If you take nothing else from today's post, let it be this: BLTs are nothing without avocado.

Do not be fooled by the high chair and bib into thinking the redness on her face is made up of any fanciful foodstuffs, like lingenberries or raspnuggets. I assure you, that is pure, one day old road rash.

Many notable highlights went down today, although on the whole it was an idyllic lazy sorta day. After an obscenely long morning nap, the Gels clan clambored onto/into a bike/burley and we embarked on the very first family bike ride. Really perfect day for it, top notch in every way. We rolled up to the greenway, and headed west to roughly Hennepin and back. Jen is a speedy demon, and I think we're actually well matched when I've got 45 pounds holding me back.

Afterwards we lazed away some time in the backyard. Abby ate a dandelion, which Jen gently and kindly admonished her for. I made a (for me, typical) smarmy, know-it-all remark that dandelions weren't really that bad. So I ate a leaf, and haven't been able to feel my lips since. I thought people made salads out of these things? Maybe mine aren't ripe enough. Or it's possibly been soaked in beagle urine. Yummers.

Later in the evening, just after bath time, our friends Katie and Mike from Michigan (technically Katie is from Duluth; I felt that's worth mentioning, since Duluth is so rad) came knocking for a visit. They got to see the morons for a bit before bed, and although the girls were shy, they weren't TOO shy...so it was a success, I think. Katie and Mike are two of the nicest people in existence, so it was nice to hang out with them for the night and eat BLTs in front of them. What can we say, we were hungry. And we had to use up a half an avocado, which technically makes the sandwich a BLAT, and I had swiss cheese also which pushes me into BLATSC territory, which almost sounds like a bodily function.

Day ninety one.

Sometimes I go through stretches where I tend to omit taking pictures of one kid or the other. I have Abby phases...I have Lily phases. I'm in a Lily phase apparently, which I felt should be explained since Abbygator is a bit absent. I'll put myself back on kilter soon.

Lily hates being cleaned up after meals. However, I throw the wet towel on her head and Presto! She's laughing like a lunatic. She is especially fond of waiting for me to touch her face...she'll wait perfectly still for it...then when I finally bonk her nose or chin, she erupts in fits of screeching happiness. After a couple dozen times, her face gets (almost) clean.