Things that make you go, huh?

At a certain parking garage in Madison, there is an elevator* for people with wheelchairs, strollers and other stair-prohibitive situations to get to ground level. It's great to be so handicap accessible, right?

EXCEPT they've hidden the elevator behind this extremely heavy metal door. Sure, there's a nice handicap-friendly handle on the door, but the door still weighs about fifty pounds and closes rather abrubtly the second you stop pushing on it. I have enough trouble with my able body and my stroller. I cannot imagine an eighty-year-old wheelchair-bound grandma holding that door open for herself while she wheels through to the elevator, even if her wheelchair is battery powered. So yes, this elevator is completely accessible to all disabled people who are also body builders. Everyone else will just have to take the stairs.

*I should say that this particular elevator is well worth the effort, if you can get to it. It has glass walls so you can look out on the city as you go up and down. Scout loves the windows, and I love admiring the courthouse that looks more like an acquarium-casino hybrid that anything government related. It's a lovely view.

Assistant Gardener

Warning! Proud Mommy Post

The past several weeks have been full of excitement for Scout. She has acquired a lot of new skills and had some new experiences.

With it being Father's Day, Virginia had to decide what to get for her Dad. She inspected this shirt thoroughly to see whether it required replacement.

No luck, it was still in fine shape. Of course, that was only until James wore it to a conference the next day, with an uncapped pen in his pocket. So the new shirt gift idea was a go after all.

Virginia got to swing for the first time. Overall, she liked it.

She is now pulling herself up on things.

mostly me

She has started eating things that are bigger than bite size.

We are still working on not shoving an entire pancake into your mouth at the same time.

This picture is here because I think it's cute.

And this is the last pointless picture with no justifiably relevant caption. But look at that smile!

And actually, if you look closely enough at the smile, you can see the new top tooth sticking out, so there is a point after all.

She has started crawling, at last!!

This is what we call the "army crawl" or "leopard crawl," depending on who you ask.

Some say it's just "scooting," but we pretty much ignore them. Deliberate forward motion is good enough to be crawling in my book!

And just because we were on the scooting/crawling border, she is now doing a full, up-on-all-fours crawl.

Life is full of simple joys.