Catherine and Esme and I enjoyed some time in the woods of Manchester-by-the-Hyphen-Sea today. We hiked the loop at Agassiz Rock, visiting both Big and Little Rocks. The hike was almost too strenuous for Catherine but she was a trooper and didn’t give up. Not even on the steep spots with slippery pine needles and leaves underfoot!

It was a beautiful day and the forest was ripe for exploring. Esme, as is her wont, tried to eat everything she got her hands on; pine needles, acorns, stones, a stick, leaves… It was an amazingly tactile learning experience for her. And a test of speed and agility for me as I swooped in to prevent consumption of above items.

Catherine had the chance to practice her map reading and trail marker following skills. She also dammed up a little stream, walked the balance beam on a fallen tree, and balanced some little rocks. As we hiked she joined me in a rousing chorus of “She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain When She Comes” (thanks to Jason for teaching it to her!) And as a nod to the Mole Sisters she went BoingaBoinga on a piece of moss.

If you’ve never been to Agassiz Rock and you’re in the area you should definitely check it out. And let us know if you’re headed there, we’d love to tag along! All our photos from today are in our gallery. Here are a couple more to whet your whistle:

• 6:00pm – We’re open for business! We have Hershey’s, Kit Kats, and Gummy Lifesavers.
• 6:06pm – Skeleton, Monster, and Little Mermaid are the first to arrive
• 6:15pm – We’re chowing down on some lentil-brown rice soup
• 6:30pm – No other trick or treaters so far. We started watching Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.
• 6:45pm – Two cheerleaders and some sort of female ghoul just got some candy. Dr. Horrible just got away with the Wonderflonium.
• 6:55pm – Switched to watching Pocoyo. Six Flags guy and Freddy Krueger just got some candy.
• 7:05pm – mob of six assorted trick or treaters
• 7:13pm – seven guys in half-hearted mask-tumes
• 8:00pm – We had an assortment of other trick-or-treaters, but overall the numbers were just a little over twenty. Nonetheless, we had a good time hanging out in the dining room, watching videos, having dinner and treats, waiting for trick or treaters, and listening to the wind.

Egyptian Catherine

Finally, some photos of our Halloween evening. Hope your Halloween was happy!

Birthday Boy

Rebecca bought me a used copy of 1000 Places to See Before You Die. We’ve always looked at the book together in bookstores, thought about all of the places we’d like to go, and reviewed all of the places we have been. I’m looking forward to reading it and dreaming of future adventures. As an added bonus, she created a personalized quiz to help guide me through the book. And, she inscribed the book, but it wasn’t the first inscription! It was already inscribed by the previous person who gifted it to the previous owner! Who knows what happened between those two…

I also received an apron designed by Catherine. She did an original drawing and wrote out my name, and then Rebecca turned it into embroidery on the apron. I’m very excited to finally have my own apron, and it’s now hanging up in the kitchen beween Rebecca and Catherine’s aprons.

Papa and Catherine and the Apron

When we got home, there was more fun awaiting, as Rebecca and Catherine had made angel food cupcakes for me! They were covered with homemade peach jam… so delicious.

Mmm... cupcakes

Thanks to Rebecca, Catherine, and Esme for making it such a great birthday. Thanks to all the other folks, too, who wished me a happy birthday. Hoping this will be a great year!

You can see all of the photos from my birthday events.

This morning Peter went to give Catherine a kiss and hug before going to work. Here is the conversation that transpired:

P- “Hey Catherine, I’m leaving. Can I have a hug and kiss goodbye?”
C- “Where are you going?”
P- “To work.”
C- “No! You can’t! It’s your BIRTHDAY!“

If only everyone thought like that!

Happy Birthday to you, Papa! We’ll celebrate when you get home from work!

Here’s a nice drawing of Papa (This was the first of her people to have legs)

And here is one of just the girls. I really love that Catherine remembered to add Esme’s two little teeth! And I’m coming to terms with being seen as a potato with two eyes and no limbs! Esme is up top, Catherine is hanging out on the right and Mama-spud is down at the bottom.

Catherine and Esme and I spent a week on MV with my parents in August. We had a great time, Esme enjoyed her first Illumination and Fireworks, spent time at the beach and the Flying Horses and the Farmer’s Market. Esme may also be the only person I know who has a friend that is almost exactly 101 years older than her. Wow!

Here’s a few pictures and you can check out the rest of the group here.

Papa and Esme at Wingaersheek

Wingaersheek Beach is a terrific beach up in Gloucester that is normally pretty pricey. But get there late enough in the day, and the ticket booths are closed, so you can go for free. Above, Esme and I pose for a photo on the beach. She loves riding on my shoulders! See more photos from Wingaersheek.

Catherine at the wading pool

Bradley Palmer State Park has a very nice wading pool and play area. It’s extremely popular with the kiddos on hot summer days, and the cost is $5 to park, if you’re lucky enough to get in before the lot fills up. Kids can have a ball in the pool while mom and/or dad relax poolside, or join in the fun if they so desire. And there is a playground in the same space, so your little ones can go wild and run from the water directly to the playground and back. We took a picnic up there and had a blast in the pool. See more photos from the Bradley Palmer Wading Pool.

Catherine climbs a tree

Today we took a trip up to Manchester-by-the-Sea. Our intent was to visit Coolidge Reservation and the Ocean Lawn, but the 10-slot parking lot was filled up, so we turned around and went back to downtown Manchester where we had a picnic at Masconomo Park. The park is situated right on the waterfront, and has a great grassy area, a nice playground, some really cool climbing trees, and views of the Manchester harbor. It’s also dangerously close to Captain Dusty’s, a local ice cream shop, to which we made a delicious trip. Try the “Groovy Smoothie” if you go there. It’s $4.99, but worth every penny for its deliciousness. See more photos from Masconomo Park.

There are still a few weeks of summer left, so who knows what adventures we may still have?

But for me, the missing link in my photography kit was a good external flash unit. This weekend I finally had the opportunity to purchase one.

I purchased a Nikon SB-600, Nikon’s middle-of-the-line flash. It currently sells for a little over $200 and sits in between the ~$450 SB-900 and the ~$100 SB-400. This flash provides a great deal more power than the flash built into my camera, can be rotated and angled to many degrees, and can even be positioned off the camera and remotely controlled. One of its greatest features is the ability to bounce the flash off of a wall or ceiling. This provides much more flattering light for portraits than a direct flash.

On top of being a lot of fun and great for personal use, this flash will be a great asset for Peter R. Wood Photography and will allow me to offer more creative options to my clients. Head on over to photo.prwdot.org to check out my services and pricing.

You can also see some samples of other shots I’ve taken with the SB-600 in the Test Shot Gallery. (Also wanted to let people know that for some reason, SmugMug is making my photos look a bit darker when viewing them in the resized versions. To see what they “really” look like, you’ll need to click on the “Original” link that appears when you are hovering over the resized photo in the gallery. I’m working with SmugMug Support to figure out what’s going on.)

What my storage hasn’t provided, however, is protection from exploring fingers. I love for Catherine to craft with me- and often let her play with the straight pins and pincushions or cut small bits of fabric- but I don’t really want her exploring those things alone.

Last Sunday I fashioned up a little storage solution for things like pins (both straight and safety), buttons, clasps, bobbins and other bits and bobs.

I started out with the hard back piece from and Ikea ‘Clips’ photo frame. It was chosen due to its thin nature and the fact that I already had it! The jars are just a few of the breastmilk storage jars I used when Catherine was in the hospital. I put in screws from above, through the board and then through the jar lid. Then, I simply filled the jars and screwed them up into the lids. Viola! Storage that Catherine can’t break into…yet!

Smiley Esme!

Holy cow! I can’t believe it! “The small one,” as we sometimes call Esme, is five months old! She is truly delightful. She is a lot of fun to play with, is very “talkative,” and in these photos can be seen doing one of her favorite activities… chewing on something.

Catherine is doing great as a big sister. She loves to hold Esme (supervised, of course) and is very attentive to Esme’s needs and moods. Esme has even worked her way into Catherine’s bedtime routine, which I usually handle. I will often give them a bath together (Catherine’s idea!) and will read them both stories. If I’m really on fire, I can even manage to get both of them to sleep (though not simultaneously).

Now she’s hanging out on a quilt on the floor, making all of the right baby noises. I just remarked to Rebecca, “She must have read the baby textbook before she was born, the one that says babies are supposed to say ‘ga ga goo goo!’”

Oh, and there are more photos here!