I last saw Robin just before New Year’s, and I went to Brooklyn today with Maria to catch up. Boy, has she changed. Three months is a pretty long time with babies. Robin is bigger, she can sit up, is grabby with her hands, is wolfing down solid food. She will be crawling any day.

She looked at me warily for a minute or two, and I brought a bag of toys. She studied me carefully and we had fun with the toys.

One of the toys was classy – small fur animals living in a soft fabric tree house, and the other two were decidedly tacky, loud and noisy. Robin loved them of course, Emma and Jay wrinkled their noses a bit, I imagine the tacky ones will not last long, this is, after all Brooklyn.

I am notorious for buying presents babies like and parents don’t.

Robin and I wasted no time getting re-acquainted, she is a rascal and I am a rascal and we connect there  – it’s like Fate and her pirate gene – and when we all went out to lunch at a trendy and tasty Brooklyn cafe, we were soon giggling and shrieking and making a mess of things. Robin is loving some solid foods and I cup up some eggs and and fed them to her, she gobbled them down.
She loves Brussel Sprouts (this is Brooklyn), which she happily chewed on. I envy Emma, I could never had gotten her to touch a Brussel Sprout in her whole life with me. Maria sat with her for a bit, and narrowly missed getting vomited on – that honor fell to Emma.

I found a spot that made Robin laugh and chatter on her neck and I hummed there. She is making a lot of sounds – and we had a lot of fun. Robin didn’t know me when I arrived, but there is a kind of blood connection, I can feel like it. I am happy to report to those many people who says she looks like me that she does not, a lucky break for her.

It was  sweet visit all around, we arrived around 11 a.m. and got home to Cambridge around 9 p.m. Long day, it was balmy in New York City, about 25 degrees, and is about 8 degrees here when we got home. Big storm on the way Tuesday, our shy winter is showing some late teeth.

Maria and I both love the train ride.

I am very happy to see what a wonderful, loving and patient mother Emma is. These are challenging times for her, she is working hard in a demanding job, up half the night with Robin and she is as happy  or happier than I have ever seen her. She and Jay are just fantastic parents, and Robin is a happy and social and easy-going kid (except when she is not.) She is headstrong and clear about what she wants. She is a rascal, she has the mad family gleam in her eye.

She is, in fact, as happy as the photographs suggest, she is just a good time girl.

It may be awhile before we meet again, that is the nature of things, but it is all good. Emma knows me quite well and she is very smart, and the daily arrival of those photographs is keeping me connected. It was a great visit, I was happy to be there and happy to be home. And tired.

I brought the Petzval 58 lens and took some photos that might be interesting, this is a very exciting lens, I am just beginning to figure it out.  I was happy with a couple of them. I’ll post some photos in the morning, time for bed.