Rose Garden Photo Shoot in Red and Blue

Attention, all grandparents! And perhaps friends and siblings and any other fans of our little baby. He just participated in his first photo shoot with the talented Liz Frandsen. Go to her website, etfphotography.com, click on the middle square, then "clients" and under password type "allen". (N.B. The spelling is meant to throw off spies, alligators, and babies jealous of how cute Orion is.) You have one month to see them online, so e.y.h.o!

A rare appearance of Cyrano de Pussycat

4.5 month fun picks

Four Months Old!

So I'm a few days late in posting. Whatever. Enjoy the little tomato-child: round, rosy, and sweet-with-a-tang. E' proprio bellissimo, seconda me. Pardon the blurf and random oven mitt.

For Sam

A special picture of Orion sleeping in his infant swing...

Block Island

For our fifth anniversary, Dan and I took Orion to Block Island, which reminded the voyager Giovanni Verrazzano of the island of Rhodes, Greece. (Hence, Rhode Island.) It was indeed lovely, though I'm sure much changed from the 16th century, which long predates the gigantic fin de siecle hotels and youthful gangs of tourists. We enjoyed long hikes before said tourists were out, thanks to traveling with a little alarm clock, which took us to rocky beaches, an historic lighthouse (which had been moved away from the eroding breakers but what I'll remember was a double-diaper-disaster on the part of the bambino, and it isn't every day one breastfeeds on a light-house porch), and over hills and vales crisscrossed with lovely old stone walls. Orion got a new hat (since the one Gma Karen bought is still a bit big...) and generally enjoyed being ported about like an emperor. Dan and I enjoyed the seafood, ice cream, and lazy afternoons reading during little O's naptime. The company was excellent, with very few meltdowns, and Orion has been introduced to ferry travel. Next month he'll take to the air for the first time...so this was a trial run.