Saturday, November 3, 2007

birthday, congo, some chickens and dancing

Magdalena's photography debut

2 year old beautiful birthday boy


help with candles from the experienced four-year-old


following Tito Chuchi and Abuelo's well beaten musical path


city mouse


a very silly visit with Uncle William


Magdalena's inspired style


When I fall asleep at the proverbial blogging wheel, I have so many images so many anecdotes so much to write that it's overkill. Oh well.

Augustus is 2. He's divine and delicious and delirious and devilish. He's our whirling dervish of love and mischief. He looks at me out of the corner of his eye, sly grin spreading, and bursts into some forbidden action, his determination to be the master of his own destiny exploding out of that tiny perfect big boy toddler body.

Our birthday picnic at the park by the river, a la Tita Jeanna and her floating fluttering balloons and streamers, was a mad success with cake and presents and the single most fabulous ever-lasting game of hide and seek ever played. Dave is the master at hiding in plain sight, Abuela is so tiny she hid behind a sapling, Ethan is the hardest to find, and Jeanna's billowing cigar smoke ratted her out every time. The babies were shoeless and could never wait to be found, screaming out of their hiding places before the seeker was even done counting.

Jeanna, Frida, Magdalena, Augustus and I took a trip out to our friends Manny and Yvonne's rural wonderland to commune with truly free chickens and roosters, guinea hens, turtles galore and a lizard or two and it was such a trip! The kids were mesmerized by the chickens and those crazy red Long Island Red Roosters. Feeding the chickens, being outside the city, taking home small perfect brown eggs, a perfect day for the city mice to brush up on our country mouse aspirations.

We had a lovely visit from Uncle William, in town from Amsterdam to meet his new niece and of course get some Barnas love. Magdalena experimented with various tattoo techniques, perfecting the old little girl effect.

The Houstons have us over for random lovely family dinners, where we eat, play and dance to our hearts content. Magdalena asks to "close the evening with a last dance" before we leave. Who are we to refuse to close the evening with a dance?

And finally, there is just perfect little girl style. We were going for a walk around the neighborhood and Magdalena needed to be properly attired. She has Sunflower, her baby doll, in the pouch/scarf around her waist, a purse for collecting found treasures, and a plastic golf club head for whacking small hard objects. Pure joy.

No comments:

Post a Comment