to eat so the bears went for a walk while it cooled down.

While they were walking, Goldilocks happened upon their house (so many questions there, but not really a paradox). She let herself in and tried Papa Bear's porridge. It was too hot! She tried Mama Bear's porridge. It was too cold! She tried Baby Bear's porridge. It was just right and she ate it all up!

Now, I have always assumed the bowls were filled proportionally. This means Mama Bear had more porridge than Baby Bear. By what law of thermodynamics could Mama Bear's porridge be colder than Baby Bear's?

Or was Mama Bear on a diet? Hated breakfast? Had a bowl with different heat-absorption properties?

Follow-up questions: if Baby Bear's porridge was the right temperature when Goldilocks showed up, then by the time the bears got home, it would also be too cold. This implies that the walk is exclusively for Papa Bear's benefit. Is he a tyrant? A fool who doesn't know how to blow on his porridge to cool it off?

Does Mama Bear prefer cold porridge or has she always accepted it as her lot in life that if they walk until Papa Bear's porridge is the right temperature, hers will be too cold?

Ah, well. To each their own, right?

end of september

We had a big weekend two weeks ago, going to the apple orchard on Saturday and to Sleepy Hollow State Park on Sunday. And there are a few other pictures from before and after to admire!

We filled up a small sack of Honeycrisp and a big bag of Macintosh very quickly and then wandered around the premises - it was such a beautiful day! Then I made everyone listen to "After Apple-Picking", read by Robert Frost himself, on the way home.

Oscar and John love messing with the neighborhood cat Sneakers, who just happens to look just like Maurice. Here they are teasing him with old allium inflorescences, aka magic wands.

Oscar was very strong to carry the bag all by himself!

We analyzed all the apples: counting them...

making a red-green rainbow...

separating the red from the green...

(hair-braiding interlude; this was very boring for me and Edie)

sorting by size and then actually weighing them on the kitchen scale, and making some spreadsheets! Green apples were heavier on average than red apples.

We've made one batch of applesauce, and the second apple crisp just finished baking. Yum yum yum in my tummy tum tum, as Edie likes to say.

Then we went on a new trail at the State Park.

Bug interlude.

A beautiful orb-weaver has been hanging out in front of the bay window. I got to watch her wrap up and consume many insects while nursing Ben. Then she made what looked like an egg sac! But now she's vanished, probably Charlotte-style.

A genuine monarch, spotted in the neighborhood!

Ben's really waking up! He'll look around for minutes at a stretch but since he isn't smiling yet he seems unimpressed by this existence.

I finished making a set of baby blankets - one for him and one for his cousin Sam - and Ben likes his alright! I like it too!

Another rare instance of cooperative children! Cooperating in getting filthy, of course.

Get! Me! Outtahere!

What? Oh, no, you must be thinking of someone else. I'm quite comfortable, thank you.