Hot Stuff

What a week! Four straight days of Hot Hot Heat and a fussy baby who wanted to cling to mama for comfort from the muggy weather. We were stuck together with sweat. The good thing is that Hazel slept through the night, every night! In the daytime, she was either sleeping on me or screaming and awake. We went to the beach at night around 7pm-ish to cool off, eat sandwiches, put our feet in the water and feel some breeze. Hazel loved it. She would close her eyes, turn her face to the breeze and giggle. Finally my happy baby was back! So we watch the sunset (you heard me, punk...we watched the sunset over the Atlantic because Crane is a north facing beach), drink a bottle of wine and lay there exhausted from the heat of the day. We are so lucky that we have the beach to go to. We head home after the sunset, around 8:15, rinse the sand off the baby and she would fall right to sleep until 6:30am.

On Monday we went to the Peabody Essex Museum to get ourselves into some non-mall air conditioning and Hazel had a blast. At the Wedded Bliss exhibit, she got so excited by the Picasso, Jacqueline Dressed as a Bride, 1961 that she kicked her legs and said, "OOOOO! OOOOO!" She also loved the other special exhibit, "Body Politics: The Art of Maori Tattoo". The large format photographs of the beautiful tattooed faces hypnotized her. She was such a good baby, and so well behaved. She napped in her sling as I walked around the gift shop and was totally absorbed in the art when she was awake.


On Tuesday, we went to our Neurotic Mothers Group again. Hazel is now one of the oldest babies there, and it's time for us to move on to the Thursday afternoon group for older babies but we have become so comfortable in the Tuesday group now and have finally met some very cool like-minded mamas. Our friend Laurie is back at work, so she no longer goes to the group, but we have stayed in touch and will continue to see each other. This past week we met a new mama, Tina and her daughter Lola. She has a trash-mouth almost as bad as mine and shared a margarita with me at lunch, judgemental mamas be damned!

At home, it has been our short yet explosive Peony Season. We are simply drowning in them! Someone who lived in the house loved Peonies as much as I do and they planted several varieties in every corner. I pick them as they bloom and bring them in because they are so short-lived outside and I love the way they fill the house with scent. As soon as I pick one bunch, another plant blows-up. I found myself running out of vases. Here is a sample of the first batch I brought in. I'll spare you the pictures of the three other vases of flowers that I picked last night and this morning.

One of the many varieties.

Yes, I have lots of ants in my house now. It's worth it.

The first bunch. About fifteen blooms.

The second bunch. Another twelve blooms.

And a couple of strays for my windowsill.

So, Hazel is now four months old! She is an amazing baby and gets funnier and prettier every passing day. I want to squeeze her so hard and bite each little toe and just INHALE her! It's pretty lucky that out of all the babies in the world, I got the best one. Here is some cuteness:

Look at my button fly jeans!

The last time she will fit in these. I had to unbutton the top button after she ate.

Lick, lick, sit.

Sit, sit, lick.

Viva la revolution!

And the hand just falls...

What's that out in the lawn? (Call DSS.)

Oh, it's you!

I can never get her to smile at the camera.

Awww. I hope peonies aren't poison.

Everyone loves peony season.