Like A Snowman

As we get ready to go to New Hampshire (Friday!), we have been taking stock of our warm weather clothes. Gwendolyn loves this game, and now each morning she runs to the suitcase, and puts on her hat and coat (in the Panama tropics!). And says over and over again, "Like a snowman!"

SuperDad

The cost of being away a week....we are all of us still recovering.

David has been AMAZING with the Wren. And on her part, she has super bonded to him. But to the point that he can barely leave a room without her trailing loudly behind. She sticks to him like glue. And even now that we are all back in one place, her clingy-ness continues, it's like she can't quite believe one of us is not going to leave again and she is doing everything she can to keep us in place. Here are a few pictures of David in his stellar role as superdad:

Reunited!

And now home! So good to see the little Wren again!!!

Prague

I just got back from my first separation from Gwendolyn - ever. I spent 8 days in Prague, at the International Bat Research Conference. It was a crazy, hectic week, full of great presentations & conversations, catching up with people I had not seen in years, plotting new collaborations, sorting out old ones - and when we could, trying to see a bit of the beautiful city of Prague. The city is a wonderful combination of old and new - beautiful art deco, side to side with medieval towers and churches. We saw a bit of the country side, had an amazing barbecue dinner in a crumbling old castle outside of town with bats flying all around, toured a silver mine, and listened to a string quartet in an ancient and beautiful building downtown. The schedule was packed full, but I missed Gwendolyn and David like crazy. Here are a few pictures from the last days:

Ice Cream

There is a great ice cream store in Casco Viejo, with all kinds of weird & wonderful flavors: basil, lavender, cardamon are just a few I remember off the top of my head. The group of us went after Ximena's Tupper talk a few weeks ago.

Tomas and Ximena, Maya and Catalina, Amanda and Lynn. And Ximena's mom - Maria Eugenia.

And here are the 3 generations, a little blurry for trying to capture the background, but still catching some of the happiness!

And the Panama City skyline.

Party

Last day with Mike! Note the parallel Gwendolyn-Mike hand gestures. I think Mike made quite an impression on Gwendolyn. She still talks about him a lot. And his great girls, Emma and Lucy.

Grant proposals

Ximena and her family arrived a few weeks ago, and it has been wonderful to see them! Among all the fun things we have been doing together, we've been working a lot too, and have a bunch of great collaborations going. I love this picture. It captures the (sometimes precarious) balance well - Ximena and I trying to discuss a grant proposal, Gwendolyn offering her own unique input.