Egg Hunt

Tillie and Raphie all sugared up after enjoying the loot:

Half-Life

A half-life passes and half of the memories are gone. Not half of the inventory of memories, but half of each one. As with removing half the pixels in a digital photo, I still will recognize the face. It just gets fuzzier each time. But enough endure to both emit a warm glow and cause a new hurt.

Still remembering you Camile, 1975-2010.

Kiddie Rave

In case you don't know Tillie very well, she is in absolute heaven here--completely transfixed by all the big kids who know how to do all these dance moves. I love how she is concentrating so hard!

In this one, I love her little hurdle jump move and the fact that she finally picks up on how to do the "A" by the end of the YMCA song! (I guess a mother just can't help but gush about these silly little things...)

Mosquito Bites and Snow Cones

The 8-month-long Texas summer has begun.

Live Music

Tillie and Django enjoy Austin, aka the Live Music Capital of the World, aka A Place to Find Cool Sticks on the Ground:

The windshield wipers on the bus go...

I like to think that Django is playing this stick like a guitar:

Interpretive dance with bubbles:

In the middle of the set (during a song, mid-strum), Tillie took off her bracelet and necklace and asked the musician to hold them for her.

Paletas

We made popsicles the other day. Tillie was dismayed to discover that you have to wait for "paletas" to congeal and cannot enjoy them right away. She obsessively checked the freezer all day asking, "Are they ready yet?" I told her repeatedly that she had to wait until the next day. 6:55 am the next morning, the sun is not even up yet, and she bursts into our room shouting, "I want my paleta!"

She enjoyed a paleta that afternoon with her dear friend Micah.

Transcript: "You can't have my paleta! No me molestas Django!"

Robo Blankie

Another one complete for my army of snuggle-bots:

Who Is That Masked Man?

Django wears a knight mask and tilts at windmills.

Just Ducky

Soothing lullaby or expert sleeper hold--whichever the cause, it led to this duckling taking a wee nap in Tillie's arms.

New Tat

If Tillie were to go into the tattoo business, this is what Scott would get:

The Chicken Cycle

My little chicken fed Karin's little chickens who in turn fed my little chicken right back.

Toddling Tall

He's walking now...just thought I'd warn you in case you planned on putting something breakable on that counter top.

Jumpoline

Our little neighbor friend got a trampoline for christmas. Tillie calls it a jumpoline. Her joy in this picture is so cute that it transcends focus standards.

Unhappy Valentine's Day?

As Tillie and I were busily making valentines for the holiday exchange at school, I looked down and noticed that she had drawn sad faces on all 19 construction paper hearts. Of course, I didn't want to tell her that sad faces are "wrong" for valentines, as this is supposed to be her creative effort and her interpretation of an expressive tradition--not a strict directive from The Man to be enforced by a draconian mother with no sense of artistic voice. Plus, she very happily draws mostly sad faces these days, and I have been suspecting that she did not know that her smiles looked like frowns. Thinking that this could be a great teaching moment, I said, "Tillie, are those sad faces or happy faces?" She replied with a maniacal expression, "Some of them are sad and some of them are angry!" Apparently this was a teaching moment, and I was the student. Hence, all 19 of Tillie's beloved schoolmates will receive sad/angry-faced valentines this year.

Time Capsule

Found these in an old book I was about to throw away until Scott protested:

The latter is a picture of my younger brother during high school - hah look at that baby face! The former is a check my grandma wrote me for my 19th birthday--the last gift she gave me before she died a couple of months later. I'm glad I saved it rather than using it to buy a month's worth of Top Ramen. I wish I could know you now Grandma Winnie.

Balloonicorn

This is actually just a picture of Tillie's best friend Freddy the Unicorn wearing a beautiful "princess ring" (btw, thank you Eva for the beloved princess jewelry!). However, the previous week she had tied a helium balloon to her horn and dubbed her "Balloonicorn" which made her pun-loving mama very proud.

Dog-o-vision

Snow Day!

Tillie finds out how fun snow is until your hands get painfully cold.