New baby, child photographer, etc.

We have a new baby grand-daughter! Her name is Cecilia and she's perfect. We are so excited to welcome her to the pod. Her big brother, Charlie, is going to be such a good big brother. He's very helpful and proud (and she looks very much like he did when he was born.)

I'm introducing myself to her.

And speaking of Charlie, was I nuts to give a four year old my very expensive camera and let him "play" with it during his t-ball practice? Probably, but the photographer/grandma in me had to let him. I was amazed at his eye. Of the most basic things to learn: 1) don't move the camera when you press the button and 2) composition are two elements he seems to have a full grasp of...for a four year old. Though the don't-move-the-camera-when-you-press-the-button part my grandpa never figured out. Till the day he died any picture he took had headless people in it. But Charlie was surprisingly natural about it. Here are some of the pictures he took. I'll caption them, but they do tell their own story.

Kids were arriving and talking to their coach.

This was their last practice before their last game so the coaches decided to have the coaches/parents vs. the kids game.

Even Grandpa got into the game, and yes, Charlie took this picture with the zoom.
The game is in full swing, kids are up to bat. For the first half they played with a "T" for the ball, but then switched to coach pitch.

Game over, sun setting, time for the popsicles.

After practice we went for something to eat. He took these, too.

This was the toy ball machine directly behind our booth.

Pretty good, don't you think? He took 69 pictures. I spared you most of them, but I did want to share my budding photographer's shots.

Remember this quilt from the Years Ago post? Well, when Elizabeth was here wrapping my room with a ball of string, she found this quilt sitting, oh, somewhere in here. She told her mommy that she really liked it and hoped Grandma would give it to her when it's finished. I demured a bit and said that I might keep it here and she can use it whenever she comes. She was very sad and said she "really, really liked flowers" and she really wanted this quilt!

I bought the book TheFarmer's Wife Sampler Quilt - Letters from 1920's farm wives and the 111 blocks they inspired by Laurie Aaron Hird today. I've had my eye on it for ages and it was never in the bookstore when I was, but today - there it sat, right in front like it was waiting for me.

I also bought 97 Orchard - An edible history of five immigrant families in one New York tenement by Jane Ziegelman. I'm very interested in the experiences of the immigrants in the early part of the century and use a magnifying glass when I look at the pictures of Jacob Riis. Plus, hey, it's about food!