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Couldn’t help but notice the resemblance.

We made this past weekend a long one and spent a couple days down the shore on Long Beach Island. Here are some photos, including a couple of the intrepid photographer, like this one reading one of his favorite books!

We visited the beach.

And we ate seafood. This was at our favorite, Pinky Shrimp’s. Love the neon sign. Even brought some lobster bisque home with us.

When we visited a lighthouse, we tried out the ergo with the not-used-before kid-on-the-back style. Kid seemed ok with it.

The Barnagut lighthouse.

It’s 217 steps to the top. Whew! Atlantic Ocean to the left, bay to the right.

Cooled off with a stroll out the jetty.

Did a little shopping and caught this self-portrait.

Family (self-)photos are always a hoot.

With water on both sides, both sunrises and sunsets were great.

Climbing out of the tub(s).

With big shoes.

Following up on this post on my favorite song of the summer (not really!), this is funny – to see the prank and the reactions.

Many decades ago (we’re talking 1950s) when a pop music artist had a hit, often other artists would quickly do their own version (usually very close to the original – not much creative work going on here) of the tune to get on the radio as well. Elvis did this a lot. It was a popular and accepted practice. It’s interesting to see that practice continue in this century in the form of parodies.

If any of you listen to top40 radio, you may know one of this summer’s songs is Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe.” Here’s the original tune/music vid. Catchy tune and little twist/play at the end of the video:

Over the last couple of months lots of people have done parodies or remakes of the video and posted them on youtube. The Carly Rae did a fun version with Jimmy Fallon:

And then enter the fun people at Sesame Street, with their version (or is it Cookie Monster’s version?) of the song. Love it.

And if you just sat through that song three times, kudos to you. I’ll make you a root beer float next time you’re in town.

(as always, click on the photo for a biggie version)  All but this one, in which I think Mallory is just making a funny face:

We missed the Bloomfield Memorial Day Parade due to Mal’s nap schedule, but they had some post-parade festivities on the town green, including a free picnic lunch. With a long line. I guess that’s what you get with free. We chose to observe but not participate.

We haven’t used the stroller much yet (opting for the ergo-baby), but used it today due to the heat. I don’t want a hot little kid saddled up next to me!

We enjoyed some shade for a bit, and Mallory even pulled herself up to standing with no help. But no, she’s not crawling yet. We think she’s going to skip that phase.

We also skipped the free lunch because we knew we had eats at home. Is it just me, or are Johnsonville brats not the same as I remember them growing up? They seem smaller to me, and much more pink.

Later in the afternoon our neighbors invited us over for an ad-hoc (kiddie) pool party. A first for Mallory. After a minute or two of adjusting to the cool-ish water, she was happy to sit and enjoy sucking on toys.

Mallory even got a grape Popsicle. She tore through that like nobody’s business.

Later in the evening we succumbed and I put the ACs in. We hit 90 and significant humidity today. At least they’ll be in for the next heat streak. Happy Memorial Day!

Her poses like these always make me picture her driving a car with the window rolled down.

And some of you may not have seen this, with shades:

Wait a sec, I’m getting a brief moment of inspiration!

(like the rest of them, you can click on it for the biggie version!)

And finally, it must have been a good day as Mal was on top of the world. Or at least the US!

We’ve got three flavors of cat in the house: big-dumb-needy (Dudley), furry-sweet-tiny (Charlie), and crazy-smart-uh… crazy (Celli). That’s not ‘crazy smart’ like she solves quadratic equations in her head smart, but Celli seems to be the most aware cat, but she’s also just plain crazy. She likes to do track-style laps in the bathtub many mornings. And some of you may know she likes to drag blankets around the house. This usually means a blanket in our second-floor room ends up in the hallway or maybe even downstairs and sometimes even in the dining room. Her method seems mostly to grab the blanket in her mouth and while she’s basically stepping on top of it, to drag is around to its new location. But lately, she’s started a new trick: bringing a blanket from the sunroom downstairs up into our room. This isn’t a tiny blanket, though it’s relatively light. This means the blanket travels over carpet, around two 90-degree turns and up a flight of stairs.

Yup, Celli did that. What a wierdo!

I’m not yet sure if this is the start of a tradition, but with no other plans it was decided we’d have appetizers for dinner. See what you can pick out.

Mallory wanted something a little more substantial, opting for giraffe.

This is the first new year’s eve I’ve been home to enjoy in 6 or 7 years (who can remember?), so it’s a nice change of pace. And with that, a gratuitous photo:

And a self-portrait FAIL:

Or maybe not. I can just imagine Mal screaming, “Ma, don’t push me out of the frame! And why are you fuzzy???!!!”

Happy New Year!