Latest trip

Mark, Frances and I went on another trip, this time for Mark's school. Can you tell where we went from this picture?


Did you guess? Here's the same place from another angle.

We went to Chicago. Those pictures were from under and next to The Bean (officially the Cloud Gate) in Millennium Park. We also saw Frank Gehry's music hall.

It was bright out there.

Then we went to an architecture show at the Fine Arts Museum.

Frances stayed awake!

Then we saw some modern art.

The next day we went to the Natural History Museum. Frances more or less slept through that experience, so no pictures.

Mark and I had a lovely time.

Maybe someday we'll travel somewhere warm.

Big Girl Clothes

We've started dressing Frances in clothes that aren't just glorified pajamas. I like this first dress in particular because we got it in Southwest Harbor, ME.

Here she's in her first set of jeans and first pair of shoes.

We think she looks pretty nifty and very grown up.

Happy Belated Valentine's

As readers of my sisters' blogs know, Mimi sent all the grandkids message cookies for Valentine's Day. Out of 33 pictures of Frances with one of the cookies, this was the best we got:

Any time, Frances, any time at all.

Frances' daddy thought she looked drunk in most of the photos. Frances' daddy didn't have any problem finishing the cookies long before Valentine's Day came along.

And then we had photos of the "Listing to Port" variety.

Do we, a) help the poor kid who's tipping over, or, b) take a picture and post it on the web and eventually straighten her up? The answer is "b," obviously.

I promise we'll stop amusing ourselves at your expense eventually, Frances, I just can't say when.

13 Weeks

This is for you, Auntie Jocelyn:

An explanation for everyone who isn't Auntie Jocelyn: Jocelyn took pictures of her two girls at 13 weeks of age in this outfit using a quilt all the aunties made as a backdrop. You can find the photos here: http://cowenchronicles.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-01-10T21%3A09%3A00-05%3A00&max-results=15

I thought it was only fitting to do the same, since the outfit got passed on to us. In our case, the backdrop quilt was a present from Auntie Linda.

There are many more photos to come!

A Very Busy Girl

Frances has had a very busy social calender. She met Linda Brown and saw her grandparents.



And Gray Grisham stopped by before returning to China.

She's also met Rebecca Newth, Beth Brooks, Kay and John DuVal, Cathy Liss, her Uncle Eric and Aunt Candi, and her cousins Austen and Haleigh. Frances has done really well, if I do say so myself. She still doesn't have any stranger anxiety and will pretty much smile at anyone who smiles at her. What a good girl she is.

Frances in Fayetteville

O.k., Daddy, here are some pictures of Frances to tide you over. She's sitting in a swing and smiling up at Mimi. She was talking up a storm.



This is sort of a funny picture, but she was talking, and you know how cute that is.



For those who don't know, Frances and I are in Fayetteville, and poor Mark/Daddy is stuck at home in Cambridge. I promised Mark I'd get a post up every day. That's been difficult because the Internet satellite dish has been snowed over and non-functional, but it's working now and, fingers crossed, we won't be getting more snow.

Who knew?

Actually, everyone warned us about the weather and the cold in Massachusetts. They weren't wrong. Going outside can be a major undertaking. Frances usually wears four layers (two outfits plus two blankets) when we go out, plus a hat and sock-mittens.


Frances is not a fan.

Kitchen sink

For whatever reason, the other day we couldn't get hot water from the tub, but the kitchen sink was more obliging.


Frances didn't seem to mind where she was. She was all eyes for daddy.

After her bath, it was time for bed. Look at this tired bubby.