Well, you can see the photos on Flickr. What's not documented is the string of illnesses we've been suffering from since early November (thank you daycare). Hope you and yours are happy and healthy in the New Year!

I'm not sure how it works but I come up as one of two "Featured Photographers" on the Bamako, Mali Places page. I suspect it's an automatic thing, perhaps calculated by the number of photos one has on Flickr that are geotagged from a particular place. I think after a couple years of taking pictures in Bamako and posting them on Flickr I might have outdone anyone else!

But if you want to see some truly amazing photos of Mali, check out NYGUS. Absolutely stunning.

baby got a new pair of shoes, originally uploaded by robin.elaine.

Baby and I met Grandma at Stride Rite yesterday and picked out his first pair of shoes (size 4 1/2 extra-wide, awwwww). Now I can finally let him stand on the ground at the park.

Movies I will not see because I loved, and reread, the books:

1. The Shipping News - I would not have thought of Kevin Spacey for Quoyle. I think it should not have been a star in that role.
2. Cold Mountain - Renee Zellweger as Ruby? I can hardly bear to think of it, let alone watch. <shudder>
3. And now, one of my favorite books ever, Ian McEwan's Atonement, has become a movie. This one will be hard to resist; it sounds very well done, and is directed by Joe Wright, who did the excellent Pride and Prejudice in 2005. (There's a book I've read and reread and loved, yet I had no qualms about watching the movie.)

, originally uploaded by robin.elaine.

When the baby gets sleepy he lies down on the floor and rests his head on the nearest stuffed toy. It's pretty much the second-cutest thing ever, right after downward dog.

BARBER SHOP / HAIRCUT $11, originally uploaded by robin.elaine.

I see this car near our house a lot. The signs say BARBER SHOP / HAIRCUT $11.

I have nothing else to say so I will leave you with this thought, courtesy of C.S. Lewis, who liked to make up silly (but correct) logic puzzles:

(a) All babies are illogical.

(b) Nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile.

(c) Illogical persons are despised.

Therefore, babies cannot manage crocodiles.

Long shadows, originally uploaded by robin.elaine.

"Falling back" used to mean an extra hour of sleep (or, in college, an extra hour of party).

Well, the baby doesn't have a clock in his room, and even if he did, he couldn't read it. He doesn't know or care about the end of Daylight Savings Time. He still wakes up eleven-and-a-half hours after he goes down, whether it's 6:30 a.m. or 5:30 a.m.

Happily, I persuaded him to stay up a half-hour later than usual last night, and he slept until almost 7:30 a.m. (now 6:30 a.m.).

Not getting up before 6:00 am will make it easier to deal with it being dark at 5:30 p.m. So much for our late-late-afternoons in the park.

The egg casserole (with sausages, peppers, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes) was a hit. The potato salad was also a big hit. ("What's the recipe?" "Get in your car, drive to Harris Teeter, ask where the potato salad is, and when they point to one and say, 'This one has bacon and ranch dressing in it,' say, 'I'll take three!'")

The pumpkin bundt cake was the only bummer. It collapsed last night five minutes out of the oven and, when I cut into it this morning, was found to be undercooked on the bottom. It tasted good, though, so I would try it again.

In other news, hardly any of my fall and winter clothes fit me anymore, but there is a $36.49 silver lining on that cloud, since I put four rarely-worn items on Ebay and they have (somewhat surprisingly) generated a bunch of bids. Hooray for cleaning out closets and making cash at the same time!

E is in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, for weeks and weeks. The baby and I are doing our usual thing. He has had a cold for about two weeks now but I think it's finally on the way out. I've been busy with contract work. And tonight I'm making a pumpkin bundt cake and an egg and sausage casserole for a brunch I'm hosting tomorrow for 12 people and their babies.

The baby is busy learning how to walk.

Baby's first Halloween, originally uploaded by robin.elaine.

This photo shows the whole costume.

We had some trick-or-treaters but they had to help themselves from the bowl, which I left by the door, while I put the baby to bed. I think there are more coming now.

Baby's first Halloween, originally uploaded by robin.elaine.

He has been sick for almost two weeks, but he was feeling well enough for me to dress him up as a monkey, which you can't really tell from this photo, but you can see it in the one below, where he is trying to take a bite out of the pumpkin. He actually didn't mind the costume as long as I didn't put his hands in the mittens.

No trick-or-treaters yet.

originally uploaded by robin.elaine.

We rode the carousel on the Mall yesterday. If I've ever ridden it before, I don't remember. We just sat on one of the benches -- I wasn't going to mess with getting on a horse while holding the baby -- but B loved watching the horses go up and down, the world spinning by outside, and the music playing. I loved this special turquoise mer-horse (?).