Yesterday was a scorcher. Amazingly hot and humid for an early April day. I had to get my bike fixed at this totally cool bike shop on the Lower East Side (known by the neighborhood folks as LES). Our good friend Jen was also in town, so we made plans to meet at the bike shop and then hang out in the LES.

We had lunch and then chilled at the Tompkins Square Park playground. Ruby became blissfully covered in sweat, sunscreen lotion and sand and Jen and I talked.

On the bike ride home things got a little crazy with a few stupid drivers and pedestrians scaring the hell out of me (it also didn't help that I ignored my rule not to drink coffee in the afternoon because it makes me edgy), but the excitement also helped keep Ruby awake a little longer. (The bike is probably the only place where I try not to let Ruby nap because as she dozes off her body tends to slump in all directions and throws me momentarily off balance.)

But she couldn't stay awake and was so soundly asleep when I got home that I was able to park the bike, take off her helmet, carry her up the stairs and put her on the bed without her even opening up one eyelid.

And I got to snap some shots of her sleeping. There's something about the face and position of a sleeping child that is just gorgeous. Those hands, her puckered lips and the heavy eyes.

***

While walking over to the playground, Ruby suddenly exclaimed that Martin Luther King was dead and then proceeded to grill us about who killed him and why. I told her a white person had killed him because the white person was angry. Angry about what? I then told her he was angry like the white people in New Orleans were angry when Ruby Bridges started going to their school (we've been reading a book about Ruby Bridges at night). She then dropped the conversation, but I'll continue it here soon. This was just a teaser!