Another good day: outdoors!

It was another daddy-daughter day here at casa Allgreene, though Madeline didn't want much to do with the casa itself. To both our satisfaction, we spent most of our time outside: in the yard, on the front porch, or walking around Providence's east side.

When I first set up a beach chair in the lawn this morning, Madeline wasn't sure about moving operations outdoors.

But a quality meal brought her around.

And soon she was climbing all over me, trying to look around not only because her surrounds were visually interesting -- and they were: flowers, bumblebees, birds swooping through the yard, cars going by -- but also in order to tie sounds to sights -- she heard the bees buzzing, the birds twittering (damn you microblogging site for connotatively ruining a perfectly good word), the cars going by, and other less obvious sounds like a plane flying over and lawnmowers rumbling in nearby yards. I don't think she quite tied everything together, but she tried.

We did spend an interlude inside. Madeline played for a little bit but then went down for a nap.

As she woke up from her nap, I made the grave mistake of coughing. Her confused squint gave way to a deep frown and then intense crying. The only thing that worked to soothe her was the wrap. And that had to be outside. And even then she didn't exactly look thrilled.

But the setup did allow me to water our plants.

As the afternoon drew on, Madeline and I got ready to hike over to campus and meet Summer. Madeline was more interested in licking her hurting gums than in the impending walk; Petey, on the other hand, wished us farewell from our office window.

Half an hour later, after dodging confused out-of-town cars and throngs of lost-looking and well-dressed pedestrians all clearly here for Brown's commencement this weekend, Summer escorted us to the safety (and air conditioning!) of lab.

But lab's a little overwhelming in its own right: there's a lot to look at.

Regardless, Madeline was a champ. She met new people and saw some she already knew, she lasted through two feedings and two diaper changes, and she even took a nap in my arms, all with no fussing. On the way home we even had a casual outdoor meal at the Butcher Shop and enjoyed the still-lovely evening. Then at home we stopped by the yard to admire our exploding sugar snap peas (and all the other veggies, too). And Madeline smiled.

Another good day.