אױ װײ*

I'm a terrible blogger and, by extension, a terrible parent since a lot of my blogging is devoted to the girls. Actually, "the girls" is something Evelin should be blogging about were she the blogging sort. (Or should that be "were she bloggish"? Neologisms amuse and distract me.) A few nights ago, as we were headed to bed, Evelin turned to me and said: "Do you know what's good about having two daughters? You can say 'the girls.'" I have to admit it wasn't the first thing that came to mind, but she has a point ...

Here's a short list of entries I've missed over the past few weeks:

Last Weekend (8–9 July): Saturday, I spent about four hours picking up sticks, trimming bushes, and mowing the ogräs ...

Last Thursday (6 July): I took Celeste and Quinn by myself on a little trip to the Bladensburg Waterfront. Celeste didn't want to go to the farmers market or to the park, but the idea of a trip to the river piqued her interest. Quinn, naturally, fell asleep shortly into the drive there, but managed to stay asleep as I transferred her from the bucket to the BabyBjörn and back again, waking soon after we got home. Celeste wasn't too keen on walking through the grass, but once we were on the big bridge over the Anacostia, she was pretty excited to see the ducks and geese, as well as four great blue herons (Ardea herodias) and, I think, a great egret (Ardea alba).

The Blackouts (4–5 July): On the afternoon of the Fourth of July, we were treated to some natural fireworks in the form of a wet microburst that knocked down trees and brought a good bit of rain. It also knocked out our power around 5 p.m. Things came back up late in the afternoon on the 5th, but went out again a few hours later, although it was back up by 9:30 p.m. or so. The girls didn't seem to mind the lack of power (Celeste is in bed before we have to really turn on the lights anyway), and the neighbor who usually turns on the supernoisy generator as soon as the lights flicker is away, so we only had a little disturbance when his stepson turned it on for a few hours in the evening.

Earlier on the Fourth: Evelin went in to her office for a little while to get ready for her return to work, leaving me alone with the girls. For the most part it went okay, except for when I was trying to feed Quinn a bottle and the phone rang. I asked Celeste to get the phone and she tripped as she excitedly ran over to the usually verboten phone. To try and calm her, I told Celeste to come over to me; she ended up climbing up into lap, so I lifted her over Quinn and on to my shoulder, where she started to try to knock a picture off the wall. Evelin said I made a few parenting mistakes — number one: what was Celeste doing climbing on me while I was feeding Quinn — and she's right. But no one was hurt ...

One Other Thing: From Parent Hacks is the bit of good news that spinning in circles with your baby is good for their development. Celeste has long loved spinning (she gives some of her stuffed animals airplane rides regularly), and with science on my side, I will start spinning around with Quinn until we're both good and dizzy ... even though it makes the grandmothers quite nervous.

And Wrenching Back to the Present: Today is Evelin's first day back in the office. I have the girls alone this afternoon for the full afternoon. I'm a bit scared ...

^* Eliezer Segal has an interesting article about the etymology and usage of oy vey