face dancing to radiohead

someone is channeling Thom Yorke.

(this was longer, however our camera is old and persnickety and sometimes decides not to do what you have asked of it... the face dancing did go on for a few more minutes. it was funny.)

Uncle Max, this one's for you.

happiness is

an ice cream goatee.

(would you look at that! Dad's gotten a sneaky bite of the ice cream cone, too!)

psych

dad, do you want some of my ice cream?

too slow, joe!

oral concentration

lilah's not seeing me, even though i'm in her face.

i love that she's such a foodie.

(one of the traits taken from my side of the family)

a blue, blue sky

but what is really most important here is ice cream

if it's sunny, we can get an ice cream at the botanics

i love you, ice cream.

the next 20 minutes were blissful

mmm. a 99 without the sauce.

perfect.

waiting for a lift

sometimes it's fun to walk upstairs to get the lift to go back downstairs

and again

going down the stairs

music: El Zocalo by Beiruit

photomontage: Mum

model: Lilah

we're onto a winner here, folks.

just hanging around

which is more frightening

the taxidermy elks forever poised in battle?

or

lilah sliced and diced in half by the vicious table?

don't you wish you had a museum like the Kelvingrove down the street from your house when you were growing up?

Thing Finding

tree stumps are the best places to do Thing Finding

we've found Jewels and Treasure!

if anyone is up for some good old-fashioned Thing Finding with Lilah a la Pippi Longstocking, do give us a call.

Lilah is so tall...

she can reach the light-switch in the living room now.

oh dear.

what happened on Red Nose Day

for those in the States who may not know about Red Nose Day:

Red Nose Day is a UK-wide fundraising event organised by Comic Relief every two years. On Red Nose Day everyone is encouraged to cast inhibitions aside, put on a Red Nose and Do Something Funny for Money – celebrities included!

It culminates in a night of cutting edge comedy and moving documentary films on BBC One. Red Nose Day unites the entire nation in trying to make a difference to the lives of thousands of people across Africa and the UK who are facing terrible injustice or living in desperate poverty

taken from www.rednoseday.com

So Lilah and her nursery all dressed in pajamas and ate pancakes and raised money for Red Nose Day being goofballs.

and: depeche mode

i have to dance, lilah said.

and she did.

mornings are so much fun with lilah and BBC Radio 6

(i especially like the unintentional sentiment added to "all i ever wanted... is here, in my arms" when lilah grabs her Cozy Blankies and snuggle-dances her way back towards the camera)

getting ready for bed (with dad)

cheeky belly

see, she will eat you

this one is pretty loving

"i'm done with the photographs" - brigitte bardot's hair heir

getting ready for bed

Lilah does her best Chenners

nice ears...

she's big and she'll tear you to shreds but she's mine and i love her

are you ready for some jokes?

comedians?

get outta here!

and if i only could, i'd be running (down) that hill

like daughter, like father.

le piece de resistance

lovely lilah of loch lomond

for julie and steven

this was our day.

and it was a nice day.

even though you never saw grey as grey as this.

distance? perspective?

haHAH.

we laugh at your peculiar suggestions.

in scotland, the landscape is a painting.

in the play park by the loch

swinging

they have one of these at Nonnie's park!

this tree was struck by lightning

it would happen in Balloch

this tree is so stubborn

that's a massive balancing act it's doing everyday.

plus, how big would that tree actually BE if it hadn't been struck by lightning?!

crazy snake-arm branches...

and she's off

in the time it took to take that shot, Lilah took off down the hill.

that's the trouble with hills, they make you run down them,

you have no choice in the matter.

you must RUN!

gotcha

that's a teenage Steven right there...

he and that tree go way back.

Balloch Castle and The Nest

Balloch Castle had seen better days, and it was more of a Stately Home than a point of defense against enemies (note the windows at ground level).

Just down from the Castle is this tree, which, when Steven was younger and growing up rogue in Balloch, he and his mates dubbed The Nest.

Guess why.

From what I understand, many a day was spent up in the nest... away from school.

on arrival

at first, lilah was tired (from swimming), and not that excited.

but the grounds were beautiful and spacious...

spontaneous trip to Balloch Castle

(the first time Lilah and I have been to Balloch Castle)

someone mentioned something about running down hills when you were a kid,

those times when you'd run so fast that your legs felt like they were getting away from you

and Steven said, I know exactly what that feels like! We used to do that at Balloch Park! Let's go to Balloch and run down the hill!

and so, because Steven so rarely gets that excited about anything, about an hour later we found ourselves in Balloch, running down the hill towards Loch Lomond.

(the picture only really shows the top 1/3 of the hill)

fun with photo booth

i opened the application and took a few colour shots

lilah took over when we moved to black and white

there are so, so many more.

going out?

red coat? check.

red bag? check.

boots with red flashy lights? check.

bunny ears?

but of course.

If Lilah were older she'd be protesting

Let me make it perfectly clear that I am not trying to politicize my daughter. Lilah's beliefs are her own, and I will always support her.

Knowing Lilah as I do, however, I have to say that if she were a wee bit older, she'd be demanding to say something to crazy Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. Because according to the Guardian, both of these women are doing their best to rip Michelle Obama's Breastfeeding Initiative to shreds.

And why?

Both Palin and Bachmann are mothers. Both women breast-fed each of their babies (which comes to a grand total of 10 children on this planet that have been nurtured and sustained from these two immature, aggressive bullies... but I digress...) and at least Palin has done her bit to promote breast-feeding (as governor of Alaska she introduced a breast-feeding awareness month).

And yet, they both have publicly made fun of Michelle Obama for trying to make it easier for women to breast-feed their child if they want to.

Somehow, according to Bachmann, it comes down to the fact "that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies. You wanna talk about the new nanny state? I think we just got the new definition of nanny."

Which doesn't make sense AT ALL.

What DOES make sense is that Harvard Medical School has recently done a study that shows that "if the rate of breast-feeding in US families could be raised to 90% for the first 6 months after birth, 900 infant deaths per year would be prevented and $13 billion saved in medical fees and other economic impacts."

That's right. A breast-fed child is less likely to become obese. A breastfed child is also given protection against allergies, asthma, and other ailments. The funny thing is, Palin and Bachmann KNOW this ... and the reason they're rounding up the troops is because, well,

Michelle Obama is a Democrat.

So no matter what Obama says, even if crazy P and B agree, they will vehemently disagree in public because whatever comes out of her mouth is wrong!

This is upsetting. On such a major level.

Let it be said that every mother should have the right to decide for herself whether she will breast-feed her child(ren). If she does breast-feed, she should not feel pressured into doing it, nor should she feel pressured into stopping. Breast-feeding is a personal decision, one that is not easy.

Thank you Michelle Obama, for acknowledging the difficulties that many new mothers face when returning to the workplace while still breast-feeding a child, and trying to make it easier to do both.

Shame on you Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann for reverting to adolescent tactics in order to have your irrelevant (and contradictory) voices heard because no one was paying attention to you for a few minutes.

It's time to grow up.

Fight for your right for teta, people.

I know Lilah does.

Lilah Lyrics

Are you marching through the forest?

No you're not cause you're just dead!

If birds peck on Totoro's belly then

It

Gets

Small.