Poor Beebs, he lost 2 body parts yesterday. We took turns sleeping next to him last night, and now he's wondering where his constant petting went to.

And I'm wondering what that bit of wayward schmutz is, right there on the floor.

This year I'm starting something new for your birthday. Instead of another letter, your mother, now a bonafide member of wwwdotlistmakersanonymous, has assembled this list below, which is all about you. Various observations made since last year's exercise, with length determined by your age… Read full post »

All that harassment paid off :)

Bludgeoned by a 7-year-old meat-eating treehugger.

Not much, really.

Images are behaving weirdly tonight so I won't make this one any bigger, but guess what Missy was! And she wore shoes.. Read full post »

Isn't this lovely? Our Ruth is on  Bouquet of the day! A wonderful clematis, and a great site.

Read full post »

Hannah Fowler for President? Read full post »

(Pie, above, melting on a very hot day. He died 2 days before Hannah's 6th birthday, and we're coming up on another birthday in March, her 8th.)

Cornell has a great project for kids: Finding and documenting ladybugs, Hannah's favorite insect. Any kid's favorite insect. Over the weekend Tom found a huge praying mantis under a rung of his ladder, and we let it go yesterday after days of watching it chomp on store-bought crickets. Small… Read full post »

What I did to avoid watching the Vice Presidential debate (reading about it suits me just fine). I had such a hard time deciding between polar bears and wolves, so I happily did them both. The drawings are from a few months ago, but a second look convinced me to redraw the polar… Read full post »

Who needs a plot? Just get the gold already and you're done. The end.

Cripes, we're doing it again. Meet family addition number 3 (this was number 2), due home on May 30th. Hannah named him BB, which expands to Bam Bam. Or BB King. Or nothing. He is (cough, cough) the biggest pup in the litter, the first of the lot to give/… Read full post »

We draw a lot at our house. Mostly it looks like this:

And there are times when she comes home from school with things that look like this:

I was a little suspicious of the painting above, and still am. And I've found out more about the process.… Read full post »

Her friend Jenea told her to hurry up and lose the other tooth since she could then show her how to squirt water through the holes.

Earlier dentist's visit below, well before upper gap in smile.

    Read full post »

 I have to remember this: This above actually looks better here without all the other supporting pieces. I should have stopped at this point (which, however, doesn't fully illustrate the article -- minor nit) or reworked it all for a better marriage of drawn and photographed element… Read full post »

Found typography, referencing lipstick (again) and iceberg. And predator? IMHO it could easily go either way, and be perceived as complimentary of, or a swipe at, no?

We had a fight yesterday about her not eating the lunch I packed. The back of it says, "Put on Mommy's desk at end of the day! When Mommy's not looking."

Peanut butter balls are these slightly sticky things made of pb, oats, a crunchy cereal (rice chex), powdered… Read full post »

 Our contributing illustrator (and caricaturist) Zach Trenholm just sent me, out of the blue, revisions to the 2 caricatures we've been using for Senator Obama and Senator McCain. Zach's one of the best caricaturists I (we at Salon) know, and come November 5th one of these will get shelved. I th… Read full post »

Salon's art director, Bob Watts, died this year of cancer on January 3rd. After he passed away, we discovered he'd kept sketchbooks crammed full of notes, recipes, and drawings, and I was very happy when Lori, Bob's wife, recently sent me a cd of the artwork in those sketchbooks. We're all in… Read full post »

What I love about these is how densely illustrated they are. It's hard to keep a sketchbook (especially one like this): To draw in ink without first laying out a pencil line takes a tremendous amount of confidence and craftsmanship.
(More pages in previous post)

I have to tell this little story. I showed Hannah this picture tonight, of Senator Obama taking a pumpkin home. And she said, oh, that's nice. A half hour later, she asked, "Mommy, what is John McCain taking home to his kids?"

And it made me a little sad, thinking about… Read full post »

See?? Besides, I am soooooo much cuter. I mean, just look at that face.

Read full post »