Minneapolis Malaise

infants make the best dinner centerpieces

Was it full-Lally-family withdrawal? Lack of essential homemade bread nutrients? Or did the airport simply suck my soul out through my pores? I'll never know what it was but I am positive that I was sick as the proverbial dog for many days after my return from the chilly midwest.

a sunny hallway

Recovery complete, I can look back on the visit and still hear Calliope asking me to draw:
1. a skeleton
2. a snake
3. darth vader
4. Little Faffo (baby Sappho)

She always picked from the same four items, and loved pointing to each drawing and announcing exactly what it was. My snakes and skeletons were serviceable, but only a 2 year old with a great imagination could have been happy with my rendition of darth vader, who looked alarmingly like a parakeet wearing a helmet.

Words fail me, so photos will have to do:

Sappho, sporting a scarf so jauntily

She needs the scarf because she's outgrown the newborn hat I made

There was some minor plumbing work, and you know what plumbers are like...

Calliope takes a break from her aggressive raisin-eating campaign. Or at least goes horizontal with it.

The best part: they had no idea they had adopted the same pose. They were just watching the men rip siding off the back of the house to see what was underneath (clapboards, huzzah!)