After the swing, Evie gave her classic “MANE!” (plane) double-point. There was no plane, of course… but this is what she does these days when she’s very excited. The strange thing is, when there is an actual plane, she’s probably only about 75% as excited as when she’s pointing out pretend planes.

And here’s Evie with her pal Sam, who’s great with her—despite the fact that all of Evie’s attempts to pass the football usually end with the ball bouncing off of her head and dropping behind her back. She’ll get there….

But Saturday was by far the nicest day of the year. Not too hot, but plenty of sun. We decided to head in to Rhinebeck to do some shopping for friends’ birthday gifts. Evie had to bring out her new shades—mostly so as not to be recognized.

It’s never long before Evie decides to let down the cool facade and sneak in a cheesy grin or two.

Evie spent the last part of our trip riding on my shoulders, alternately pointing out non-existent airplanes (”MANE!”) and attempting to steer me like a horse, using my sunglasses’ stems as reins. (In other words, the usual.)

I almost had to bleep her attempt at “GrandDad”.

There was a fantastic moonbounce in the front yard (I think these are called “bouncy castles” in the UK), so Emma decided to let Evie go down the slide solo. The first run went great, which I didn’t catch on tape. Evie’s second solo run, however, was a little bit of a catastrophe:

After a few seconds of bawling, Evie was game enough to try again, though this time on Emma’s lap. Things went much better.

Non-accidental words to date: Mama, Dada, Lenny (her stuffed cat), up, down, ball, bubble, pop, cup, hi, bye-bye, night-night, boo!

Possibly accidental words (or words said in context only once, never again to be repeated): Book, powder, light, and high-five (”hine dive”).