Slightly crosseyed from his bath, Max ponders the huge amount of work we need to do on our newish house. Crazy window salesmen have been coming over all week, pitching U-values and composite foam fill and full-welded corners. And "virgin vinyl," which sounds like the name of a pornographic movie. The last guy told us we were getting a 50 percent discount because he doesn't like marketing gimmicks. I see. It's all a little frightening and we wish we could afford more than vinyl, even virgin vinyl. But so it goes.

Work is still fun - no stories to report -- except...wait...oh, there is one thing. Ask me about..no, I can't even say it.

Here's Max with Derek, the first known Republican to touch him. Our baby book says not before 5 months is such a thing safe. Allergies. No offense to Republicans out there - he's also not allowed near strawberries. Note the evil glow his eyes have picked up just from being near Derek's hat, which has a W on the front and reads, "The President" over his forehead in this shot.

Finally, here's one of Max and Uncle Jacob, fresh off the plane from Mexico. Jacob, that is. Max has no passport. Already a couple weeks outdated. Max has by now begun to outgrow the lap position. He only knows short adults, except for Derek the Republican.

Aunt Marianne finally makes an appearance and also finds something very hilarious. Cousin Jesse gazes from her perch in Marianne's arms at Max, who is balancing a flashlight on the bridge of his nose.

This is a better picture of Noah and a better picture of Max. Uncle Noah is a champion baby entertainer, having mastered the nose tickle, the throw-up-in-the-air (with catching), and the tummy rub. Max found all of Noah's tricks delightful and giggled his head off.

Max had a fantastic summer. His giggling came into its own, and he hung with both halves of the family in lovely Cape Cod. Here he laughs at Leah in the living room of what used to be his Grandma and Grandpa's house in Truro. Max and Leah spent most of August there while I got to work on, well, work. After a couple of years of one of those jobs where you send your friends regular emails and carefully read the entire NY Times on line every day, I got sick of truly having nothing to do and quit for the greener pastures of becoming an assistant principal at a nearby middle school. I took an entire weekend off between jobs and began learn about just what sort of a place hires a person with my organizational skills (just look at the last time I remembered to post anything here) to be the "operations guy."

Yet I seem to have a little bit of a knack for it and it is a ton of fun. Not, of course, the kind of fun Max is having here, by just looking at his Mom, but fun nonetheless. Because I spent the summer unable to post from work (imagine!), I'll give you a little rundown of just what Max did that he found so darn funny.

He met his cousin Sam, who, as a 2-year old, needs no pithy caption to be funny.

Max met his Uncle Noah, finally, along with Aunt Marianne and the West Coast Posse, Rebecca and Jesse. Though it is not apparent here, Max adored Uncle Noah and Uncle Noah adored having his picture taken.

And he got to spend one magical evening with Josh and Roz, coming away with a sweet U of Michigan sleeper suit in the deal. Josh's mom also whipped us up a fine painted rocking chair which will be seen in this spot just as soon as the boy learns to sit.

Again the Bjorn rears its head. Almost, I almost did not ruin a picture by closing my eyes. Someday, I will learn to smile like a normal person.

Max spent almost three weeks with Grandma Susan this summer. He was fascinated by her beach hairdo and wishes that we had the swaddling technique, seen here, down as well as she does. The presence of Leah's family at the Cape for most of August led to the presence of Leah at the Cape for most of August, which led to a lot of takeout burritos in our home. I even tried to go to a movie every night, but since I was also working until 9ish, that was not a plan that could last more than a week. I did manage to get in Grizzly Man (creepy), Crash (dumb - at one point, one man decides to kill another whose name is Daniel Ruiz and lives in LA. So he picks up the LA phone book, looks up Daniel Ruiz and, in the next scene, is in front of the correct Mr. Ruiz's house. Are we to believe that there is just one in the entire city?) and Four Brothers (Mark Wahlberg and Andre 3000 are supposed to be brothers. Need I say more?)

Anyhow, the movie watching made me a little exhausted. So, like all of my best plans, I quit.

He even tolerated a hat, nearly every day.

By Labor Day Weekend, everyone was ready for a nap.