All Play...

Oscar's main job right now is pretty much to play.  He learns so much from following his own curious path, and we are always amazed (and often amused) at where that takes him.

O.K. figured out how to trigger the sensors that start the sprinklers at the sprinkler park.

He and his friend, Cole, find mud to be a pretty engaging subject.

And then there's the broom.  We're not sure what he likes about them, but "broom" is one of his few words, and he spots them everywhere we go.  Here he's clearly trying something.

I get worried when it is suddenly TOO quiet in the living room, but more often than not, this is what I find--Oscar kickin' back in his reading nook.  As I'm sure you can see, he takes the work of play pretty seriously.

4th of July

Yes, I know it is the 18th.  It has been a busy week, and it is also getting a lot harder to find enough of the uninterrupted minutes necessary to post to this blog.  That said, here's a very short story of our fourth.

We met up with Patrick and Robert at Independence Hall to watch the 4th of July parade.  It was HOT, but fun to see our dear friends, as well as a bunch of old cars, costumed dancers, and local princesses.

Somebody nearby gave Oscar this patriotic hat.

Later, we lit a couple of sparklers.  It became clear that O.K. isn't quite ready for those yet.  Maybe next year...

Off to Massachusetts!

After leaving Aunt Jane's, we headed to Groton, Massachusetts, a small town just outside of Boston.  Our friends, Charlie, Rachel, and their one year-old son, Ryely, left West Philly for this quiet place just a few months ago.  Their goal was to find a place they could rent that would also give them some land on which they could grow some food.  But they are really there because Charlie will soon start his job as an astrophysicist at Harvard.

John and I got our hands dirty helping Charlie plant some tomato starts.

Ryely and Oscar watched each other eating dinner (the parents enjoyed a lot of tasty food after the boys were in bed).

 Another pool!

Charlie and Rachel are awesome parents -- and Oscar thought they were pretty cool, too.

Rachel's not much for having her picture taken, but I managed to get one or two when she was too busy to notice.

Oscar received these sweet dinosaur rain boots from our dear friends.  As you may remember, he likes his boots.

Before we knew it, we were back in the car, heading home.  Once again, Oscar was a real trooper for the long hours in the car.

He even slept a little.

Visiting Aunt Jane

Our first road trip of the summer was up north to visit Aunt Jane in New Haven, Connecticut. We arrived Sunday afternoon and didn't depart until Tuesday morning.  It was brief, but filled with lots of fun.

 We were a little worried about Oscar being in the car for about five hours, but he did really well.  He even took a short nap!

We took a walk down Aunt Jane's drive.  Her home is surrounded by tall quiet trees.  Nestled into those trees, however, are a bunch of noisy birds and bugs.  We saw all kinds of colorful birds visiting the bird feeders around Aunt Jane's house.

Aunt Jane had all of her kids over the night we arrived for a barbecue.  Here's Sarah (and Oscar, sort of) unloading the dishwasher.

On Monday, Keith and Aunt Jane took us to Devil's Hopyard to hike around for a bit.  It was HOT, but beautiful.

John and Oscar cooled off some by the water.

 Aunt Jane was the only one wearing water-proof shoes, so she took Oscar out into the creek to look at some rocks.

Oscar was pretty interested in Irma, Aunt Jane's fourteen-year old [and very patient] pooch.

 Monday evening we went over to Susie's house (Aunt Jane's daughter) for pizza and a swim in her pool.  Oscar wasn't sure about a swim at first, but he warmed up pretty quickly.

Aunt Jane loaded us up with snacks for Oscar (and us) for the next leg of our trip up to Groton, Massachusetts.  We had a wonderful time and look forward to returning soon!