When I first moved up to Seattle, I knew precisely one person, from a summer program she and I had attended while in college. Today, at long last, Meh and I took the family to her delightful and highly successful new(ish) bakery. Congrats to Robin! And a huge success with our own food critics; the boys were big fans of the giant cookie sandwiches.
I mentioned yesterday that Z loves associating holidays with months, and that he was very much looking forward to Christmas. When he learned that we don't actually "do" Christmas, he was sad -- though he certainly brightened up when I indicated we'd be in Disneyland for the holiday this year. And then friends-of-friends C and T expressed an interest in doing a bit of a 'cultural' exchange, where we'll host them for a Shabbat/Chanukah dinner in a few weeks. So tonight we went over to their house, which they had just finished decking out for the holiday (with not only tree and ornament, but also trains, model houses, and more), for a very November Christmas dinner. The kids made snickerdoodles, there was much playing (in two separate playrooms no less) with friends, and everyone even warmed up to the family's friendly golden retriever after a while. Some of the adults even busted out with carols, and it was a lovely evening. Happy almost December to everyone!
The boys continue to have a fun if exhausting time while mommy and L traverse Bulgaria (and appear live on national morning TV and even a cooking show airing in another month or two apparently?!). O's early afternoon park tour has continued this week, even despite the weather finally backing off from the unusually warm; on Tuesday, O was insistent that we find a park with a water feature even though it was overcast and in the 60s; here's a shot of him enjoying the spray hoses for, oh, about five seconds before asking for his towel. From there we reverted to a more standard park, where he and I had a delightful time (re-)discovering the joys of whirlybird maple seeds.
Thursday was O's teacher M's last day of class before moving to Arizona - she's been a fabulous teacher and the two of them have been so close, we'll miss her! She left a very cute goodbye note for all of the parents at the sign-out sheet, and she also made a custom card for each of the kids featuring a picture of them with her and a very sweet and child-specific note. We wish her the very best in her next advenutre! After school (and before camp was over), the rain was coming down, so O and I headed over to the trendy Seattle combination indoor play area/restaurant. While he was a bit shy and made me climb around in tubes and tunnels clearly meant for 4-6 year olds, we had a great time and then a very civilized nice snack together before looping back to Mercer Island to pick up Z.
Z for his part has been continuing to love camp and has really developed a solid friendship with his counselor E; as so many of his teachers are women, it's great to see him having a guy role model and talking about both E and camp, having big smiles as he's dropped off (and picked up), and overall clearly enjoying every minute of his days at Camp Kef! Z even shares at bath time some of the songs he's been learning ("boker tov" means good morning in Hebrew):
We've now started entering the high season for birthday parties; O had one on Friday night at a bounce house, with a "Frozen" theme (they blared the soundtrack on a loop the whole time, as well as having an excellent Elsa/Anna/Olaf-decorated birthday cake with ice-chip looking rock candy). Needless to say, he had an excellent time -- though I've got to start remembering to put that boy in short sleeves for these things, he was a sweaty mess! We've gotten about 5 additional invites for the upcoming weeks; it's going to be a busy but fun season!
Happy Passover! We had two(-ish) nice seders with the kids; L wasn't quite ready to ask the four questions, but Z was super pleased to be eating matzah again (who knew?), even if the floor around his chair looks like we've been putting down peanut shells or something. For the first night, we met up with friends D & D and their sons N & B; it was a high energy affair to say the least, but everyone had a good time running around and cruising through my one-pager siddur. For the second night, we attempted to have mima and papa over. Alas, the boys were ready to go at, like, 4:30. We ended up doing a split seder, with the boys doing some of the traditions before their bath, and then mima and papa joining us for the festive and tasty meal once the boys were in bed. The boys' rendition of dayenu (complete with dance interpretation by O):
Today we did a formal baby naming for L -- and by "formal", I mean pretty informal: I put together a short service, the family went out to a beautiful new lilac bush that Meh had picked out and planted (O had to go inspect it in person, of course happily stomping right through the fresh dirt - ah well), we announced Eleanor's full Hebrew name, said a few words, and then we ate, natch. Her Hebrew name is בתיה שושנה (Batya [daughter of G-d, named for Meredith's grandfather] Shoshana [Rose, named for my grandmother]).
Everyone did very well with the ceremony, including little L who was wrapped in my tallit. Afterwards there was a giant and decadently rich chocolate cake courtesy of mima (and Costco), and the grandparents all got to catch up for a bit. Of course with all of the standing around, the boys were mildly stir crazy, so it was off to the park from there. As usual, I think the adults got more exercise than the boys, who insisted on extended sessions on the swings.
We've been having a very nice visit with grandma and J. The boys had a fabulous slumber party at their hotel last night, and it sounds like there was actually even a small amount of sleep involved. As suggested, we all ended up meeting for breakfast -- though for the boys it was apparently second breakfast, as they enjoyed a lovely continental breakfast at the hotel of froot loops, cheerios, and bananas.
Happy eighth night of Chanukah! As promised, the boys got their sole non-shared unique gifts tonight: new bicycles! As I've mentioned, O has been eager to ride the little tricycle, so getting a bike -- and a Hot Wheels themed one no less -- was, like, Price Is Right "new car"-reveal exciting. Z was very pleased with his as well, and wanted to wear the new helmet (Cars-themed, natch) and climb on his Lightning McQueen-themed bike nearly immediately. Yes, we even put aside common sense (hey, it was raining -- and at least they had the aforementioned helmets "for safety") and let them briefly, and more or less carefully, ride the bikes on a few loop through the house.
O did somehow manage to crash once, but all in all, a very happy last night of Chanukah. Meh is going to attempt to take them both biking solo (brave mommy!) tomorrow after Z's school is over.
Chanukah starts tomorrow night, but today was O's school Chanukah party. Both Meh and I were able to attend with many of O's friends (though a few were already gone for the upcoming Thanksgiving break) and their parents. It was fun if chaotic, with a number of activities: arts and crafts, the kids singing and dancing to "I Have a Little Dreidel" (though they'd apparently not quite learned the entire chorus or any verses yet), decorating cookies (Meh brought her fabulous assortment of sprinkles, dragees, and the like), and then of course presents! The teachers gave each of the kids a fabulous set of measuring cups. O was super thrilled with his present -- in fact, he was so thrilled, that when he and mommy got home from the party, he immediately wanted to bake something (and he insisted on being in an apron while he did it). So they made some yummy sugar cookies (the recipe had been another gift from the teachers), or at least the cookie dough. I think he got bored while it cooled in the freezer -- though he did correctly insist on washing all of his fancy new kitchenware himself. As Meh responded to this last bit, "Yes!"
Happy Sukkot! Those Jewish new year holidays really do bunch up, don't they? The boys and I went to friends J, S, and their kids L and E's house for a lovely dinner. There were a number of other kids there, a fabulous outdoor sukkah, and even a plastic indoor one for the kids to play in when they were done with the outdoor fall weather. The food was excellent as well, though the boys wouldn't know it, declining to even sit down let alone try the dizzying variety of salads, brisket, chicken, and more. Finally I was able to get them to at least sample some challah and fruit -- and they did have a great time in the sukkah proper. O was continually trying to understand what the Etrog was and if we were going to "eat it like a lemon". After pondering starting a new babies eating etrog meme, I think I'll just have to ask Meh if she knows any citron recipes.
The day of atonement saw us returning to the children's service at a local shul. It was a brisk 30-minute affair, and Z had to go potty as soon as we got there -- so for him and me, more like 20 minutes. Still, it was great to see O and he singing the songs (even later on during the day), and Z continued to do a solid job of sounding out words and phrases in the mahzor. The rabbi's sermon (well, more of a story for the kids) was ironically one that I'd just read in my own prayer book at home, though he modernized it to include some silly contemporary references (including a reminder of the high demand for a certain product I'm working on -- does that mean he would condone me getting back to work during the holiday? :)
Today we all went to Seattle's Greek Festival, where we met up with several friends and actually ran into a few other friends and coworkers as well, many of whom were using this as their super early Seahawks tailgate party. It was a loud and hectic affair, but the boys had a fabulous time. There were some Greek musicians (at one point Z pointed over to them and said "It's mommy's music", clearly identifying some musical parallels to Meh's Balkan choir) and of course a coin-operated car that the boys clung to for a few minutes before getting down to serious lunchtime. O was a particular fan of the small circular waffle French fries -- covered in feta, though he shook the cheese off and preferred the fries straight up. They also had a baklava ice cream sundae concoction that he gobbled up.
Lately O has been increasingly frequent in demonstrating his solid passive aggressive skills -- specifically, if you do something that displeases him (translation: suggest he's not making a good choice or, heaven forbid, actually discipline him), he *won't* say he hates you. He'll just talk about how he loves everyone but you. "I just love mommy, and Z, and mima, and papa, and Lola, and grandma, and J, and of the people in the whole world, but not you, daddy." It would perhaps break my heart a bit if he wasn't doing this every 5-10 minutes with either or both of us -- though interestingly he rarely applies this tactic to Z.
Happy Jewish new year to those who observe; may you be well inscribed for a good year! O's second day of preschool wrapped up early for Rosh Hashana preparation, so I collected both boys (Z's school was a slight madhouse for their only second day of class, but I found him smiling in the elementary school lobby waiting for me with one of his teachers and one of his friends), and we then walked (with two of O's other classmates, friends J and A) literally across the street to a local synagogue's children's service. It was actually a decent turnout considering it was a 3 pm service, with maybe 30 kids and their parents. While I tried to get the boys to sit with me, they saw a gaggle of other kids up on the steps of the bimah and decided to join them - totally fine, though I noticed a big sign in front of the ark indicating there was an alarm set that would go off if anyone touched the doors. While the boys ended up getting the closest of all the kids to the sign, thankfully nothing was actually triggered. Towards the end of the service, plastic shofarot were distributed to all of the kids, and the racket that ensued... well, perhaps only slightly louder than World Cup vuvuzelas.
There was a little time to burn before meeting up with friends, mommy, and mima for a holiday dinner, so the three of us hopped down to a local park to burn some energy -- and for Owen to repeatedly ask me (and warn Z) about the geese and ducks leaving poop all over the footpath. At last it was time for dinner at friends J, A, and E's house, with a number of other young friends and their parents in attendance. Dinner was as hectic as you'd expect with 7 (!) kids, but it was wonderful to get to catch up with friends and the boys even shared E's toys pretty well with the others (in between fighting with each other). On the way home, O was telling mommy about how much fun we had at the "movies". Confused, I asked if he was talking about when he saw "Planes" a few weeks ago, but slowly from his descriptions I figured out that at the synagogue, the fact that there were rows of connected chairs, and that as we were leaving he'd noticed some dark, heavy curtains blocking off a larger area of the shul's sanctuary that wasn't needed for the kids service, meant that we'd clearly been to see a film. A live action one where he and O ran around and blew plastic shofars, but sure, it almost makes sense.
Today we took the boys to another kids' service at another shul, one we took them to perhaps two or three years ago. O made sure both his and Z's plastic shofars were in the car, and even carried his in with him (garnering compliments from a few greeters), though I warned him that we shouldn't play it in the synagogue (he agreed: "because it's too loud!"). There were songs and stories with a guitar-playing rabbi, Z did a great job of reading some words from the prayer book, and the boys had a good time once more. Hooray for positive Jewish experiences, and happy 5774!
Straight from one trip to another! Meh and I returned from an excellent London holiday on Sunday afternoon, and first thing Monday I was on a plane down to San Francisco for a conference. Due to scheduling restrictions with Moscone, the Game Developers Conference was booked to coincide with both Passover and Good Friday this year. On the first night, friends A and E invited me to their lovely family seder; it was great to be able to be with friends and observe a meaningful start to the holiday. The next day was the full-day tutorial I've run for now twelve straight years (yes, I still coordinated it the year I couldn't attend due to some kind of family thing :), but after it completed, I was off to an unofficial Game Developers Passover Seder, held at the open art space of YetiZen (ironically while YetiZen themselves were co-hosting an IGDA party elsewhere that received some negative publicity). It was again a nice drawing together of the fairly disparate community of video game developers who observe (or in some cases were just curious about) Passover. There's a nice blog post on the seder here.
Huge thanks to both the overall event planners and my company's own awesome event planner, both of whom secured kosher-for-Passover meals for breakfasts and lunches during the week.
This week was Zachary's turn as "star of the week" at school. They rotate through each of the kids during the school year, and each day of the selected week, the "star" gets to do something special. Over the weekend (or more accurately, mostly Monday morning at 6:30 am), we helped him assemble a giant poster full of things that he likes: books, movies, things to do outside, etc. Every day of the week we learned about his activities: he got to choose a friend to have special snack time with, his favorite book (this week at least - a fine Chanukah present from Uncle B and Aunt J) was read to the class, and so on.
On Friday, the family of the "star" is invited to come in and share something - and with Chanukah being celebrated this week, Meh did double duty, introducing the class (Z is the only Jewish kid) to the menorah, dreidel, and other Chanukah traditions. I was particularly impressed with both her kindergarten-level rendering of the story and the kids' continuous concern/questions about the fact that the Chanukah candles don't stay lit for eight days straight - Meh made some references to the actual eternal lights found in synagogues, but it's certainly a good point that the main miracle of the holiday isn't really demonstrated (more the opposite; Chanukah candles often don't even last a half hour!) by the holiday's primary symbol. Happy "star" week to Z, hope he enjoyed his special week at school!
It's the end of an era: the boys' nanny Yafa is moving to Wisconsin to be with her new grandchild. While we only saw her twice a week, the boys have gotten very close to her and were always happy to see her when she arrived, and sorry to see her go. She has the magic touch with cars (she wasn't even aware that they fight over them for us), and I also don't think Zachary ever ate more than with her no-nonsense Israeli bubby sensibilities to eating meals! This was her last week with us; I'm not entirely sure if the boys were fully aware when we said goodbye last night that we won't be seeing her nearly as frequently, but they did give her extra special hugs on her last day, in addition to a bouquet of flowers and a frame with two pictures of them with her (which they decorated themselves with puffy stickers and such). The boys have had so many wonderful experiences with her, and continue to share Israeli songs, dances, and a love of our many Hebrew versions of children's classics with both us and each other. Shalom Yafa, safe travels, and see you again soon!
Happy Passover! We had a lovely first seder at friends J & S's house. The boys did great, both sharing the coveted (cue heavenly chorus) cars of our hosts and even occasionally sitting at the table and enjoying some food. We'll just ignore that most of Z's choices were chametz (Cheerios, goldfish...) - I was stunned to see him actually try the parsley that's ceremonially dipped in salt water. In the meantime, O was his fairly adventurous culinary self, trying matzoh, charoset (which he keeps calling 'jam'), and one of the fun square eggs that J & S had made into a fabulous pyramid scene complete with lego slaves and taskmasters (the latter of whom were cast as Star Wars stormtroopers). The boys made it fairly far into the evening, though mima and Meh eventually took them home when they started turning into pumpkins, while papa and I stayed to the end.
One of the traditions of Passover involves the person leading the seder slipping away and hiding a piece of matzoh (always impressive that this succeeds when ostensibly everyone is sitting at the table - just a sign of the chaos and distractions I guess?) for the kids to try to find; the meal technically can't conclude until it's found, and there's often a prize involved for the lucky winner. I didn't even really notice that the matzoh was gone, nor that it had reappeared in time to conclude the seder -- but friend J indicated that it had been found by Z. Really? Well, it had originally been hidden in plain sight in their son L's jumperoo, and the next time they looked, it was over in the living room changing table/pack and play. Since Z was the only child tall enough to get it over the bars -- or old enough to have the coordination to throw it I guess -- he was declared the finder in absentia. His reward? A wrapped box that he eagerly tore open the next day ("present!"), which contained the hit new board game "Matzkoman". We've had no opportunity to play the actual game yet, but the boys helped me sort through the many shapes and sizes of playing cards. Owen spotted the four brightly colored dreidels, and has been asking for them ever since, walking around the house happily with fists clenched around them -- we'll see if they disappear before we get our opportunity to, um, free slaves and make matzah while avoiding plague cards! While I somehow forgot to snap any during tonight's slightly smaller but still very nice dinner at home, a full set of first night seder pictures can be found here.
I forgot to mention, before going on holiday break, Z came home from school with this drawing. He also came home with one of a Christmas tree, and what I think were intended to be plus-sign stars -- but the way he makes plus signs really looks like crosses; much hilarity ensued when Meh mentioned this on Facebook, with a few folks getting perhaps a bit up in arms about keeping religious holidays out of the schools.
With the influx of new toys and the general clutter of the holiday season wrapping up, Meh has taken the opportunity to do some excellent reorganizing, clearing out a few drawers, optimizing our phone 'charging station', and grabbing a few new plastic boxes to house the boys' growing collection of legos and train pieces. And speaking of boxes, one of the boys favorite Chanukah presents was a fabulous kid-sized cardboard house from mima and papa! Here they are enjoying it with mommy:
I think it's actually intended for coloring or painting, but since we don't want to be planting suggestions that crayoning walls is a Good Thing, they were completely happy with climbing around in it, and eventually transferring a menagerie of stuffed animals into it. At some point O decided he needed to enter through the window, so one wall is a bit more of a suggestion than a contiguous piece of cardboard at this point -- but a huge success with the boys!
We got to celebrate many nights of Chanukah with mima and papa; they made us dinner (twice!) and we had them over for candelighting and present playing several times as well. The night before last, we all enjoyed the boys' new Lego (sorry, Mega Bloks) playground set. It's been fabulous to see O playing make believe:
And Z ran through a few verses of one of his favorite songs:
(If you're not familiar with the meme, see this.)
The boys have been enormously enjoying Chanukah this year. On the minus side, when I announce it's time to light the candles, O often responds "presents!" And there has been a fair amount of present jostling and fighting when we give each boy a present; for the past few days we've gone down to a single present for them to share (possibly with enough components that they can both have fun without noticing the other one is playing with something clearly more interesting than what they have). To prove that they can play nice, here's more fun at the train table (which sports a new Chanukah-gifted set of tracks, bridge, and station):
Today's present was Connect 4. As I assembled the board, I was a bit bummed to see that even our childhood games are getting updates; there are now variants for making the game into a "5 in a row" version, as well as specially marked checkers that do special things like giving the player a bonus turn. Each of these checkers is actually named for its obvious icons: anvil checker, wall checker, and so on. Except for the one that knocks out an opponent's checker, which has the obvious classic bomb logo on it, but is simply described in terms of playing "this checker". Oh how the times have changed. Anyway, the boys enjoyed taking turns putting checkers in, but they've removed the most fun part of the game - the little switch that drops all of the checkers out. Now it's a weird twisting hinge thing that a grownup has to manipulate. Still, it was fun to have a family game day! O's got a new tooth or two coming in, so he's been a bit under the weather. Zachary's fighting a cough that seems to mostly appear in the evening and first thing in the morning. And I'm recovering from allergies after visiting some friends for a Chanukah party last night. Meh's been doing a good job of taking care of us, but I think we'd all love a nap. Over the last few days that I've been home alone with the boys, we've gotten closer and closer to landing the communal nap, but still no dice - either Z will get bored and start to turn on the radio or O will be a squirmer (or push me out of the way to try to snuggle Z, keeping both of them awake). I still have hopes for the stars to align one of these days!
Happy Chanukah! O and Z's first chanukah present from Meh and myself was too good to not open immediately (as in, three days before Chanukah): to complement the new coffee table/train table (which is currently topped with a matt technically intended for doll houses and the like), Meh picked up what can only be described as a Playmobil summer dream house (or, as the box stirringly proclaims, "set no. 4857"). Very exciting, with a grill, bikes, bathroom, kitchen, tiny jars of pickles, and more -- a grand total of 323 pieces. Alas, all of the cute tiny things are separately delivered, assembled, and oh-so-easily disassembled. Meh managed to get it all together over the course of an evening (it took several hours), and the next morning, shortly after introducing it to the boys, I found O plucking the tiny flowers from the groundcover, and Z removing the tiny kickstand for the little bicycle. We tried to explain how things were intended to not come apart, but when the boys started pulling trees and partially attached home furnishings, it was time to pack it in. Alas, we were too late to save one tiny sandal from one of the little Playmobil people's feet -- or at least so we thought for most of the day; tonight I put my hands in my sweatshirt pockets and discovered a large, suspiciously solid piece of pocket lint, which turned out to be the lost sandal, surreptiously dropped in my pocket by O. The playset is sadly hiding in the laundry room, perhaps to make a reappearance in the future after strategically and liberally applying superglue.
Both boys have immediately taken to the holiday. Even a few weeks ago at his last swim lesson of the quarter, Z was practicing his "chhhh" sound for the instructor (and alternating between "challah" and "chanukah" for use demonstrations), which had her busting up in laughter. O frequently asks for chocolate gelt, Z has been singing Maoz Tsur, both boys liked lighting the menorahs (especially the train one), and when I put Z to bed this evening, he even whispered "Night night daddy. Happy Chanukah!"
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!
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:
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!
When I first moved up to Seattle, I knew precisely one person, from a summer program she and I had attended while in college. Today, at long last, Meh and I took the family to her delightful and highly successful new(ish) bakery. Congrats to Robin! And a huge success with our own food critics; the boys were big fans of the giant cookie sandwiches.
So tonight we went over to their house, which they had just finished decking out for the holiday (with not only tree and ornament, but also trains, model houses, and more), for a very November Christmas dinner. The kids made snickerdoodles, there was much playing (in two separate playrooms no less) with friends, and everyone even warmed up to the family's friendly golden retriever after a while. Some of the adults even busted out with carols, and it was a lovely evening. Happy almost December to everyone!
