Port Townsend Dancerina

Immy (2 years, 3 months now) dances in a dress I found at the Port Townsend Goodwill.

Today

Day Trip

Port Townsend
Today

Play with Style

For the last few days, Imogen has wanted a "dancerina" (dancerina definition #2: dancing dress) on over her clothes. It's fun to watch her play with style.

Saturday

What I'm Reading

The author of This House of Sky provides a magnificent evocation of the Pacific Northwest through the diaries of James Gilchrist Swan, a settler of the region. Doig fuses parts of the Swan diaries with his own journal. -Back Cover

Weeeeeeeeee!

Sunday

Hat & Boots

Sunday

In The Keep of This Rainy Morning

Rain

By Raymond Carver

Woke up this morning with

a terrific urge to lie in bed all day

and read. Fought against it for a minute.

Then looked out the window at the rain.

And gave over. Put myself entirely

in the keep of this rainy morning.

Would I live my life over again?

Make the same unforgivable mistakes?

Yes, given half a chance. Yes.

Rain Catchment

The Miracles of Birth

It's not just the making of babies,
but the making of mothers
that midwives see as the miracle of birth.

Barbara Katz Rothman, Sociologist,

Author of The Tentative Pregnancy and other books

Berry Picking

Immy picking blueberries, Friday
Graysmarsh Farm, Sequim

Pink Pony

After her pony ride on Sunday, Immy came home and did some art. She made several deliberate, small strokes with her oil crayon and then handed me her paper and said "I draw a horse."

Roger a Nice Man

In 1977, my sister and I rode on the carousel at the Clallam County Fair with our friend Roger. I was six and Kelly was five. In 2003, my niece Elizabeth--at three--continued the tradition of riding with Roger, and this year Imogen joined in the fun by having him accompany her on a real pony ride at the fair. On the way home from the fair, Immy told me "Roger a nice man Mama." I said "He sure is."

BabyLegs Giveaway

From the BabyLegs website, click on "Community" in the top menu to upload and enter your photo(s).

In celebration of BabyLegs becoming a dot com, we are running a (Polka) dot com giveaway. All photos submitted in the month of August have a chance to win a free pair of Polka Dot BabyLegs. We will select 50 photos at random. You will be contacted via email if your photo is selected. -www.babylegs.com

Friday at the Fair

The Cat's Pajamas

Today

The Olympic Spark

Imogen has been so inspired by the Olympics. Simon and I were audience to an incredible gymnastic floor routine the other night. The balance beam routines impressed Immy too. She looked at the TV, gasped "oh!" and ran for her step stool.

A Child of the Pacific Northwest

The inspiration for Imogen's name came when we heard of the photographer Imogen Cunningham during my pregnancy. Simon and I knew instantly that if the baby was a girl, Imogen would almost certainly be her name.

I checked out Imogen Cunningham's photography collections from the library and studied her story online, so I knew she had lived in Seattle, but I was shocked to discover today that she also once lived in Port Angeles:

[She was born in Portland in 1883.] As a child, she and her family lived at the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony, a short-lived Utopian community in Port Angeles. In 1889, the family moved to...Seattle. -HistoryLink.org

'Brella

Saturday

Beau'iful Dancerina

This $.99 Ralph Lauren "dancerina" skirt* came complete with here-to-fore unknown ballet moves!

Saturday

*Prairie skirts were introduced to fashion by Ralph Lauren in his fall 1978 Western-themed collection. -Wikipedia

Two Girls Bathing

We Help Mommy

Eight-and-three-quarters year old cousin YaYa gets Imogen into and out of the car and car seat. She is an amazing help!

Friday

Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child

HEAR John Gottman's lecture Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child, recorded at Town Hall in Seattle on March 5, 2008, in RealAudio, MP3, Pod or RSS (about 1 hour).

Classy and Fabulous

A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.

Coco Chanel

Cool Summer Nights

The Best Time Of The Day

Cool summer nights.

Windows open.

Lamps burning.

Fruit in the bowl.

And your head on my shoulder.

These the happiest moments in the day.

Next to the early morning hours,

of course. And the time

just before lunch.

And the afternoon, and

early evening hours.

But I do love

these summer nights.

Even more, I think,

than those other times.

The work finished for the day.

And no one who can reach us now.

Or ever.

Raymond Carver

Weekend America

Bill Radke is out as the co-host of NPR's Weekend America, replaced by his protégé John Moe.

Ouch! That smarts!

On his blog, John Moe wrote that Bill Radke recommended him not only to Weekend America, where he was first a fill-in for Bill and then a regular co-host, but also earlier to Seattle's KUOW station where Bill hosted the popular syndicated show Rewind.

For me it was great to have John Moe fill the void Bill Radke left in Seattle when he went to Los Angeles. I do remember being struck at first by how much John sounded like Bill--maybe too much for NPR to justify paying them both.

Sunny Farms

Sunny Farms Country Store, Sequim
Sunday

Water Works

Sunday

Barnstorm

In 1975, when I was five, my family of origin became part of the back-to-the-land movement, moving to rural Sappho, Washington from Seattle. For the first year, while we built, my parents rented the only other house on the road we were building on. The house had a big barn with a hay loft and stables. It was a fun place to play and explore for me and Kelly. There was a rope swing from the loft and a barn owl that lived in the rafters.

Years later, another local family--the Colemans--bought the house and property. Sean Coleman was a classmate of my sister's. He's also the daddy of Immy's preschool classmate Cash. When I posted the pictures below of me and Simon at 5, I was reminded that the photo of me was taken by my dad in the "Pirnkie House," as we called it after the original owners. I e-mailed it to Sean's wife with a note that we had lived in the same house. I was delighted to get an e-mail back from Sean with a picture of the barn attached. Sadly, the barn is now completely gone. Sean wrote that a storm blew the roof off and his parents put a metal roof on to try and save it. The picture was taken after the Colemans sold the property.

Maybe it was my early love for this barn that inspired our barn wedding 20 years later.

May Belle

Imogen's middle name is May in celebration of her birth month. I thought May would be in the top 1000 (or even 100 names) in America, but when I used The Baby Name Wizard I found out the girl's name May peaked in popularity in the 1880s at #61 and dropped sharply after that until it fell off in the 1960s (ranked less than 1000th in popularity). Maybe it's more common as a middle name in our country.

Like to know what other parents in Washington are naming their babies?

• 2006 Girls
• 2006 Boys

Fon Mama, Fon

To Imogen, many words begin with the letter "f." For example, "c'mon" to Imogen is pronounced "fon," as in "fon Mama, fon" when she wants me to follow her somewhere. If Immy hears a baby crying, she will say "baby fryin' Mama?" Then there's "Flifford" (the Big Red Dog) and Mama's "foffee" that I drink every morning.

Parents are People

Amy & Simon, each about 5 years

The Countess

Immy can count to 20.

Family Fun Day

City of Port Angeles Family Fun Day
Erickson Park
Saturday

Ims

Whole-grain Goodness

Bulghur: more fun to play with than to eat!
Wednesday