At the ICA

Above: Zach, Sarah, Gretchen and Jeni in the entrance of Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). Jeni is drawing - extremely detailed story board cartoons of Monster High plot lines; the rest of us were just goofing around, basking in the February sun. Zach might have been eating a mint chew from one of the exhibits - a large floor space covered in the candies, where after much time reminding the kids not to touch, the guard suggested we take one to eat, go figure.

The hour spent watching a dream-like multi-angle video project about China likely reprogrammed my son's brain, yes. And he loved a 5-minute video of black oil dissolving a block of white sugar cubes so much we had to watch it twice. He also just couldn't get enough of the huge glass elevator with exposed springs and counterweights. But nothing beat running up and down the stairs out back.

Sarah and Gretchen, taking self-portraits while the kids ran laps on the stairs:

 

And Jeni, upstairs.  

 

Alisha vs. the fuzzy blanket

In the end, the blanket wins.

Zach's Monster Party

 

Zach turned 4. I'm finishing my maternity leave on Tuesday with a bit more time on my hands than usual. Josh wanted to make a dirt cake.

Estee (my mother-in-law) came to help, so we might have gotten a bit carried away with the monster thing.  

The catering staff, at work:

(Estee actually did most of the manual labor seen in the above pics.)

Smile, Alisha

Have I mentioned that Zachary loves his sister? Yes, he is sometimes annoyed by his parents' inability to attend to him as previously, or oblivious to the possibility that I can't hear him due to her screaming, and even has observed that she doesn't "do" very much. However, when she's awake and he's allowed to touch her, it is pure - if sometimes overzealous - love. 

That being said, these pictures employ 2 tips shared by Sharona (of Sharona Jacobs Photography):

1) Manage the weird/harsh midday lighting of my living room with reflectors made from whatever  light-colored household objects are close at hand. She had used the bottom of a playmat; I opted for a fuzzy blanket. 

2) Bribery. Zach hates to sit still or otherwise interact nicely in general when the camera is out, however, I offered to let him wash Alisha's hair if he would cooperate for a few minutes. It worked!

And, just in case you couldn't tell from the first 2 images, the sweater is on backwards (but he did it himself, dammit), and the hair was spiked (we were, um, experimenting earlier), and when we left the house, he opted for green rain boots (sneakers apparently require too much effort when the parents make you put your own shoes on).

Washington Navy Yard

A couple weeks ago, at the Washington Navy Yard.

Sarah:

Zach:

 

Group shot (we got some help taking this one):

 

And this - we were at the Navy Yard for my father-in-law, Andy's retirement party - 40 years as ship designer with the navy. This was intended to be a photo of his standing ovation after a number of speeches and awards in his honor. However, what I actually captured turned out to be a picture of Sarah eating orange sherbet: