So what's new?

Hiya! I am home alone as Emily is watching the Cardinals try and reach the post-season via the wild-card. This is clearly a big event as it has even made the front page of the Guardian, back in the old country. As Bluet is a New Yorker she has no interest, and is asleep.

Since your last update, Bluet has added non-sweet potatoes, oatmeal, and water to her diet. She has spent much time practising sitting up, though about crawling, tried walking, started to recognise strangers (rather than smile at everyone) and discovered the joys of Dr Seuss (or at least I like to think she has as they are more fun to read than 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear').

Bluet took time out from her hectic schedule to star in the following movie:

Bluet at the Met

Bluet and I went to the Met today - we were both a bit bored in the afternoon while Ben was out having Ben time (in a record shop, I think). Here she is next to Pan in the Greek and Roman gallery:

She was decidedly more impressed with sitting on the chairs in the rooftop garden:

Her brow is furrowed in concentration on balancing.
You may be able to tell from this last picture and others lately
that she is no longer oblivious to the camera. There is something
sad about this...hard to capture the moment without interfering...

Big(ish) News

Well, this may have been oversold, and it is approx. a week late, but the most exciting news for us recently is that Bluet has started eating real food! When I say real food, her first meal (captured for your delectation below) was some rather unappetising (but recommended by the paediatrician) rice cereal.

Bluet, seconds before her first ever mouthful of 'real' food

Bluet's first ever mouthful of 'real' food

However, this foodstuff proved unappealing to her refined taste buds, so we have since moved onto sweet potato. Which has gone down a treat (and even replaced milk for lunch one time). We plan on adding ordinary potato this weekend. At this rate of adding new foods, she should be eating fois gras by Christmas.

BTW if you would like to eat along at home with Bluet, here is the recipe for Bluet's Sweet Potato.

You will need:

Some sweet potatoes
A pan
Some water
A stove

Put pan of water on stove. Heat until boiling. Add Sweet Potatoes. Boil until cooked. Puree with a hand held blender, allow to cool and serve with a plastic spoon. Aeroplane noises are optional (but recommended).

4,000 hits

Congratulations to Rachel for being our 4,000 visitor! Unfortunately the ticker-tape machine was unavailable; however, around the time of the 4,000 visit, Bluet looked like this:

Stay tuned for some BIG NEWS later today (probably)

5 months

The changed weather had me digging out a box of winter clothes this morning to find something to wear. I found some pants (trousers if you prefer) that I haven't worn for 2 years now and was so pleased to fit into them! This, and Bluet's 5 month birthday, makes me realize how far we have come since April. Here she is, sitting in her bed yesterday while I did some things in her room. She thought this was fabulous.

5 Month Birthday

 

Insta-blog from the oyster fest

Hi. Looks like summer is over. Still we are brave so are sitting outside in downtown manhattan; as you can see from the pic we are eating oysters and we may grab a crab cake or two later, washed down with some fine ale. All very civilised as long as it doesn't rain (bedraggled photos to follow).

Given that it is now winter bluet is wearing winter clothes for the first time - some stripy woollen tights, and a hoodie. So far she shows no sign of wanting to go looting. Instead she is cosy and sleeping despite the noise of oyster based revelry all around.

Happy Weekend

With 4,000 hits fast approaching, and Bluet celebrating her 5 month birthday today, I hope we can put up several posts over the weekend, so stay tuned to this station (and hit refresh repeatedly). To begin, here are a couple of vids from Yellowstone.

Bluet loving her car ride

A big geyser errupting

A picture from the weekend

Emily and Bluet went to the park to hang out with Michelle and friends. Here is a photo from that event.

And that, my friends, is our 100th post!

Live from the bus

We are on the bus to visit Steve, Dorthea & Caroline and now have an app that allows for the creation of pointless blogposts anytime and anyplace.

Let's see if it works.

Yellow is a nice stone*

Last weekend was a long one, so we took advantage by flying to Wyoming and visiting some of Emily's friends (Greg and Kara and their 2 small childs, Ben* (confusion ahoy!) and Teo). Ben is very talkative and interested in tractors, whilst Teo is around a month younger than Bluet. Both are very sweet.

The trip out was uneventful, and Bluet was able to catch up on her reading.

It was pretty cool to be in the Wyoming-Montana area for the first time - apparently (unbelievably) Wyoming is bigger than the Old Country.

But with many fewer people, and more bears.

What were the skies like when you were young? They ran on forever

It was wonderfully not humid compared to New York, and full of enormous mountains. Our first excursion was to Red Lodge, a mountain town with a restaurant selling vegetarian sausages for breakfast, and a small brewery selling delicious local beer and food. I approve of this behaviour.

NB Bluet had to borrow clothes because it was colder than we expected! Loaned shirt features Bucky the Badger of the University of Wisconsin American Football team

This is the only photo I have of Ben facing the right way

Then on Sunday we visited Yellowstone.

This was my first National Park in 31 years, and Bluet's first ever. You will probably have heard of Yellowstone either because it is the home of Yogi bear or because it is the home of Old Faithful, a giant geyser (which is, I am reliably informed, pronounced geezer - old faithful - old man, makes sense to me). I was expecting to see Lions and Tigers and Bears (Oh my) but sadly there were none. I suspect it was because it was the labour day weekend and they were staying out of the way of all the people (there were a lot of people). We did see some buffalo, elk and birds. And some cool natural features - e.g. stinky bubbling mud pits and an enormous waterfall, as well as some spectacular mountains on the way in.

O give me a home where the Buffalo roam

Waterfall (and the yellow stone of Yellowstone)

be thankful this isn't smelly vision

We had a tedious flight back with a 5 hour layover in Minneapolis airport (although this allows me to check another state off the list), and an hour wait for a taxi home. Throughout this all, Bluet behaved herself.

The intermission is over

Hey everyone, we were away over the weekend in Wyoming, more of which later (probably over the weekend). But, if "olds" are the opposite of "news", then boy, have we got olds for you. Here are some pictures of Bluet taking her first swim in a pool in Charleston Missouri, which must be almost a month old. She had fun, although she spent most of the time thinking about what was going on. In related news, she has now started splashing in the bath.