A few photos from the last two months:

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It's not summer with a pool-jumping photo!

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Lots of apples this year.

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J and her buddy on a very hot morning in Centennial Park. We quickly changed plans and escaped to the a/c of local coffee shop.

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We found some raw goat milk purveyors this summer and have been enjoying some amazing chai tea with it. And my tomatoes. A semi-English breakfast. Yum.

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Little lady learned to crawl with the help of a few strategically placed Cheerios. This woman in a coffee shop in NYC gave us the great tip of motivating babies to get a move-on with food. It worked.

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Backgammon, a favorite game of ours.

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Lots of mess-making, that one.

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Our first Airbnb guests! A couple (yup!) from NYC traveled through Nashville and stayed for a day. They were fun to meet and we look forward to more guests coming. We have a fitness trainer from Seattle coming next week. Should be fun.

It's been a good summer!

Abbey and I heard this on KEXP and dug it. It fades into another song about 2/3rds of the way in.

Her teeth have been bothering her again lately, so she's got her hand in her mouth nearly all of the time.

She's got a three-legged crawl that can't really be explained, it just has to be seen.

J wants to stand up now all the time. She will lock her legs up in resistance if you even try to get her to sit down. So most of my time with her involves holding her hands as she walks wherever she pleases and head-knocks management. Or finger-squishing management. Example:

The towels keep her from jamming her fingers in the draw when she inevitably closes it. That's one of her favorite activities too, the opening and closing of draws. Who cares about toys! There are things to open and close, people!
I've been working on the garden a little bit each day. The tomato plants, all 38 of them, are taller than me! We got our first two ripe ones yesterday. Or I got them, rather, since I'm the only one in this household that finds them utterly delectable. J will join my team soon, I hope.

Not the grass!
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B had his 27th birthday this week. I have wanted to make him a layer chocolate cake for a long time and finally went for it. As I was putting the candles in, he realized this was the first time he's ever had a birthday cake with candles. (!!) Long story there, I guess, but now I am convinced I want this to be a family tradition. We don't make many cakes around here and certainly not ones without a little whole wheat or some other supposedly healthier substitution. So it's nice to go all out for a special occasion. And I love a wonky, besprinkled homemade cake. Don't you?

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The trip to NYC was good for me in a couple of ways. First, it was a break from sitting in front of a computer. More importantly, it was a chance to remind myself of why I don't want to live there. For a while I was starting to become nostalgic. Nashville is great, but it simply doesn't have the professional opportunities that NYC did. However, Nashville is green. Sure, NYC has Central Park, but for someone that grew up surrounded by trees and hills, that simply doesn't cut it.

Last night I stood out on the back porch with J for a moment. Instead of the sounds of squeaking bus breaks, loud diesel engines, and distant sirens, I heard the pleasing sound of the whip-poor-will. Instead of the metallic smell of the city with touches of human and animal excrement, I smelled the green freshness of trees and flowers. Instead of seeing the glow of the city, I saw the wind passing through the trees, the stars beginning to shine, and clouds reflected in moonlight.