The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, and The Giraffe

It's Halloween! This year's costumes of choice were a giraffe for Owen and a cute cowboy outfit for Zachary, mostly composed of items inherited from his uncle Josh at the same age. Of course he had to try out a bunch of different hats along the way, though the cowboy-appropriate one did win out in the end.

To avoid some of the challenges we had in past years (it getting too late for Zachary, yet too early for anyone to answer the door and give him candy), we decided to try doing what one of my distant cousins calls a "truck or treat", where you drive to a central location hosting a Halloween party with a bunch of people giving out candy. In this case, we packed up the car with the boys, mima, and papa, and went to the Bothell Country Village, which turned out to be fairly jam-packed with people. (High percentage costumes this year were Alice in Wonderland and Dorothy.) Still, Zachary did fabulously and even selected candy when offered -- though he remains only interested in eating "piece of chocolate" that conforms to certain dimensions and taste (e.g. those little Dove square chocolates). Owen dutifully conked out just before we arrived, so there was a sleeping little giraffe being carried along behind the cute cowboy. Meh did an impressive job putting together some last minute cowboy-like costumes for us as well, and mima and papa went as "Floridians trying to cope with the cold weather". Zachary had a great time, though he kept having to deal with sagging chaps and his hat falling into his line of sight. Still, he had a great time and finally had a crying-free Halloween -- hooray! Full set of pictures here.

Alas, we're still not into crying-free Halloween yet; Owen continues to fight a cold, and melted down a bit on the way home from an early dinner with mima and papa. Still, a huge milestone for Zachary and he even took our cues (sort of), saying "Hi trick or treat!" (as if trick or treat was a person). Both boys are so cute and good!

Breaking bread

Owen continues to love music, and has even started to make some of his own:

Both boys continue to encourage mommy to sing and daddy to bust out with the viola -- Zachary will even say "more music! viola!" when I stop playing between pieces. Sometimes I take requests, which generally fall into the 'Wheels on the Bus' or 'Thomas and Friends' theme song categories.

While Owen continues to try everything in sight (this kid even eats those vegetable medley jarred baby foods), Zachary continues to typically be very selective. We continue to serve up a variety of interesting and tasty foods to him, but he's generally declined, ignored, or actively said 'no!' to foods that fall outside of his comfort zone. So it was huge news in the world of Zachary dining today to see him take one thoughtful bite of my famous challah! The two of us were sitting and having lunch, and he saw me eating a piece. He then picked up the piece I'd given him on his lunch plate, smelled it, touched it to his lips, said "good job!" (I think that's what our nanny has been saying when he eats something), and then ate it. The rest of the challah remained on the plate, but still a huge thing to see him try something new -- good job indeed!

Incidentally, delayed pictures from Zachary's 3rd birthday party have been posted here. I of course had been preoccupied with grilling and watching the birthday boy, and promptly forgot to use the camera. Visiting friends T and S covered it though, and got some great shots!

Guess who's coming to dinner

Mima and Papa had the four of us and our friends J & S over for shabbat dinner last night. I of course brought the homemade challah (seriously, I'd perhaps try to break out into other dishes if I didn't have to confront the downcast faces if I show up somewhere without fresh loaves of bread!), and Meh made this amazing peanut butter and chocolate cake of extra tastiness:

The boys did really well despite dinner rolling well into their bedtime; Owen even sampled his very first matzoh ball! Meanwhile, Zachary was shushing Lola and J & S's dog Max when they barked at each other -- Lola in particular was looking rather ferocious trying to protect her property, though the two did somehow manage to coexist. It was a fabulous multi-course dinner, though the boys did turn into pumpkins as we advanced to the later courses. Still, we managed to finish dinner, get home, the boys bathed, and to sleep without sadness - I'll call that a success!

And speaking of pumpkins, today we went with mima to a local pumpkin patch and corn maze (though this year's maze was about the saddest thing we've seen - there's a whole description on their website about hordes of crows repeatedly digging up and eating their crop). Zachary waded through the "p says pah, pah -- pumpkin!" patch. He didn't exactly pick out a pumpkin, but he was happy to see us take one home. We also ran into some old friends attending a birthday party at the farm; it was great to see them and get to briefly catch up!

A private concert

It's a Meh work weekend, so I've been getting to enjoy some quality time with the boys. They continue to occasionally play in parallel; Owen definitely watches and often happily screeches at Zachary. Zachary mostly responds when Owen starts playing with one of Zachary's old music toys, at which point he wants to play with it himself. The boys and I had a full day adventure with mima and papa yesterday -- first we checked out what turned out to be an enormous annual festival at a local farm/park. They had pony rides, bunny rabbits that you could pet (Owen smiled as I helped him with his first real-life opportunity to pat the bunny), and a bunch of stands with arts and crafts activities. Unfortunately, the weather didn't follow the forecast and clear up, so we all got pretty wet and weren't really into waiting in long lines. Still, Zachary was happy to see and talk about the chickens, and we were impressed with the staff that were teaching goats to go through something resembling an obstacle course or an equestrian run. From there we decided to get warmed up by grabbing sushi lunch at a local kaiten place, which was super tasty if a bit challenging (Owen was continually trying to reach for rolls, chopsticks, soy sauce holders, and my glass).

And finally we headed to a certain local library to see our favorite Seattle a cappella group perform. Of course, our favorite librarian was staffing the event, so everyone was happy and smiley to get to see mommy on one of her work weekends. As an added bonus, the group that was opening for the Baudboys (an opening act at a library? Fancy!) was warming up, saw Zachary hanging out in the stroller, and decided to serenade him. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first, grabbing mommy's hand, but he enjoyed their four-part harmony renditions of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and another kids song. For the concert itself, Owen was smiley in Mima's lap while Zachary preferred to remain in the stroller -- it was a great show, and particularly fun to meet and hear some of the newest members of the Bauds.

Teacher's Pet

Zachary continues to come home from school talking about his activities, his many friends, and singing songs and reciting stories that he hears there. Talk about a kid who gets excited about school, here he's literally clamoring at the door to go outside and wait for the bus:

Tonight we got to connect some of the dots, as his class held an evening pumpkin decorating activity, with parents invited! We met more of his classmates, and talked with his teachers to help decode the names of fellow students he's been singing about. (Example: "Ah-mel-mel" turned out to be "Amelio") He was a little unsure of why we were back at school at 5 pm, but was excited to show us the way to his classroom. Unfortunately, the activity was actually in the cafeteria, so Zachary didn't know what was happening when we took a literal left turn. Eventually he came in and painted a fabulous pumpkin (mostly a Halloween appropriate blood red), and decorated black construction paper with chalk (spiderwebs?) and paper spiders stuck on with a big glue stick.

Meanwhile, it turned out that the teachers themselves were super excited to catch up with the mom behind some of the most impressively creative lunches they'd seen packed for school. Meh makes them in these cute little bento boxes, and always gives Zachary a nice variety of options. She outdid herself today actually, putting together this fun little hard boiled egg, apple, and quesadilla number.

Four letter words

The other morning, Owen was happily playing with his toys and then something made him sad, he mumbled a bit, and then out came "mama!" Meh ran right over to him with smiles and hugs, and was delighted that (even if inadvertent) her name beat out both mine and "cookie" (Zachary's first real word if we remember correctly). And today, Owen in his babbling looked at me and said "dada". Again, it's all likely just random babbling at this point, but still super cute.

Meanwhile, the tiny man is no longer so tiny; the exersaucer indicates that you should adjust the seat up to the next height if the baby's feet can touch the ground flat. Well, Owen's feet can touch flat, and the exersaucer is already in the top position. Looks like another toy that will be forced into an early retirement!

Just eat it

Owen continues to be our family fresser, eagerly at least trying a whole range of tasty well-pureed foods. The other day, Meh got him into his highchair for supper time, and he immediately opened his mouth wide and just sat there, jaws unhinged, waiting for her to finish prepping dinner. He particularly likes oatmeal, mashed fruits, sweet potato (Zachary and his first shared dish), carrots, and yogurt, but he'll occasionally even try a bit of banana yogurt. Oh, and he loves his mum mums, though I dispute the product's claim that it "doesn't leave a mess"; there are generally bits of rice/cabbage/whatever cracker all over his hands, face, seat, and local floorspace by the time he's done. But it's all well worth it to watch him shove a mum mum into his mouth and gum it for a bit, all while smiling at us - super cute!