Birds and Babies

Nib has recently become ridiculously smiley and talkative. Its sooo fun! I forget how completely enchanting this stage is. I get really enthralled with making him grin and coo and find it hard to keep my mind on much or work very hard on anything useful. (not that I was particularly driven before...heh) He's right on the verge of those heartbreaking, deep belly laughs and the anticipation is killing me. Every time his wee eyes crinkle into a a face splitting grin and he gurgles I wonder if this will be it. Maddening, addictive sweetness.

The roadside wildflowers are giving way to Queen Anne's Lace....last of the scattered weed blossoms and today as a result I caught a most breathtaking sight. There was an enormous flock of male goldfinches feasting on seeding chickory. I've never seen so many spontaneously gathered, brightly colored birds all in one spot before, there must have been 30 of them or so. So pretty! I wish I had a better shot but I'm afraid I scared them all off before I got any really lovely shots. See if you can squint and pick out the five finches in the photo.

And at last I have a water baby! I swear Nib is a baby of legend.  He smiles and coos, puts himself to sleep, wakes once or twice a night, only really fusses when he needs changing, food or a rest and is inordinately happy to be passed around to any obliging friend who wants to hold him for a spell....and he loves his bath! This little snap is a glimpse of him in his first real immersion bath in the big tub. I've only sponge bathed him before this. He loved the water and just placidly kicked and "floated" (with my hands underneath of course) and bath time ended up taking much more time than I allowed as it was so very fun to let him wiggle and splash and watch him grinning in the drink. What a change from Dee's painfully tearful baths which just finally became less wrought with blood curdling screams this year! *sigh*

Beauty In Small Places

So many lovely moments today somehow.

Nib is smiling away all the time now and just tip-toe edges from those wonderful first giggles...he's just teetering on the edges over and over. Big open mouthed grins where his eyes twinkle madly and he makes the very smallest of "ha ha ha" noises. I am quite preoccupied with catching his eye and trying to push him over the edge. Makes it a little hard to focus on the laundry or the receptionist I'm on the phone with.*sigh*

Other lovelinesses:

• Was blazing hot today but in the middle of the scorching 94 degree (35C for those in Europe) heat we had a sudden torrential rainstorm. There was a beautiful moment when we were sitting in traffic alongside road construction and the rain came slanting in sideways and bouncing like miniature ping pong balls off the hood of the car and all the sweltering construction workers stopped their work and just stood there in their hard hats and day glo orange vests and grinned up at the sky and got very gleefully soaking wet. Then the rain swept on somewhere else and the temp was suddenly 83 degrees (28C) and the blacktop was billowing rolls of round, swirling steam into the air. Beautiful.
• The cornflowers are all frothing along the side of the road and they are set off stunningly by the creeping bird's food trefoil that's glowing brightly up from the ground. What an amazing color combination! Wish I stopped and taken pictures. Maybe tomorrow.
• The woman at the UPS factory where I stopped to pick up a missed package had terrible, terrible teeth and frankly, there a bit of an ick factor initially  (I am that shallow folks) but, then she started talking to me and she was so incredibly nice.We ended up standing there talking about where we were from and how a home shapes you and how many children we were both meant to have etc. etc. And I left waving fondly over my shoulder and glowing all the way back to my car. Truly, I almost asked her for her name and number. People are so lovely sometimes.
• This morning at breakfast I made blueberry pancakes with the blueberries we picked over the weekend with friends and when I uncovered them in their basket this morning, and filled my hands to pour them in the batter, I was just struck by the beauty of that very fine, misty film that lies all silvery across the navy base color on each berry. Somehow they look purple and silver and grey and blue all at once...like they were all dipped in a fog first before picking. I love a good dose of beauty before breakfast.
• I took the car to have a handwax job at the local discount car wash this morning. And wow. The most incredibly friendly gents whisked through the whole job in a half and hour and when I opened the door and slid back into my seat I found that they'd not only waxed the outside, they'd also vacuumed the inside (better than I ever seem to be able to), washed off the dash and all the little plastic crevices like the cup-holders etc.) and also washed the windows, inside and out.....for 60 dollars. I could have kissed the forehead of the sweaty, grinning Hispanic man who told me go "Have a good day now!"

And since I don't have pictures of any of those things....I'll share photos of our berry picking outing instead.