We are well.

Friends, you are so kind. And I don't want you to think we aren't doing ok. We have had a SPLENDID summer. We have THRILLING PLANS for fall. And we have excellent friends. Last night, Joel was on call out of town, so Josie invited us out for a park BBQ with her husband and kids, her parents, her friend Jen who is also my second cousin, Jen's husband and kids. It was a CROWD. 

And Josie's mom held my baby while I fed my toddler a hot dog, and everyone romped in the park. And as we're leaving, right at the moment that I'm packing the stroller into the car and thinking, This is the point at which it is useful to have two sets of hands, Josie is there saying, Hey Eleanor, let's get you into the car.

Also, Geneva has gone from being a liability that I'm just trying to make sleep all the time to an ACTUAL HUMAN PERSON who laughs at basically everything (but mostly Eleanor) and whose likes include STANDING and LOOKING AROUND AT STUFF and REALLY INEXPERTLY GRABBING AT THINGS. She puts herself to sleep under her own power, and after I've tumbled both my children into bed in the evening and am sitting down with some ice cream, listening to them both murmel themselves to sleep, I feel like a parenting badass.

Also, I gave Geneva a pear slice to suck on, and I kept trying to take it away and she kept being like, NO, GIVE IT ME. She's not that far from eating Proper Real Foods, which will decrease the number of times per day I have to suckle her. Eat that pear, Geneva Wren. Eat it good.