As You Wished- Dan & Jessie's Baby Blog

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Scout's First 1st Birthday


It was a beautiful Saturday morning when we met some friends at Birch Point to celebrate Scout's first 1st birthday. Scout enjoyed walking up and down the beach with her Nannie Jan (who, with Mark, are visiting from th U.K.) while the rest of us enjoyed the only beach proofed cake - whoopie pies.

Queen Hazel and Princess Scout take the royal birthday wagon ride along the beach.

We love Shaws Wharf!

A Memorial Day visit to Round Pond for some penny candy.

The family at Pemaquid Point. What happens in Pemaquid stays in Pemaquid (or so they say.)

Friday, May 16, 2008

A Belated Mother's Day Gift

"The Lanyard" by Billy Collins

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly
off the pale blue walls of this room,
bouncing from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one more suddenly into the past --
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sickroom,
lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,
set cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift--not the archaic truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hands,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

A Few Clips From LIfe




Eating pineapple with Franz Ferdinand


Laundry Zombie

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Leaning Apple Gets Married


While Dan hoisted chairs Scout finally put all her dance moves together and head-banged the night away at Leaning Apple's wedding shindig. We didn't quite capture it on film but here's a little clip of her in her fancy duds.

May Day

Scout, at 11 months, attended her first May pole dance. It was a lovely morning and a lovely day to follow with Milja and Ruby visiting.