Eyes

Took this with my phone (thanks, Kev-o!). You can see me reflected! Probably took that other one with a phone as well.

Esme for Dinner

Not yet 3 & 2 respectively, and already swapping clothes.

Down!

One of these things is not like the others

Wand of elder, never prosper.

Body Art

Next up, piercings!

Cha-cha-chanukkah

Jo says, "That's not funny." But I notice that she's not typing! And, yes that's right: we do let our two year old play with fire.

Purple Chair for Two

Claire came to hang out on Monday while Charlotte visited the dentist. Those wacky Canadians! I'm pleased to suggest that Zara & Claire are both more or less pretty close to being effectively potty trained. Good thing, for the sake of the purple chair.

Cranky

Zara has entered her sullen teenage years early. Her new dolly is "Pooks", a gift from the M-M's after they noticed how much Zara coveted Claire's babies. I think "Pooks" might be short for "Puma".

I don't have to explain my art to you, Warren

We recently introduced Zara to watercolors. She's quite into crafts these days, which is very exciting. I feel a little under prepared, in that I don't have a large collection of "crafts" to do with her. I hope a bunch of art supplies will be sufficient.

Costume

Having spent many hours building the helicopter of Zara's Halloween dreams, I'm not sure what we're going to do with it. Maybe the attic? Freecycle? I guess Zara could want to be a helicopter for Halloween for the next few years..

Halloween #2

Much like last year, the UVa Lawn was filled to the top with scary children begging for sweet treats. Unlike last year, Zara actually understood what it was all about. Lucky for us, she's not much of an accountant, yet.

Alber's Orchard

Yummy cider, yes, but also a biting donkey, hay bale maze, yellow jackets, and horses. "Zara, did you put your hand in the donkeys mouth?" "Yes! Doesn't everyone?"

Breakfast

Chris cooking with Fiona & Zara: oatmeal & molasses.

King & Queen

Timmy was making a crown, so Zara needed to make one as well.

So much hair...

People don't believe, but it's true, Zara does have ears.

Reading in the Bath

Oh, right, water!

Canadian Thanksgiving, Observed

And then you do what with the turkey?

Basil

Now that the weather has started to cool off, the basil looked like it might die soon. So we cut the rest of it back and made red sauce to freeze. Here you see Zara helping in the kitchen. This is different from the helping that she's done in the past in that it's actually less work for us, not more.

Peter Pan Escapee

Feel free to provide your own captions.

Jack-o-apple?

Zara does this funny thing with her apples. Yes, that's meant to be a face. Oh, yeah, and that apple comes from our favorite no-spray market farmer, from whom we get most of our eggs, green beans, potatoes, cucumbers, etc. I'm making some sort of "buy local" comment here. Pardon me if it's vague.

Balls

Every Fall, UVa fraternities and sororities raise money for charities by throwing a "Carnival". I'm not sure exactly how they raise any money, since all children under the age of 14 get 20 free tickets. The "rides" are all moon bounce-like, similar to what you see Zara enjoying immensely. PS Coda's been fixed. No pics.

Huh?

Jo likes this picture because it captures Zara "in the wild" -- not how our pictures of her often look. Usually, she sees the camera and posses right up. I think in this case she was so engaged in playing at the sink that she just didn't care what the rest of us were doing.

Pizza

With the weather turning, we can start making pizza at home again. I'm working on a new crust recipe based on the no-knead bread recipe. Yummy so far. Of course, not all the toppings make it to the pizza....

Kiera's first day at preschool

In celebration of Kiera's first day, Claire & Zara wore these commemorative lego hats. Also, Luke & Charlotte have agreed to watch Zara for many hours some time while Jo & I go do something really irresponsible.

I lied about the dog

You'd never guess that neither Zara nor Coda actually sleeps in this bed.

New Windows

While our long anticipated new windows were bring installed, we went to the official Thursday morning C'ville Class of 2024 playgroup. Here see Zara pictured with the hosting toddler, Alden. Zara and Alden get along very well, as a couple of rambunctious extroverts.

Happy Stuffaversary!

One year ago today, Allied Van Lines finally delivered our stuff. It had languished a mere 10 miles from our Ann Arbor address, more or less for the entire wait. This is because "professional" movers routinely overbook during peak moving season. So, they more or less never planned to deliver our stuff even close to the promised date. It took another six months after we moved to work through all of the "penalties" that they owed us for being late -- not close to making up for the woeful lateness.

Anyway. To celebrate, we drove with the M-M's down to Crabtree Falls, to hike the largest vertical drop waterfall east of the Mississippi. As it happens, I've also hiked the largest one west of the Mississippi. The east one is cute, too.

After, we stopped at Rapunzel's in Lovingston to get ice cream.

Genug mit the dog!

Jo started Coda's very own blog, so I'll do my best not to take any more pictures of them together. Other than this one right here.

Take A Picture!

Somehow we've taught Zara that she should grab Coda's collar and shout "take a picture" whenever he's chilling out minding his own business. You can see from this shot which is more enthusiastic.

Happy Birthday

Today is Zara's 25 month birthday, and she's officially become a "terrible two". We thought it was the dog, but no, we sent him away for a few days, and she's totally hit a developmental milestone -- and driven off the road! Lucky for us, Jo re-skimmed through the very helpful Happiest Toddler on the Block, only to notice that we'd stopped doing all of the clever tricks that had made 1-2 years such a pleasant experience. So, we've started doing them again, and things are much better, even with Coda around. Yay us.

Treva's Last Day in C'ville

Today was Hope, Neil, and Treva's last day in C'ville. While Hope & Neil were finishing packing, Treva came down to play with Zara for a bit. Later that morning, they drove away to their new home-for-a-year in Columbus, OH. Lucky for us, Columbus is almost exactly half-way between C'ville and Ann Arbor. And, Hope & Neil will still have some business in C'ville. In the meantime, we'll miss them!

Daddy's cell phone

"Dude, this dog has come to visit! You won't believe how cool he is!"

Coda

Don't know how long we'll be keeping this guy, but here he is for now. Currently, he's a ward of the court. We're fostering him for the SPCA. Once he's cleared customs, he'll be adopted by Service Dogs of Virginia, and (in theory) we'll be fostering him for them. He's doing really well. Zara's quite fond, but perhaps she was meant to be an only child. We're getting like no sleep.

I want to ride my tricycle!

Marmee & Buelo got Zara a tricycle for her 2nd birthday.

Thai Basil Noodles

One of Zara's favorite dinners. I'm also fond of it. Pretty fine summer beverage, as well.

Happy 2nd Birthday!

In the morning, Zara took a break from her workout to call Clare on Gabi's cell phone. Then we all drove to Lynchburg to visit "Amazement Square". Zara is pictured atop a BYO foam pyramid.

Birthday Party

Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Nearly two year old Zara eating it.

Speaking of rocks...

Here are some pictures of Zara "rock" climbing at Meade Park. The Wednesday afternoon Farmers Market is in this park, so we try to get here once a week.

Buds

Together, they rock!

Album Release Party

Great party, Dude, but where are my pants?

An Album Cover

Zara Finn and the Duck Herders

Duck Wearing

Zara is an attachment duck herder.