Lots of Pictures, Lots of Heat

Well, the story round here folks is that it's hot. Real hot. We spent two days at the pool thanking our lucky stars that such a thing was invented. Reid snapped out of his year-long swimming stupor and while he can't actually swim, he has recovered the fearlessness and general disregard for his own safety that characterizes 5 year olds the world over. He jumps into the water and loves loves loves it. I hope this sticks around until the big vacation at Bald Head Island, because last year's business with the moaning and groaning and abject fear of all things wet? That wasn't very much fun at all.

Picture-wise we have a bonanza to report. We have some early photos of the elusive "Penelope Sawsan Rizk Gray" known to inhabit parts of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In fact, we have photos of Sania struggling to comprehend the fact that she is not permitted to poke this newest member of the family in the eye. In at least two of the photos in this set (and several I didn't include) Sania is clutching or grasping for this little baby, and out of frustration, she appears several times to kiss the baby's hand (rather than her preferred place to kiss, inside Penelope's head).

We've got scenes from the wedding of my cousin Mike and his fiancee Abby. They are a cute couple, and they had a homey, Slovak/Jewish/Arab ceremony lakeside and a big party in a barn with barbecue and spontaneous bass fishing. We didn't catch much of anything, as all K and I did the entire time was hold, chase, cajole, beg, corral, or search for our children.

We've got a couple shots from Aunt NayNay's big Memorial Day party, moved this year to the weekend after b/c of the aforementioned wedding, and rained out mostly as well. Moisture was the order of the day. Reid would stand under the eaves and holler a weather report through the screen door, "Still raining!" Then we played bingo, naturally.

You'll note that special occasion or not, Sania's hair always looks magnificent. In her mind. In reality, she won't let us touch it, and the resulting mop of hair still pulls off a certain je ne sais quoi until the strands in front of her mouth take on enough errant food matter to alter their appearance. Then it's all downhill from there. Click on the photo above or here to see the rest of the pics.