Aaron Gilbert Asch

He's here! The doctors may have said he was almost a week "late," but Aaron Gilbert Asch came right on time -- 6:02 am on August 20, 2012. Mom's doing well -- Aaron did his best to hustle out of the womb, so labor was relatively quick. Welcome to the world, Aaron! Your sisters may be "girlhandling" you (i.e., hollering in your ear, pushing your swing "super hard," seeing how much you can be tickled before you wake up), but it's only because they are so excited to have you in the house. 

 

 

Olympics, Part 2

The US swim team won all kinds of medals in London, and they have inspired Miri & Robin in the pool. Robin ditched her last floatie a couple weeks ago, so she is full-on swimming.

Miri's been working on her gold medal form.

Best part of camping

Olympic spirit

The girls have loved watching the Olympics, though their taste in events is, um, unusual. Some of their favorites? Pole vaulting, rowing, and synchronized diving. But the amazing American gymnasts have been inspirational too:

With the Myers clan

Miri & Robin spent several days at the beach with their Massachusetts cousins, Matthew, Damon, and John. Matthew is now ten, so he's the patriarch; Miri & Damon are inseparable; and Robin & Johnny (six weeks apart) are simply hilarious together. From the Boardwalk to Assateague to Frontier Town, the girls had a blast!

Down on the farm

We have been hitting the farm circuit lately -- strawberry picking, blueberry picking, flower picking, even some cow milking. A highlight was visiting Spiral Path Farm in Pennsylvania, where our weekly farm share food comes from.

 

Like Little Sal with her bucket of blueberries

 Picking flowers for Mommy

Old-fashioned tree swing at Spiral Path

Sacred ground

Hershey was a pretty easy sell for the kids. Gettysburg? A bit harder. But Daddy's an historian, and that means most vacations involve a national park or historical site of some kind. Gettyburg involves some tough subjects -- slavery, war, death -- but it also teaches about courage, hope, and freedom. The girls have been reading a lot about Abraham Lincoln (we went to Ford's Theater last week and of course he runs in the President's Race at the Nationals games), and they appreciate that he was an important person whom we should respect and study, even though they obviously don't understand the full context of what he did or why.

 Explaining the tactics

With Abe (and the sun!)