More pics from Michigan

Jojo on the Dunes



Ethan on the Dunes



Jojo and Jan

Weekend at Michigan Cottage

Kids playing outside


Jojo and Anna


Ethan inside


Kids playing inside


View from our cottage window in Michigan. (Well, not our cottage, but our host's)

Ethan Playing cowboy

Atlanta

the boot's a fit!

With three "fancy" older sisters it's no surprise that Ethan loves shoes. Girls' shoes. I apologize if the conceptual tools at my disposal can't avoid stereotyping. As it turns out, this recounting is an exercise in counterstereotyping. At any rate, Ethan really loves flashy high heelers, sandals pierced with bright fake diamonds, smooth long-legged immitation-leather boots. His first morning thoughts raise pleasant burnt offerings to the gods of fashion. Especially to those delegated the area below the knee. This morning he is sitting on the cold floor in his pajamas, trying to introduce Ali's left black leather boot onto his right foot. He fails again, and again. Again and again the room resounds with heart wrenching "Ohhh!!" I see him pick up the boot, wraps both hands around its vamp (see attached). Piping faces down, Ethan stares down the fatigued outsole, and begins to shake the rascal vigurously. Think, sinners in the hands of an angry god. Tired he stops. He stares accusingly. The speaks. His voice is deep, a perfect blend of dejection and imperiousness: "You naughty boy, you!!". The boot's impervious to correction. The rebuke is my cue to intervene. I fix that problem. A fit's a fit! But it's Lent, so I confess I'm a pendullum oscillating between being the boot and being Ethan.