For the pastfewyears, we've approached Halloween with a combination of enthusiasm and trepidation. It's Meh's favorite holiday, so the house always gets an excellent dose of decorating (my favorite little touch this year was that she added felt horns, glasses, and a witches hat to our illustrated portraits), and this year Z helped hang a bunch of ghosts outside. He then proceeded to happily point out the 'looooots of ghosts in the tree' every day while waiting for the bus, super cute. The trepidation comes on the actual trick-or-treating evening, where for the past few years we've actually made decent progress, from porch meltdown to driveway meltdown to successful afternoon event but failed/unoccupied house abort.
This year unfortunately Meh had to work on her favorite holiday; she did on the plus side put together a fabulous costume of a character from an excellent series of books currently making the rounds -- apparently her injury makeup was real enough that a few coworkers and patrons were checking to make sure she was alright! I planned ahead a bit by asking a few neighbors if they'd be home on the early side so I could bring the boys down before their (heh) witching hour, and by talking to the boys about trick or treating and costumes and such beforehand. Mima and Papa also came over to assist with the trick-or-treating, along with "Lola in a costume", as both boys pointed out repeatedly as she wagged around the house in her nifty Woodstock outfit.
Six o'clock rolled around and I got Z into his pirate costume; he was very happy about it and checked himself out in the mirror. On the other hand, O was having none of the costuming -- though he was enamored of the big felt candy bag. We then headed out, and actually had a pretty successful evening of trick-or-treating! Z did a great job knocking on doors (though usually he then transitioned to trying to open them), saying trick-or-treat, picking out a piece of candy, and saying thank you. Here's a fairly representative instance:
Even O got into the act of picking out bags and boxes of sugariness ("a yellow one!"), and dutifully held onto (hoarded?) the candy bag. We got through probably close to a dozen houses before O and Z were ready to head home -- but overall a huge success. And enormous thanks to mima and papa for helping me wrangle the boys on our evening outing and first wholly successful trick-or-treat!
I'm wrapping up a trip to New York for a conference; in between giving several talks (one was actually scheduled against a competing talk by Tony Bennett, though apparently his son/manager ended up giving it instead), attending meetings, learning about the latest dorky music gear, and even getting to hear a certain musician slash Sing Off celebrity judge speak, it's been fabulous getting to visit with the boys' uncle B and aunt J, multiple friends who live in the city, and grandma and J, who timed a trip in from Michigan to coincide with my own. Grandma and J hit many of the tourist destinations with B, but I did get to catch up with them for multiple tasty koshermeals, as well as opening weekend for the Rockefeller Center ice rink.
Of course I now tend to see most anywhere I go through the boys' eyes, and know at least one of the sights I'll be returning to the next time the whole family gets back east: the New York Transit Museum. In addition to sourcing some of their favorite toys (I had to pick up two of Uncle B and Aunt J's new subway lines, the 3 and the Q), the museum, which appropriately occupies an old subway station, had a fabulous collection of trams, trolleys, ticket collection mechanisms, buses, and (nearly missed by us) stairs down to an entire subway platform filled from end to end with a variety of trains from the 1920s to the present. Entertainingly, the subway cars' interiors had fabulous period-authentic ads; I kept feeling like I'd walked onto the set of Mad Men. All in all, definitely something the boys would be interested in!
B and I met up for a final breakfast this morning before I headed to the airport, and we picked up a substantial number of bagels as well as walking both the waterfront and the lovely High Line on yet another fabulous fall day. Oh, and as can only happen in a city of 8 million, we even ran into friends S & J, also visiting from Seattle, and supplied them with a fortifying bagel for their day's activities. The remainder are now my giant second carry-on. It's been a very good trip, but I'm very much looking forward to getting home to Meh and the boys tonight!
When the boys get into the car, they alternate their demands between two Justin Roberts songs. And by alternate I mean that one seemingly randomly chooses between the two songs, and the other insists that we should really listen to the other one. When one of the songs (or really any song they know) actually starts playing through the car stereo, they happily say the name of it, and sometimes even sing along or at least find their favorite phrase from it and yell it really loud when it comes up.
Both of the boys' top song choices (as with many pop and certainly most popular kids songs) follow the standard musical structure with alternating verse and chorus, followed by a bridge before the final chorus. O has gotten to getting annoyed and insisting "more yellow bus puh-leez!" during the bridge in the middle of the song. Meh keeps trying to explain to him that it's just the bridge and the chorus will be coming back in a few seconds. And today, it finally stuck -- when he got to the point where he used to request the song, he instead happily said "bridge!". Of course, it was immediately followed by "more yellow bus puh-leez", but hey, it's a start. I've also scored big with both boys by finding a live extended performance of it online; next up I'll clearly have to teach the boys about such music concepts as the YouTube version's heavily featured breaks and vamps.
As a setup for today's impressive childhood linking of seemingly disparate relationships, I must explain that for a long time, Meh and my signal when trying to find each other in large crowds or stores or whatever is a certain whistle (for our musical listeners, a descending major third). I continue to use it when I come home to see where everyone is, and that often draws the boys out of their activities for welcome home hugs and snuggles.
So, onto the story, which is admittedly far shorter than the setup: O discovered a collection of straws under our sink today, and managed to bend one so that it caused a whistling sound. Meh whistled back to him from the other room, imitating the sound he was making but apparently somewhat close to that major third I mentioned. O responded by saying "daddy!". Z added, "more whistle!"
Friends J and S returned from their intercontinental adventure (with baby L impressively in tow for the journey) and brought Z the perfect gift for his newfound kippah love: a Thomas crocheted kippah. He's happily worn and talked about it, though he's often tempted to try to pull it off (while still attached with clips) to take a peek at the friendly train.
And on the topic of Jewish observances, happy Sukkot! Meh impressively went to Home Depot, got some PVC pipes and attaching corner pieces, and put up our most stable sukkah yet! We didn't really have enough branches to make proper s'khah, but we did have a fabulous fish and chips dinner in it this evening -- after which I suggested Meh shake the lulav (or at least our stand-in, some romaine lettuce) and etrog (substitute one lemon).
To those who observe it, a very happy Rosh Hashana/Jewish new year! We've been preparing in a variety of ways -- making double round loaves of challah (with a fabulous new circular braid technique Meh found on pinterest thanks to friend K) almost daily, bringing in our excellent bumper crop of red (and now increasingly staying green, but still flavorful) tomatoes, and busting out with the Rosh Hashana toys, books, and puzzles in our collection for the boys. All week, they have also been enjoying "shofar doggie!", a video we landed on while YouTube surfing to show them what a shofar is; the video has become a top request for early morning and pre-bedtime viewings.
As far as the holiday itself, we went to a service -- er, sorry, an "experience" -- hosted by one of the local synagogues and designed for kids. We actually got there way early with mima and papa and explored the JCC's new garden patch for a while while we waited for things to get rolling. The service (sorry again, experience) was held in the JCC's gymnasium, so intelligibility wasn't particularly high -- but it was mostly songs and a sock puppet/felt board seven-days-of-creation story, followed by an arts and crafts project involving making a creation story collage out of food bits (a pita background, shades of blue frosting for the sky and sea, broccoli for trees, swedish fish for fish, star- and person-shaped sprinkles, etc.) Meh was most excited by the high quality (i.e. actually edible) kosher marshmallows they used for fluffy clouds, and now has a mission to go hunt some down at the one local grocery store likely to carry them. O mostly slept/nursed his way through the event. Z really wanted to run around giggling (in between some excellent public self-grabbing, as we continue to work through potty training), but occasionally joined in the songs and certainly was absorbing the general spirit of the event.
That night, we had a lovely dinner at mima and papa's house. Both boys chowed down on excessive amounts of challah, but also enjoyed mima and papa's plush bedding: Incidentally (and to explain this post's title), between services and the festive meals we had on both nights (and again with friends over for Shabbat dinner last night), Z has decided that his favorite part of Jewish observance is wearing a kippah on his head. It got to the point this morning where he insisted on wearing a fabulous purple one (O occasionally pointed and commented on the "purple hat") when we were heading out for a walk/jog with friends L, R, and their son E. Between the kippah and his increasingly ragged (fringed?) blankie, Z certainly looks ready to go study some talmud!
For the past few years, we've approached Halloween with a combination of enthusiasm and trepidation. It's Meh's favorite holiday, so the house always gets an excellent dose of decorating (my favorite little touch this year was that she added felt horns, glasses, and a witches hat to our illustrated portraits), and this year Z helped hang a bunch of ghosts outside. He then proceeded to happily point out the 'looooots of ghosts in the tree' every day while waiting for the bus, super cute. The trepidation comes on the actual trick-or-treating evening, where for the past few years we've actually made decent progress, from porch meltdown to driveway meltdown to successful afternoon event but failed/unoccupied house abort.
This year unfortunately Meh had to work on her favorite holiday; she did on the plus side put together a fabulous costume of a character from an excellent series of books currently making the rounds -- apparently her injury makeup was real enough that a few coworkers and patrons were checking to make sure she was alright! I planned ahead a bit by asking a few neighbors if they'd be home on the early side so I could bring the boys down before their (heh) witching hour, and by talking to the boys about trick or treating and costumes and such beforehand. Mima and Papa also came over to assist with the trick-or-treating, along with "Lola in a costume", as both boys pointed out repeatedly as she wagged around the house in her nifty Woodstock outfit.
Six o'clock rolled around and I got Z into his pirate costume; he was very happy about it and checked himself out in the mirror. On the other hand, O was having none of the costuming -- though he was enamored of the big felt candy bag. We then headed out, and actually had a pretty successful evening of trick-or-treating! Z did a great job knocking on doors (though usually he then transitioned to trying to open them), saying trick-or-treat, picking out a piece of candy, and saying thank you. Here's a fairly representative instance:
Even O got into the act of picking out bags and boxes of sugariness ("a yellow one!"), and dutifully held onto (hoarded?) the candy bag. We got through probably close to a dozen houses before O and Z were ready to head home -- but overall a huge success. And enormous thanks to mima and papa for helping me wrangle the boys on our evening outing and first wholly successful trick-or-treat!
