Ladder 23

Alas, Saturdays and Sundays are days of rest for Elliott's favourite diggers (see post below) so weekends are all about fire engines. Here's an awestruck little E at China Town firehouse.

Diggers!

Whenever we ask Elliott what he'd like to do, his answer is always the same: "Diggers!" And by this, he means what you see above. He's standing in the window at Whole Foods (health-orientated US grocery chain) watching heavy machinery work on the new Barnes Foundation gallery on Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The calm

Babycinos are one of the few things Elliott will stand still for. The after shot, however, would show him tearing about wildly pretending to be a fire engine, coffee beans scavenged from the floor in hand, H running after him pleading: "Don't eat them. Please, don't eat them!" He didn't. Thankfully, a very beautiful young lady appeared and he presented them to her.

Alpha Male

In scenes reminiscient of an Animal Planet documentary, today Elliott asserted himself as the Alpha Male of the post-brownie making mixing bowl and spatula. It used to be that H had exclusive rights to these items, but no longer. Elliott would not be dissuaded or distracted with any other items.

Here you can see the new Alpha Male enjoying the spoils while H is left to pick forlornly at the fringes.

Pizza night play date

Elliott and his friend Valentina doing their thing on Saturday night while G makes what V's father, who arrived bearing two cans of anchovies, labelled "the greatest pizza in the world" and H wonders "Does a salami pizza really need salty fish? Or salami?" G, meanwhile, thinks "Sweet potato and rosemary, no cheese, on wholewheat -- she calls that a pizza?"

Warm weather arrives!

H and E's year of winter is almost over. Hooray! It's 25C in Philadelphia on this sunny and still Saturday. Elliott can't quite believe it. Convincing him to leave the apartment without his coat required some negotiation. Here he is zooming about during our morning outing. We visited an owl and a hedgehog that Philadelphia Zoo brought into Center City and then inspected Ladder 23 and Engine 20 at Chinatown fire station.

Tea bandit

H: Hmm... Where is that mug of (tepid) green tea? Could have sworn I left it right here on the table. And where is little Elliott?

Red balloon

Elliott had a grand time with the balloon he brought home from the Cherry Blossom Festival. Until he held it down and belly-flopped onto it.

Fire engine festival

We attended the Cherry Blossom Festival at Fairmount Park yesterday. The festivities seemed of little interest to Elliott, for whom the main attractions were the shuttle bus ride to Fairmount Park and the presence of a fire engine, ambulance and police car. A thorough inspection of the emergency vehicles completed, he was keen to reboard the old yellow school bus for the trip back to town.

Billy

The weather's recent improvement means we're no longer alone in making an outing of a ride on the Rittenhouse Square goat sculpture. Billy is an Albert Laessle bronze, circa 1914, memorializing a popular goat that inhabited a petting zoo in the square in the early 20th Century.

Sun hat

Elliott required a sun hat yesterday for the first time since we arrived in Philadelphia. This one was a pre-departure gift from one of his favourite people and, as ever, she chose very well. He's rather particular about hats but this one's a winner. It stayed on all day!