from blossom to blossom

All the pictures I took yesterday never were actually taken. Little Lucy van Pelt has pulled the football away and I’ve landed flat on my back, visions of the lovely picture I took of Cathy and Julie looking absolutely fabulous in aprons, now lost to the ethers. Argh!

Cathy and I, along with our co-hosts, The Huston Family Singers, threw a little ho-down for the likes of Emily and Jason and the impending Green Bean. We had about 35 to 40 or so people over, 5 of which were 4 years of age and under, the youngest two being the irreparable Taylor, hovering at a little less then a year and Sadie, weighing in at just three months alive and kicking.

There was punch with floating strawberries served (of course!) out of a punch bowl that also morphed, with just a flip ‘o the lid, into a splendid cake holder. There was the painting of Onesies (photo’s forthcoming) outdoors and under the fully cooperative (and cloudless) participation of the mellowest of late-August suns, Baby Bingo played with great fervor in the sauna-like hothouse of shower gift unwrapping (Onesies are the Nerf Football of Baby Showers), and frequent and oftentimes rather feverish munching at the edges of numerous snack food stations.

I had a couple conversations, however lopsided, with both the aforementioned Taylor and Sadie. With Taylor, she was sitting on the floor wondering just how she should react to the fact that Dad was walking a few feet away to grab something or other. She let out a little squeak of dissatisfaction, and her right arm rose up in contemptuous exclamation. I quickly cooed some greetings her way, making eye contact while I joined her on the floor. She was wary at first, thinking, “Whoa, what do we have here? This guy is nuts! Look at him crawling towards me and making those dopey faces,” at which point she made a decision and thought, “well, he’s positively, hilariously loony-tunes genius!” and broke out into a big old grin accompanied, most endearingly, by several unabashed wiggles of delight.

Sadie was reclining on her pop’s chest, her legs lazily dangling over his arms. People were leaving so I leaned into her gaze and made sure she was aware of just how pleased Cathy and I were to have had the pleasure of her company on this fine August afternoon. Her response was to simply stare, eyes glistening with hypnotic intensity and her mouth forming an O that seemed to signal to me she had reached the very cusp of wonder and was about to spill over into making sense of it all. First, of course, there’d be drooling and that would be fine.

It’s all a part of the ever growing baby parade we increasingly seem to be in the good and thick of. It’s good to spend this kind of quality time with the under 4 set.