From Josh and Erica's visit (two weeks later)

Josh gave Chava a ride to the train.














We played in the fountain,














Rode the carousel,














and then, suddenly, Josh and Erica were engaged. Somerville magic? That's what we're chalking it up to.














Also, Chava sprouted enormous boobs, but I really don't know what to attribute that one to.

Lax parenting

We often let our kids do things I think are questionable.

Like letting Chava climb inside the asteroid rock at the Museum of Science.



















Or letting the both of them frolic in a fountain in Amherst.



















































Sometimes I wonder if other parents are looking at us like we are overly indulgent and our kids are bad influences. But then I decide I really don't care what they think.

another day dawns

Last night, when I went to bed, I couldn't find my mouth guard (I wear it to keep from grinding my teeth at night). The cleaning people had been in so I figured they had put it "away" somewhere, but then I started to get worried that it accidentally got swept in to the trash... so I lay awake worrying about it (those things are expensive!). When the kids came down to wake me up this morning, I said, "Hey, has anyone seen my mouth guard?" Chava ran right over to my closet and got it out. Tomorrow I'm asking if they've seen fifty bucks and a ham sandwich.

Looking at these...

You'd almost think we had a perfectly pleasant, sunny vacation.



































































But then you would watch this, and know that we went slightly insane on the 7th day of rain.