Stacking up

In addition to starting to occasionally walk (or just standing up in the middle of the floor and swaying), Owen has started stacking blocks -- and then energetically scattering them while saying "bah!". This has unfortunately coincided with Zachary rediscovering these same blocks and wanting to construct bridges and such from them at the same time. Ah, brothers. But regardless, Owen has impressively gotten stacks six or seven high.

Big step

Nobody can deny that Owen's "tucked in leg"-style crawl is super adorable:

But today he topped it by, just in time for Meh's birthday, taking his first true unassisted steps! And impressively, he didn't start from holding onto a chair or anything; he just stood right up in the middle of the room, smiled at mommy, and headed the one or two steps in our direction necessary ot make it. No capture on the camera as of yet, though here's a video from soon after.

Since Meh's birthday proper will be tomorrow, which is a late workday for her and orchestra for me, mima and papa came over tonight to surprise her with balloons (the boys were pleased, with Owen pointing and saying "bvvvv!"), decorations, and a very tasty dinner! I supplied the dessert, a surprisingly decent flourless chocolate cake. Happy happy birthday pretty wife!

Who Let the Dogs Out

What a difference a night (and a change of venue) makes! Tonight we went to the second Passover seder at the home of friends K & J (and their daughters N and A). Other than an early faceplant going headfirst down their fun play slide, Z had a fabulous time. He interspersed playing and running around the house (generally while singing "Dayenu" or the first question and a half of "Mah Nishtanah") with sitting very politely at the table next to mima and across from us, smiling while eating (ahem) non-passover cookies and crackers. Ah well.

Beyond an encore of the one page haggadah and plague-themed finger puppets (courtesy of grandma), one of the highlights of the evening was the point where, while Zachary and many of the kids were off playing, several hundred pounds of pooch (K & J have both a black lab and a burmese mountain dog) came hurtling into the seder. They'd been outside, but Zachary apparently decided it was a good idea to let them in. He was still standing at the door and smiling when the dogs were ordered back outside - silly man. And yes, it did happen one additional time a little while later; really I think he just liked to see how quickly the dogs could fly in and then back out of the house.

Owen turned into a pumpkin fairly early into the proceedings, so Meh and he headed out somewhat earlyish. And many of the other kids in attendance (this seder had a fair number) fell apart towards the end. But Zachary was in a fabulous mood from the beginning to the very end, and we even had a nice father/son drive home together listening to some of his music and singing along with "Hands are for Clapping". Such a good Passover man!

In other news, while he's always had fun with us covering his eyes and then saying "peekaboo", Owen has discovered the joys of self-initiated hide and seek. Here's his new favorite spot:

Why is this knight different...

Happy Passover! Tonight we hosted a seder for friends and family. Unfortunately friend S ended up being sick, so her husband D was only able to stay for a moment and drop off some of foods they'd made; we at least made them up a takeout container, but hope she feels better soon! Anyway, we still had a packed living room and a nice convivial seder. Plus we got to use my (in)famous one-page haggadah, which hopefully made the evening a bit more duration-appropriate for our several younger guests -- though Owen was pretty much down before things even started. Meanwhile, Zachary has been practicing the Four Questions for the past few weeks -- really he only gets through the first question and a half, them loops back to the beginning, but still it's quite impressive and extremely cute. Alas, when we got to that part of the seder, he got all shy and ducked out -- though he did smile at everyone while we sang it together. A little ways into the actual festive meal, Z had a bit of a meltdown, and soon joined O in upstairs sleepy land while we wrapped up a very tasty and hugely varied dinner and dessert. Meh once more outdid herself with sheer quality and variety, and our guests all brought epic amounts of homemade gefilte fish (thanks mima and papa!), yummy kugels, roasted vegetables, charoset, wine, and even a tasty faux ice cream made of halva. It was wonderful to fill the house with friends, food, and tradition - and of course the leftovers certainly won't hurt as we work through a week without breads!

Changing of the Guard's Pajamas

While my Europe trip was mostly running around catching trains, flights, taxis, and subways, I did get a morning off to do some shopping. I picked up an excellent cookbook recommended by friend J, which is not yet available here -- Meh has already made some fabulous meals from it, and we've both enjoyed some of the divergences of cooking language ("blending" in the UK is apparently "whizzing") and metric conversions. Of course I restocked our depleted tea collection. And on the morning of my flight, I hopped over to the Royal Mews to pick up these excellent pajamas (pyjamas) for Zachary. Sorry, no bearskin hat this time. The collar is a pretty snug fit for our big American heads, so Meh may need to do some surgery on it to make it easier to get on. But such a cute little royal solider man; we anticipate he will be fully engaged for the royal wedding in a few weeks.

Facial recognition

I got back from the UK yesterday evening, clearing customs and picking up my car just in time to get home for Zachary's story time (Owen was already asleep). Z was up at his typical early time, and we got to have some good snuggles together - definitely good to be home! But when Meh brought Owen downstairs and he saw me, there was no familiar open-mouthed smile; he retained his shy reserved self. After a little bit I was able to get him to crack a little grin, but there was definitely the possibility that he didn't recognize his own daddy at first sight. Oh no! But never fear, today we get some father/son catch up time; Meh has work, so the boys and I will be figuring out things to do on a dreary overcast day while I fight the jet lag.

If the shoe fits

We're still recovering from our trip to DC, but I'm already packed for another trip; I head to Europe later tonight for a week of meetings and a conference. But we did have a lovely family day today, heading to the mall for some shopping and lunch. The main stop on the shopping trip was for shoes; Zachary had once again outgrown his, and we decided it was time for O to get his own first pair of actual non-soft-soled ones. Z ended up choosing a pair that was identical to the shoes he'd had before his current pair ("want blue shoes"). Owen thought getting his feet measured was funny, but wasn't as much of a fan of actually trying on these toe movement constricting things.

He is, however, most certainly a fan of mommy's cooking and baking: