Measuring Spoons

For reasons no adult attempted to comprehend, it pleased Mabel Waston Payne during a good portion of my Friday afternoon visit to keep her teeth clamped on the small red plastic measuring spoon she long-ago rescued from ordinary kitchen use and appropriated. The attached white and green measuring spoons were allowed to dangle and swing in front of her chin. One consequence of this eccentric amusement  was the fine display of grown-in lower teeth never so well documented as in the photo immediately above. 

Mabel was fascinated by my camera tripod, which I brought along for a separate project to photograph several pieces of newly framed art for her parents, who had been invited (again) to show off aspects of their decor on a design blog and had asked me to take the needed photos – but I can show and tell more about that later, after the views have appeared where they were commissioned.

My daughter managed to arrive home from work early, mainly in order to direct and supervise my photo-work. But from Mabel's point of view her mother arrived home early to play with Mother Stuffed Owl and the three baby stuffed owls (named Crete, Minorca and Elba).

The hand-me-down dress below happened to be seeing its first wearing on Friday. Basically, all 18-24 month sizes had suddenly become too small (the last of the baby sizes) – and the big shift was underway into size 2T (the first of the toddler sizes).

If my memory is correct the game below with the blue plush sting-ray (from the gift shop at the California Academy of Sciences, where this baby is an ardent and active member) was the last game we had time to play before Mabel and I set off down the street to pick up dinner for everybody from Sweet Woodruff (where it was lasagna night).