Martin needed a new profile photo for his resume and LinkedIn account.
We chose this one, but all of the other ones were cute, too.
Archive for the ‘Family’ Category
Hymie’s Nose
This is Hymie. Hymie is nearly four, which is young for a doll, but he has had a rough life. He spent two years in a bed that was right next to a very large window with direct southern sun. The sun shone through the window on him all day. The fabric on his body and clothing (and the fabric on the bed linens) faded immensely and began to break down. I have never seen such rapid fabric breakdown! The part of Hymie that was under his clothing stayed in good condition, but his clothing went from a deep, rich green to an old, faded green. The nose, always a tender spot, got a small hole made worse by intense rubbing.
At my Akiva’s school, in kindergarten, they have a doll-party day each March. Hymie is really quite shy. He does not want to go, especially in such an embarrassing condition. Akiva said that he would rather borrow a strange doll than bring Hymie! I had promised to re-do Hymie by Akiva’s birthday, but will not have my son borrowing a strange doll for the party. Hymie will have new skin within the week.
The Island in Winter
We walk to the island. The children take turns pulling.
Akiva does not need to drink much water in winter: he eats the snowballs from his fleece mittens. When I notice his once-white chewing gum has become pink, I realize he has side-stepped the food-chain of microplastics consumption assumed in oceanic plastics pollution studies and gone directly to the source. I wonder how many thousands of plastic microfibers he has consumed on this walk. I feel helpless.
At the island, the tire swing, high above the river in summer, hangs low above the snow.
Iris steps on—
—swing!
Akiva, shorter rounder and nearly as heavy, is more timid on the swing.
Iris pushes him gently.
He smiles bravely.
Johnville Bog, Winter
In winter, the boggy back trails of the Johnville Bog & Forest Park freeze over.
The park management opens them up for foot traffic.
Far off the well-beaten track of boardwalks and open bog lands, the boreal forest is full of hops.*
We examine some rabbit poo. They seem to have been eating mostly bark and needles.
Looking around, I have no idea what else rabbits could possibly eat.
*Rabbit tracks
Flurry
Today’s snowflake—
Snowflake
Akiva and I have been having fun playing with geometric wooden pattern blocks together.
He says we need more.
“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could…”
There was an argument. I bricked up the doorway and told them they would need to solve their own problems. Immediately, the problem was solved, but the bricks remained. Now when they argue inside, I say, “I can take down the wall or you can solve the problem yourself.” For now, they like the wall.
I enjoy my key-hole view of a place reserved exclusively for children.
“I forced the last stone into its position; I plastered it up.
Against the new masonry I re-erected the old rampart of bones.
For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!”
— Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amantillado
Mandatory Quarantine
This our third quarantine since the US-Canada border closed nearly a year ago.
Bunny in the house
When it is cold and lonely out, Tucker comes inside the house for snuggles.
When he gets too hot in his winter coat, he hops back outside.
Girls & Boys
Mom (a.k.a. Gramma) found some hair rollers in among her things. They’re probably from the 1950s or 60s. I remember she used them once in the 1980s. I don’t believe that she has used them since, so I suggested that she did not need to keep them anymore if she wanted to increase the quantity of space in her house. To prove me wrong, she put rollers in her hair and in Iris’s hair.
Here they laze on the bed
reading glossy magazines about one of my mother’s many, many hobbies: construction and renovation.
My mother is snacking on matzoh. Bert famously told Ernie not to eat cookies in bed. He told Ernie not to eat cookies in bed because then he would get crumbs in the sheets and then the crumbs would get in his pyjamas and then he would itch and then he wouldn’t be able to sleep. To circumvent this issue, Ernie went to Bert’s bed to eat his cookies. Earnie was quite creative! My mother is also creative. To avoid crumbs in her bed, she puts plenty of butter on her matzoh.
I take over 100 photos before Mom tells me that I likely have enough.
I don’t agree with her.
I think I should take more.
Isn’t that silly?
Eventually, they go to the vintage 1950s time-capsule bathroom
to take the vintage 1960s rollers out of their hair. Mom looks dashing with her curlers out!
She isn’t smiling at herself in the mirror—
She is smiling at Iris’s smile.
The rollers went back in the drawer, but Mom’s not going to use those rollers again.Some day when Iris is tall and lovely, we’ll be going through her grandmother’s stuff deciding where to donate it all. We’ll find the rollers. I’ll remind her of the last time her grandmother used them. She’ll remember, of course, because she’s seen some photos, but what she won’t know is that, unlike most photoshoots where I’m able to get rid of up to 90% of the photos, I had a really hard time getting rid of any of these photos.
♦ ♦ ♦
Akiva, meanwhile, is in his uncle Dan’s room.
His absolute favorite thing to do while visiting, when he isn’t zipping slot-cars around a track,
is to go through Dan’s old Matchbox cars.
Now and again Akiva checks to make sure that Dan adds enough cars to his drawings
or to see if he is looking up photos of old-fashioned cars on the computer.
Now and again Dan checks to make sure
that there is still a little boy happily playing with cars in his room.
