A boy and his dog

Baby trashes bar in Las Palmas

This makes me laugh so hard.

My valentine to myself

A shot, or two or three, of limoncello with heart-shaped ice cubes.

My bear cubs

Heather gave me her polar bear costume for our birthday, the third furry costume she's given me. I can also be a giant chicken for Halloween (picture of Heather in it below) and I have my own Easter bunny costume. I'm not sure what this says about me and my sister, but I'm pretty sure it's all good things. At any rate, the kids insisted on trying the bear head and paws on. Cuties!

Liam Bear

Thea Bear

Heather Chicken

Art opening at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art

We took the kids to an opening at the museum where Mike works. I always love openings, how everyone is dressed all fancy and you can sample interesting food and free-flowing wine in front of gorgeous objects. It's especially great when the kids get to go, too; one of the many benefits of living in the D.C. area is the range of experiences we can share.

The first time I took the kids to an opening, they were the only kids there. This time, there were a handful of other kids, which was great to see. How are kids going to learn how to go to these kinds of events if we only ever take them to Chuck E Cheese? Of course, it's important to do a lot of prep work and let your little ones know the basic rules of behavior (no running, screaming, fighting, etc.) and every kid is different, but it seems like our culture excludes kids from a lot of places instead of working to incorporate them appropriately. (However, I don't think this extends to taking little kids to see R-rated movies at 10 p.m. on a weekend and then getting mad at them when they're tired and scared and want to go home. Seriously, who the eff thinks that's okay?)

Here Thea and Liam are politely asking for drinks after I coached them a little.

And here they are in front of one of the major pieces, built specifically for the museum. The kids really, really wanted to crawl on it, as did a lot of the adults in the room. That had been the artist's intention, in fact, but one of the people helping to build it got blood poisoning from a splinter, so it was just as well that no one was allowed.