school plays

fish vendor in Elizabethan London during the Shakespeare presentation - june, 2010

Written by prisoners at Terezin concentration camp, "Brundibar" is the rediscovered fable of a Russian shtetl under the throes of a cruel tyrant -- all well and good, but it's not so easy to explain "pogrom" to a 3 year old playing a chocolate ice cream cone -- thanks a lot, Tony Kushner - December, 2010

snowy detroit (or, birmingham, mi, to be exact) -1/29

(This is about my catching up retroactively (and in reverse chronology) on my blog-neglect.)

first ever snow, first snow angel for C and her buddy E

Second Birthday!

right at it -- good thing for individual cakes

(party on Saturday, Feb. 20 -- her and Izzy celebrate together, born a day apart)

c's best friends

birthday suit (sort of - waiting for the dress to dry)

mag in a box

the actual day, 2/16

-- celebrating with h

entertainment

blame it on detroit (my blog-neglect, that is)

bathtime for maggie - from one hair disaster to the next

TOE ISSUES

so what we

got here is a

poetry toedown...

I mean, toetry throwdown...

I mean...

The poetic response from New York's Dr. Lans has elicited a poetic response of its own from Aunt Bobbi in Chicago, setting this up as one of the biggest geo-cultural rivalries since East Coast/West Coast Rap. Keep it coming, but before it gets too heavy, let me just say - remember what happened to Tupac.

A Response in Verse

(Or I Coulda Done Worse)

Your poem is quite charming

Its tenor disarming

Poor Charlotte's "pas faux".

To defend Erin's toes

Is a task, I suppose,

Too important for prose!

Let Charlotte discover

Her Dad is a lover

Of ALL of "la mere",

From her toes to her hair,

And her daughters both share

Her beauty so rare!

- MC Bobbi Zabel,

straight outta Chi-Town

And while I of course agree with the general assessment of Erin, I must say, all of this probably amounts to an excess of lip service to my wife's toes - which is an image straight out of an entirely different genre of poetry.

By which I of course mean... French.

(See the French baby above warming up on an unassuming Charlotte some years back.)

The cause of all the hullabaloo...

A Response In Verse from Dr. Lans

ON TOES AND MOTHERS

A mother’s toes

( As everyone knows)

Helps her find

That wonderful pose

‘Twixt, “ I am but a rose”

And, “ Young lady, are these your clothes?”

So Dear Charlotte,do not be turning up you nose

At your mother’s beautiful toes

Find something really nice to say

For these are not the toes she chose.

But put it in another way,

‘How nice to see your toes today”

“ I’m glad I’m yours, I’m glad your mine”

And I think your toes are just divine.”

And so it goes

When it comes to toes.

They point the way

Wher’ere you goes

Quote of the Week

Charlotte: "Mama, I like your shoes. ...But I do not like your toes."

Play Number Two - The Crab Who Played With The Sea

...in which Charlotte played a Star and wore a costume made out of some of Diana Ross' old shoes. Nobody does lame ('lah-MAY") like our daughter.

singing even when it's not her turn

dancing along with another (albeit dimmer) star, the tide and the moon

(and some crabs' arms too!)

crazy-eye star

(Video Note: The bonus twirl at the top, which has the same difficulty rating as a triple axle!)

Her main complaint after the show - "The costume was too big, mama! I couldn't lift my arms!"

Maggie's First Gym Class

Maggie and Enzo follow in the great tradition

of siblings Charlotte and Cash

which, back in the day, led to this...

Leading me to believe that the gym class is a meat market, and my daughters are the beef.

one small step for Maggie...

at the Brentwood Country Mart for Erin's "Meet the Baker" day

riding ponies with Cash

Real horse... fake horse...

riding rides with Julian

barnsdall park (for Izzy's first birthday)

to placate those who complain that I am not sufficiently documented on the blog (and there are very few of you, in fact)

Maggie's Only First Birthday!

Birthday Cake Candle

(be patient - these videos will work)

First taste of Cake

Opening Presents