The New Computer

The new computer auto-matically takes a family photo. All we have to do is huddle close to the computer and smile. We do this every day now!

I feel so new, as if I got a nose job and a new tie. Smushing my family together in front of the computers automatic camera, I am so happy I don't even need to say "Smile" before counting off the three seconds before the computer snaps our picture. Hooray!

Weebles Wobble

Here is my sister Maddy tipping her self over.

Emma takes great joy in seeing sister Madeleine tip over.

Bye Bye Berkshires

My daddy didn't get a picture of me being bitten by ground bees. Ground bees are bees that have hives in the ground. I started screaming because when you feel pain in your body unlike anything you've ever felt you scream.
But the bees couldn't ruin my vacation. The pain subsided and I watched Elmo's Birthday DVD and had a black and white cookies and ice cream for dinner.


Emma wanted to go potty at this potty which was for sale, 25 dollars at the Berkshire Theater Festival prop sale. Berkshire Theater Festival had a family day, free food, face painting and songs from Oliver.

Emma's first foray into face painting. She had a heart and a butterfly artfully rendered on her cheeks.



Jacob's pillow: Emma was transfixed as she watched a woman grow tree branches and move as if a soft wind were whisking through.

Chores

The tough thing about life in the country is all the chores. I've been doing dishes, husking corn, putting laundry on a clothes line and husking corn!


Emma has been working hard. My back went out so she's been picking up the slack.

I've also been growing food from a garden and picking apples. Thank goodness I'm a vegetarian.

Greta Garbage

Sometimes my parents take me to things that are a little painful. Greta Garbage lectured me and a little boy on the importance of recycling. We were the only two attending her puppet show at the Guthrie Center, a church dedicated to peace and understanding. It turned out Greta Garbage was in charge of the environmental educational division in Rochester and transformed her teachings into a puppet show. It was as if the presidential candidates were using sock puppets to speak their platforms at the debates.

I thought with a name like Greta Garbage how could you go wrong. She did point out to the two children at the show that it was their parents who had destroyed the earth and unfortunately it was beyond repair. My wife looked on in horror. When is the right time to expose Emma to the hard truths of todays world?
At the Greta Garbage show! The Guthre Center, a temple to peace, understanding, and the sixties, seemed like a place for lost souls, which for one morning, Michael the dad was one.

The Wishing Tree

This is the wishing tree. There are so many things I wanted so I combined a bunch of them in one wish: I wished for a day with Thomas, Dora and Elmo. All of us would dance and eat cheese sticks on the top of a mountain under a giant rainbow. Mommy and Daddy would bring us golden Sippy cups.

I wished that the magic of life was available to all of us, and that we all rejoiced with glee. Of coarse, I wasn't able to think of that at the Berkshire Botanical gardens Wishing Tree. So I just wished for self buckling car seats. (You can read my wish if you look closely at the picture)

Tanglewood

Listening to classical music is fun for thirty seconds. After that I like to play kickball or chase butterflies. It's funny, an old guy criticized my mom. He told her, "Some people come here to listen to the music." It seemed like he was hearing the music leading him to his life after death, but it didn't seem like that much fun.

I took Emma to go potty just as the concert let out. 25 old men streamed in to pee and wash their hands as Emma ran around, "No paper towels, me, I do it, I do it." The old men tried to go to sink as though she wasn't there but she held her ground. It was a Tangle at Tanglewood.


My sister Madeleine, rebounding from mosquito bites and a neck rash caused by her not having a neck yet.


A typical lunch scene at Frog Hollow (the name of the house where we are staying)

Professional Play Lady at the Stockbridge Public Library

This woman named Jeannie said that she'd spent the morning with old people who were stuck to their walkers but she was trying to get them to play. She said that she made her living playing with people and was available for birthday parties or to play with adults as well. I think she's spent time in jail. I can tell by her arm tattoo and her fanatic pleas for attention.

Emma was a little scared of Jeannie the Professional Play Lady at first. Fortunately Emma has a big heart and is very accepting and giving. I've been taking her to libraries for reading hour in the Berkshire area and you never know what will happen.

Hiking

I went hiking! Mommy and Maddy went down a different path and were swarmed by mosquitos. Maddy got four bites on her head. Mommy's entire neck was bright red. I wonder why there are no mosquitos in New York, or are they much friendlier in New York. I picked wild flowers for my mommy even before I knew of her extreme trauma. Daddy was just impressed that she pushed the stroller over a patch of giant rocks.
I also went to the library!

Being in the wilderness brings parenting to a whole new level.

Rainbow Day

I'm on my vacation. It's kind of stormy and rainy in Great Barrington. My dad think's it's wierd that a town would call itself "Great" in the name of the town. He said, "Englewood is not called 'Great Englewood." I asked him to start calling me "Great Emma," which he has yet to do.
I saw my first rainbow. My parents were driving me to a playground and started yelling, "Rainbow, rainbow!" I implored them to let me see, as I was in my car seat. My dad pulled over, and sure enough there it was, curving over a motel and the motel playground. Adina, my mommy, walked me over and it was the beginning of a great vacation.

I'm so glad Emma got to actually see the rainbow. "Look," I said, "that is a rainbow." Yes, there is incredible beauty and I pulled into a motel parking lot and it paid big dividends.