Frances and Henry David

Keeping up with the "Getting Back to Nature" theme, we headed out to Walden Pond. This, here, is Walden Pond.



That's not Henry David's cabin in the picture. It's the life guard station. The place was crawling with people fishing, swimming, canoeing - enjoying the great outdoors. Henry David's cabin was actually eight by ten feet and no longer exists. Frances wasn't too concerned about the missing cabin.

We started with a little wade in the water...

...and ended with a full dip. Frances was pretty nonchalant about the water. She was busy watching all the people.

Frances gets back to nature

We decided to do a little hiking at the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary. Lucky for us, and Frances's stroller, at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary, "hiking" means walking on a carriage trail. My kind of hiking.



And they provided this nifty lookout for surveying the swamp (they might have called it a "wetland" rather than a "swamp").








Frances and I had a great time. Mark got 22 mosquito bites. We retreated to the nearby blueberry farm for some more apple cider doughnuts, ice cream and fruit. More nature coming up!

Blueberries (and Raspberries) for Frances

It's 93 degrees out. What should we do?!? Go berry picking, of course!


Last summer, Mark and I found a wonderful Pick Your Own Farm in Ipswich, MA. We sampled the Apple Cider Doughnuts they sell but didn't do any picking. This summer, we returned and began Frances's indoctrination into a love of picking. It will serve her well during her long summers at Camp Mimiandsir. (And, no, the irony of paying to pick raspberries after many summers of complaining about it myself was not lost on me.)

The array of fruit was impressive. They had red, purple and black raspberries and...

BLUEBERRIES!

Frances, as usual, was game for anything.

Such a good bubby.

We picked up a few more Apple Cider Doughnuts and some ears of corn and headed home for a picnic in the park. Not a bad day at all.

Eight Months of Bubby Frances!

Frances has hit Eight Months! She'll be a year old before we know it.

Eight Month Fun Facts:

• Firsts: Teeth! Her bottom right tooth came in. You can almost see it in this picture. (It was promptly followed by her bottom left tooth.)

(Frances's grandma wants to know if she should submit this picture or one of the tutu pictures to a photo contest. What do you think?)

• Favorite foods: Sweet Potatoes. We're waiting for her to turn orange.
• Her father's frequent nick names for her: Last month it was "Chicken Wing." This month, it has morphed into "Chicken Tatters" and "Chicken Nugget." No, I don't know why.
• Frequent comment: "What big blue eyes she has!"

• Hardest part of the day: Night; she's waking up more and more. We're hoping it's because of her new teeth and her new-found love of movement and that things will be back to normal soon. On the up side, she's napping more during the day. Her morning nap used to last about 45 minutes, but now it's more like one and a half hours.
  

• Favorite activity: "Walking" while holding on to our fingers. If that can't get a smile out of her, nothing will. She's pretty good at getting around without us though. She swivels and scoots backwards on her belly. We find her under the couch about once a day.

And now we're off to Fayetteville for Tara and Andrew's wedding. The famous tutu will have its day.

Frances's new best friend

After a very family-filled week in Maine, we headed for home. Shortly thereafter, my cousin Nina joined us. Frances thought she was the absolute best. Sometimes Frances will be a little shy of men with loud voices, but apparently young English women can't be beat.

I could say we had a nice time hosting Nina, but really Nina graciously included us on her Boston explorations. We returned to the Swan Boats. This time around, we got a picture of the actual swan, although I'm afraid the picture doesn't make the concept of a boat propelled by a giant swan any less strange.

Cousin Nina is the smiling woman on the right (the woman in the peach shirt trying to look nonchalant while having her picture taken by strangers is just a bonus).

Boston turns out to be a very interesting place for strolling on July 3rd. We happened upon what we think was a re-enactment of the British surrendering to the Americans. Very appropriate activity for a girl and her English cousin. (Never mind the heating vents.)

We also took in the Institute of Contemporary Art (strange art, great building) and the Museum of Fine Art (lovely) - at least, I think the MFA was lovely. We spent a disappointing amount of time feeding Frances in the MFA, but we shall return.

Thanks for visiting, Nina, and thanks for being such a good sport. These parents of a teething, cranky, almost eight month old were worn out!