More Edinburgh Adventures

We all four hiked up Arthur's Seat, a small mountain right within Edinburgh. I began by carrying Orion in the pack but quickly became out of breath (as I often do these days) and he wanted to get down anyway. So he hiked all the way up, on the rock stairs, admiring and stepping in small puddles, feeling the temperature of the rocks, and only had to be carried the last 50 steps or so at the top. He kept saying "up, upa mountain!" and "Seeping Gint!" because we had hiked our local Sleeping Giant mountain here in CT a few weeks previous. He finally got to saying "Artha's Eat." After some fortifying crackers we headed back down the other, grassy side, followed a respectful distance by a crow.


He really remembers seeing the boats in the harbor from the top.

A different day Teru took us to the Royal Botanical Gardens and an amazing mind-boggling sausage shop. A few pictures of the former. Orion loved to escape from the path and wander through the plants...
Rhododendrons were especially welcoming as hiding places. They had 700 species of Rhododendron, of the thousand; many were in bloom for us.

Other climates and conservatories



And finally, Orion's own pictures of S and T's flat.

Edinburgh with Orion

Orion and I traveled together to visit friends in Edinburgh, Scotland, a beautiful town with lots of grey stone. Orion was most enthusiastic about seeing castles; we officially saw two, but he also called ordinary apartment buildings castles. Below, some pictures of our visit to Craigmillar Castle, and Orion's first ride on a double-decker ("bubadeta") bus.

Orion sayings and creative outlet

Crashing a party at a Master's house at Yale, and providing some entertainment...
One of his favorite tricks: "A-pane! A-pane!" Airplane, flying on the floor.
Orion's vocabulary and sentence-forming have exploded in the last two weeks. I went to get him up from his nap yesterday, and he fully said, "Mama, please can I get up now?" Which is cute and unusual both because it was a full polite sentence and the fact that we've converted his crib to a toddler bed, so he can get up whenever he likes. No one has enlightened him of this fact, and that is fine with me. We also made fresh lemonade for the first time this week, and he calls it "mamanade", which is appropriate, since I did the bulk of the lemon squeezing. It was worth it, though; a perfect taste of summer. Orion has also been singing more songs, such as O my darling Clementine (chorus), Doggydog Dover, Rainbow Connection/Somewhere Over the Rainbow (his favorite requests for bedtime songs: "ainbow shjong? Oder ainbow schong?" I have to sing them both).


He also loves taking pictures with the camera. Here are a few of the many examples, which I have titled.
"Afternoon Light, Ghost-Bride Curtain"


"Waiting for Dinner"

"Untitled: Chandelier"

"Red Clock"

"Daddy Prepares Dinner"

"Mama"


"Study in Yellow, Blue, White: Tipsy Yellow Galosh"

Spring photos

Hi, Dan here. I'm adding a number of photos of Orion from this spring. Here are a couple of him going down a favorite slide, near the Whitehall apartments in New Haven. Ain't he handsome?

Here is one of Orion posing with Eva's flowers in our back yard.



He really loved a butterfly garden that we visited in central Massachusetts.

"BubbaFyes! BubbaFyes!" Here he is with Mama among the butterflies. There were lizards and birds and tortoises too!


He is a child of the 21st century, already learning how to work an iPhone.
A favorite phrase right now is a very clear "That's so amazing!"

And nothing is more fun than spraying water on a hot day. Here he is being useful, watering some new grass seed.

And a ride on Daddy's shoulders, following a windy picnic at the beach.