Last Prize

Tonight Meh and I had date night, going to see a special screening of a beautiful newly restored print of Meh's favorite unicorn film at a fun city movie theater that serves up food before and during the show. Before and after, the original author of the book (and writer of the screenplay) himself was signing books and memorabilia. We enjoyed the movie (cheesy music, several corny lines, and all!), and then Peter S. Beagle himself took to the stage to answer questions and then help draw raffle of various prizes (artwork, posters, original film cels, etc.).

At the very end, there was one extra special raffle prize whose winner would get to go up on stage with Peter -- and yup, Meh won! She was so excited that she almost bit it getting up onto the stage, but she recovered and was rewarded with a shirt slightly modifying a quote from the movie, and whose explanation was a regaling of the story that somehow Peter Beagle was the first to author a story involving a female unicorn. Meh also picked up a book (unicorn-themed, by a Seattle writer who was at the screening as well) and a cool tote bag that had the entire text of the book printed on it in tiny but legible type, and forming the silhouetted shape of the lead character. What a fun and magical evening!

Planes, trains, and automobiles

The boys' big cross-country road adventure has come to its conclusion, with two successful 4+ hour flights interspersed with excellent fun times with grandma, John, their dog Winston, their boat, four playgrounds, and much more! On Wednesday, the whole family piled into the car and drove to the airport, where mommy and L said goodbye to us with hugs and kisses, before the boys each took our own backpacks and bravely walked into the airport and through security. I left in plenty of time for a snack (O had to grab some French fries from the classic Seattle fish and chips outlet) in the airport's excellent windowed promenade, where the boys watched and commented on various airplanes and ground support vehicles.

Then after some playtime at the indoor playground and two loops in the subway car around the terminal, it was time to board the flight. The three seats they got us together were in the very last row, which while originally seeming like a nuisance, was actually a blessing when O needed multiple trips to the restroom and I could trust that Z was going to be literally on the other side of the wall from us). The boys did great entertaining themselves with their various toys and snacks, and the aforementioned car cases were a particularly huge hit. (And bonus: the felt road had enough traction that even through some turbulence, the cars didn't roll off the tray tables and onto the ground.) My favorite was the notes that Meredith had packed in their bags; Z liked his so much that it found an honored place on his armrest, where he re-read it several times during the flight and talked about the airplane she'd drawn on it.

We had an excellent time with grandma and John! There was of course a trip out in the boat; the boys brought snacks (and insisted on wearing their slick new sunglasses, also courtesy of mommy's backpack packing skillz) and talked about everything they saw from the boat (especially, shock of shocks, cars driving by on the roads). O insisted on paddling, while talking a mile a minute about which direction he wanted to go, what was an island, why that bird was swimming away, and so on. Z joined in on the paddling as well -- it was all fun and games until O accidentally dropped his paddle in the lake, and Z thought that was so funny that he let his go as well. Thankfully they floated and I was able to fetch them (over a slight O tantrum when I wouldn't let him climb halfway out of the boat to scoop them out with me).

In addition to many excellent hours of reading and playing games with grandma and John, we also made multiple visits to what O and Z described as "four parks!" -- the local elementary, middle, and high schools are co-located, and all of their playgrounds are adjacent; so when the boys got tired of the elementary school one (or O got too concerned about a spider he'd seen up in the play structure), they kicked it up a notch and went to the middle school edition, which had this strange seesaw-like contraption to play on.

I think we can emphatically say that a highlight of the trip for the boys was a visit to Greenfield Village. Despite the on-again/off-again rain, they had an amazing time there, and it was so fun to see kids responding to it, well, probably about the same way as I did when I was their age. We even were able to coordinate roughly 5 minutes of conversation with my good high school friend J, his fiancé J, and his parents J and J, who were all visiting the grounds at the same time. (That's a lot of J's.) hobo-style. J's dad even had some kind of season ticket that got us discounted rates - thanks J! After riding the train halfway around the perimeter, we exited, declined lunch at the fun period restaurant Meh and I had enjoyed last time, and instead had lunch at a cafeteria-style restaurant that served perhaps the cutest preparation of a kids meal -- a sandwich, cookie, and fruit all wrapped up in a handkerchief attached to the end of a wooden stick, Once I explained what it was, the boys almost immediately associated it with their favorite current book, and O had to turn his handkerchief into a bandana before the tour of the park grounds could continue.

But the big win of the day was the park's spacious new playground, with a class Ford model T (that made noises when you pumped the pedals or adjusted the gears), toys to climb on, a metal tube tunnel, slides, swings, a tilt-a-whirl thing, a large water toward to climb, and giant sandpit with pivoting canisters to fill and dump -- all with horse drawn carriages and Model T's cruising by outside the white fence. The boys easily spent more than an hour here; while I was able to get O to come with me and ride the excellent carousel, Z stayed in with grandma and John and just played and played and played on the playground. Speaking of the carousel, there were a number of animals to choose between riding; O opted for the dog "because it looks like Winston"; while initially shy, he and Z really got to be good friends with their doggy step-uncle (?!) over the week.

The class reunion was a lot of fun as well; it was wonderful to catch up even briefly with friends from high school (a surprising number of folks had actually become teachers -- some even within our own high school's school district) -- and at one of our culinary classmate's excellent and tasty new restaurants to boot. The class video (I forgot we even had one) was rolling in the corner, there was a photo booth for grabbing pictures, photo albums, toasts, class memorabilia, and all in all a fabulous evening.

More pictures of the trip can be found here. A huge thanks again to grandma and John for being such wonderful (and patient!) hosts!

Mamaloshen

One of the most surefire ways to get L to laugh is to start spouting Yiddish words at her. This video perhaps isn't the strongest example, but often she's in stitches from the various words and phrases we come up with -- some of which she perhaps shouldn't be repeating until she's a grown up. She'll also sit in rapt attention while you read books to her; this girl is most definitely an interested and engaged reader already - now where could she possibly be getting that from?



Father's Day has arrived - hope all of the dads have a very happy one! We had a very nice family brunch at mima and papa's house. O's class project was excellent, a fabulous popsicle stick-framed picture of himself answering as he does most questions, by tying it back to cars. Z did a nice fill-in-the-blank project at school as well. And all three of the kids did a super-cute mommy-organized card that featured all three kids' hand silhouettes on the outside, and more trivia questions inside. ("What does Daddy like to do? Make Xboxes.") True to form, Z aptly signed by heavily leveraging his new favorite book/punctuation mark: "happy fathers day! Zachary! Happy birthday - love mommy", while O continued to demonstrate his proficiency in writing out his name.

And her little dog too

After O's school yesterday, Meh decided to introduce the boys to the MGM classic Wizard of Oz. (Z actually had a head start; as I mentioned, one of his favorite pinball machines at the museum on Saturday was the Wizard of Oz one; the spinning house and yellow bricks perhaps makes a bit more sense to him now.) Both boys were enthralled. O insists his favorite character is the witch, and he'll even do a little version of her evil laugh if you ask him. Z commented towards the end as Dorothy bids farewell to her Oz friends, "she's sad because she doesn't want to go home". It's been fabulous to hear them both singing the songs; Z's rendition of "We're Off to See the Wizard" is about as magical as a pair of ruby slippers -- I'll have to try to record it. To top it off, Meh has a copy of the original L. Frank Baum book -- we're going to start reading it to the boys, chapter by chapter, tonight! O already saw a few pictures and was wondering why they looked different than in the movie. I tried explaining that the pictures came first, but he was still concerned -- one challenge we have trying to read books to him with illustrations is that he'll immediately start asking questions about the pictures, even if the text would give him in the answer if he'd wait long enough to hear it!

Sprechstimme

While Z has always been one to recite his books, on occasions where I've tried to be silly and sing bits of the books while reading them, he's always stopped me and told me I was reading it wrong. But in the past day or so, he's suddenly taken up the call himself -- sometimes with little melodies, and sometimes just more of a lilt, but nonetheless singing some of his favorite tales. It reminds me more than anything of what in college musical history class was the 20th century avant garde technique of speak-singing, though thankfully Z prefers to stick with more traditional dominant/tonic tonal relationships and accessible rhythms rather than going full-on Schoenberg atonal on us. Anyway, here's this morning's rendition of P.D. Eastman's "Go, Dog. Go!". (Irony: the local children's theater did a musical of this same book a few years ago. Time for a revival?)

Big Brother is listening

One of our many evening rituals is the reading of books. Each boy gets to choose one (or maybe two, but no more than five, tops!) book and we all sit on Z's bed for family book reading. Lately Z has been doing much of the reading, which has been great to see. O, always wanting to be like his brother, insists that he wants to "read" a book too, leading to varying humorous interpretations as he attempts to either recite a classic by rote (with hilarious missed, simplified, or altered recitations) or goes completely off script and tries to tell a new story based on the illustrations alone.

Lately, each of them also wants to have a book in bed with them; Z will actually try to read it with the lights off by holding up his Twilight Turtle; we may need to get him some kind of book lamp, though I fear he'd just turn it on and off all night as a toy. And again, O wants to be like his brother, often requesting the same book right after Z has asked for it. Last night, the battle was on for a Richard Scarry one. O was tearful when Meh explained to him that Z had requested it first, and she offered him a number of other books that of course weren't that one, and were rejected. In the end, mommy snuggles beat out the lack of the preferred book, while Z was reading it down on the bottom bunk. But when Meh got up to get out of O's bed when he fell asleep, something fell off his bed and to the ground: somehow, Z had covertly snuck the requested book up to O's bed after finishing reading it, so O could have it when he woke up. We were both amazed and touched -- what a thoughtful older brother!

Lost and found

We set out today with an aggressive itinerary of errands to run; after dropping off mommy at work, the boys and I headed to the barber shop for synchronized kids haircuts. Z actually got to start his trim first, and O happily sat watching Cars for perhaps the bazillionth time. Then once O started his hair cut in the adjacent chair, Z got a super case of the giggles and flinches -- just in time for the poor stylist to start trying to trim the back of his neck. She was mildly stressed about accidentally shaving him bald as his head and arms kept jumping around, though she did a great job and Z eventually emerged with a well executed big boy haircut, though also with the back of his shirt covered with hair from all of the squirming. O has continued to be super shy around people he doesn't know and kept nagging me to ask the barber for a lollipop (but refusing to ask her himself, even though she was completely hearing everything he said). Alas, our barber shop has stopped stocking lollipops -- I'll have to start remembering to pack them for future trips.

Before heading onward to lunch, we had to go grab some groceries. On the drive there, Z started saying "Where'd bunny go?" I was able to sort out that his favorite toy magna doodle's four little animal stamp magnets had fallen out of their holders. When we got to the store, I found a few in the door well and another under his seat -- but no bunny. I moved all of the seats around, looked in all of the nooks and crannies, but no dice. Z was asking about bunny for much of the rest of the afternoon with increasing concern, and I felt like I was living the live action version of one of the boys' old favorite books. Finally, after picking up mommy at work, I stopped back at the barber shop on the way home, and sure enough, in the middle of the parking lot I spotted a tiny little yellow plastic bunny magnet -- intact, though from the scratches in the magnetic surface I think probably run over once or twice. Z was super happy, and our very own version of Knuffle Bunny ended, much like the book, with a happy ending.

Loose Tooth

On Friday morning I noticed a gap in Z's teeth, and yesterday Meh commented on the same -- when we asked Z about it, he touched it, and you could see one of his bottom front teeth moving quite a bit. It's Z's very first loose tooth! Fear not, the internets (source of all truth) indicate it's typical for kids to start losing baby teeth by the time they're turning six, so he's only slightly on the early side. But very exciting times - the thought of loose teeth jarred some childhood memory for Meh, and she's planning to hunting for a library book that she remembered reading about rabbits and loose teeth.

Meh has been having a very full weekend of activities with friend I's wedding shower (magnificently executed by Meh and several other friends from what I hear) and some quality mima time involving toes and tea. The boys and I took the opportunity to go to a friend's birthday party yesterday (the boys were very well behaved, though O did insist on raiding J's entire fabulous collection of toys and emptying them out all over the family room), and then today we all checked out the castle park O and I visited in our day-of-four-parks. When I attempted to circle the park looking for parking, I instead found more street parking along with a bonus mini-playground. The boys were very excited about the see-saw ("Zachary, go up!" was O's helpful suggestion/command to Z), and we then got to do a lovely nature walk in the fabulous summery weather (in June no less, quite novel for Seattle), right past the fire station (and multiple firehouse ambulances and engines) to the bigger park, before looping back around through the forest and having a nice snack and more play time at the smaller playground.

Dramatic Reading

Z has been learning a number of "sight words" (words that are both sounded out and learned to be recognized by visual cues) at school, and we recap many of them as part of his weekly homework assignments. He's been doing a good job overall with them, but in the past few weeks we've gotten a few happy surprises that indicate he's understanding and internalizing reading and writing even more than the homework would suggest. The other day he was sketching on a magnadoodle (a new favorite activity, and he's getting increasingly good at cars, trucks, people, airplanes and, my favorite, "catering trucks"), and I heard him slowly and deliberately say in time with his drawing, "This weekend I played with cars" -- sure enough when I looked down at it, he had written the first letter of each of those words. But today was the big one -- Meh brought home one of the Bob Books and we've read a few of the stories with the kids, but this morning, Z proceeded to read an entire story all by himself!

Coupled with O's recent success at re-potty training (really he'd already been self-trained, just too concerned about missing something exciting to actually walk the ten feet to the bathroom during the day), which included filling a 7 dry days sticker chart in just 8 days, this morning we went to our favorite newly (re-)discovered toy store with the boys for each of them to pick out a vehicle. Z pondered a large number before settling on a fine yellow die cast Lamborghini; O hoarded even more, and finally declared a moving truck (with operable rear gate) to be the winner. Alas, we then wandered the store for a few minutes while a birthday present for one of Z's classmates was wrapped, which was enough time for O to change his mind and instead select a Thomas and Friends talking Emily train -- which when rung up we learned was triple the price of his moving truck. Ah well - well earned. Congratulations on both sets of accomplishments, boys!

Religion in the schools

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!

Check this out

Today, Z brought home his very first library book from school. They've apparently been visiting the library for several weeks, learning how to nicely handle and open/close books, but today an actual book came home. Every student apparently got to pick their own, and Z chose an appropriate one for him. Apparently he gets to check out a new book every Tuesday. Hooray for little man's first school library experiences!

The Sixth Sense

O has an awesome imagination; yesterday when I was driving him home from our nanny's house, he looked at the empty car seat next to him, and declared to me, "I'm going to pretend Zachary is sitting right there." But sometimes the line between imagination and potential X-Files plot pitch has gotten a little fuzzy.

Several months ago, in the middle of the night, I was snuggling with Z (who'd had a bad dream or a tummy ache), and O also woke up, asking mommy to take him to the bathroom. When she went to get him, this was their conversation:

O: [whispered] Who's that, Mommy?
M: Where?
O: (looking at Z's room) Who's that in the door?
M: There's nobody there.
O: Who's that in the door, Mommy? He's a little bit scary.

Yikes. Meh was mildly freaked out. Our explanations at the time ranged from him knowing that I was in Z's room to the fact that there's a mirror at the end of the hall and O was seeing a reflection of himself or mommy. Or if it was otherwise unexplainable, my vote was for Al Calavicci.

Then while Meh and I were out of town this past weekend, O gave papa a fright by having this conversation while in the upstairs bathroom:

O: Who's that lady?
Papa: What lady?
O: THAT one.

Further inquiry from Meh when we got back solicited that he'd seen "a queen with orange hair." Mommy interviewed him further about it today:


Since Meh and O were apparently talking about fairies at the time, we're hoping that it's either that kind of connection, O's imagination, or inspiration taken from something he's seen/read (the other day he pulled down a copy of Anne of Green Gables, which does feature a picture of the red-headed protagonist on the cover). On the plus side, he does appear to like her and thinks she's nice, so at least it's a friendly ghost/fairy/make-believe friend!

Meh's Magical Mystery Tour

Meh's birthday was on Wednesday - unfortunately a work day this year, so we didn't get a chance for a good solid family celebration (though I did sneak her some flowers towards the end of the day at the office). But mima, papa, and I coordinated a slightly belated birthday present: they watched the boys at their place overnight (mima was careful not to call it a 'sleepover' with her doubt of any sleep actually happening) while I took Meh on a secret outing; her only clue as to the destination was to pack sandals (though she didn't end up needing them anyway). Despite me missing one turn that turned into a slight scenic detour of the quirks of the Washington state highway system, we had a nice drive, listening to a fairly riveting book on CD, and she was finally tipped off as to the general vicinity of the trip when we approached the Mukilteo Ferry terminal: we were off to the lovely Whidbey Island.

We stayed at a cute B&B in the cuter Langley, the weather cooperated by staying mostly clear, we walked along the beach (where both a large bald eagle and heron were hanging out), toured the little seaside city (mostly closed down on a pre-high-season Friday night, though a cute little Italian restaurant was still open and hopping), relaxed, and most importantly, got to sleep in the next morning! After the nice breakfast part of the B&B, we checked out a local farmer's market (smallish despite the enormous amount of incoming car traffic for it), bought some new plants and herbs for our garden, toured a few more shops, then headed back across to meet up with the boys, mima, and papa for afternoon birthday cake. It was a very short trip, but we had a very nice time - and it sounds like the slumber party actually did involve some slumber, at least for the boys. Huge thanks to mima and papa for the very generous birthday present!

Playing with food

In addition to his constantly expanding vocabulary (new recent words include "both" for pairs of items and "just" for emphasis or excluding something - "I just want to go outside" when I ask him to get in the car), Owen continues to surprise with his ability to both pretend and draw comparisons to other things he knows. Whether it's riding his horse, picking up a blue lego and pretending it's a car (yes, the cars are still on holiday), cooking in his kitchen while mommy or I am making something to eat in the grown-up version, or inventing some new friends to read to (watch below), this kid has a wonderful imagination:

Mommy has a yellow hairclip that he says "looks like an airplane", and indeed, when he said that, I immediately saw the biplane shape. (He more specifically says it's an "airplane with fruit", since it has some dangly plastic fruit decorations.) Here he is making comparisons and references to both a piece of construction equipment he saw recently and one of his favorite books:

Tell me where it hurts

Did I mention O sang me happy birthday at a mad gallop?

Everyone is basically wrapping up recovery from that nasty stomach bug, and Z's cough has mostly dissipated and both boys seem to be their raucous selves again. Unfortunately, O's been teething in a major way (at his dentist check-up last week, they apparently indicated that he's got quite a few coming through at the same time). He himself has been pointing toward his mouth and saying "teef hurt!" though some tylenol or motrin has helped out enormously.

Zachary loves to run around before bedtime in his room, sometimes singing songs from school or reciting sections from his favorite books, and generally laughing and having a great time. We're convinced a lot of this sudden energy comes from, um, him holding his #2 for the day until right after bath time, after which he's ten pounds lighter and needs to express this Lightness of Being. Occasionally during the running around he'll trip (on himself, or a book, or the stuffed bear seat), then get back up and run around some more. But tonight when this happened, he got upset and stayed on the floor for a few seconds. I took a look and couldn't see any obvious signs, and when I touched his knee, ankle, and toes, he didn't seem to mind. I asked him if/where it hurt, and he seemed to actually be more concerned with his wrist or elbow - again, nothing that actually seemed uncomfortable though. Hopefully he just hit his funny bone, but we'll certainly keep an eye on it. Poor little bumping man!

Hidden Agenda

There's probably some biological/psychological reasoning behind it, but when O needs to poop, we often notice he disappears (or at least tries to) -- either into a corner of the room, or by saying "bye bye" and shutting a door. It's privacy, it's cute, and it's a likely sign that he's probably well on his way to potty training. (And if we ask, he typically says "I hide and make a poop!" -- silly boy.)

So it was immensely entertaining for me the other day when this behavior was linked unexpectedly. O and I were reading a book that has a mouse on every page (no, not that one), and on one page, the mouse is peeking out from behind an object. Owen pointed at it and said "mouse make a poop!" Similarly, later in the evening when he cleaned up from dinner, his dog-faced sippy cup ended up landing inside a mug in the sink. I mentioned the dog looked like it was hiding, and without pause, Owen commented "dog making poop!" Silly man!

Self-trained

O's verbal skills continue to develop, and he keeps a close eye on anything Z does. Here he shows his mad clean-up skills.

He clearly adores/worships his brother, often echoing what he says or following him around the house -- sometimes following perhaps a bit too close?

I was home with the boys today (I've actually have gotten to spend a lot of good quality time with them in the past few weeks) and he continues to be particularly interested in emulating Z on the potty -- he'll frequently sit on one of the little training potties in the bathroom while Z occupies the, um, official one. Most of time he's fully clothed, but in the past few days he's frequently requested we help him remove his diaper. Yesterday Meh reported that he actually went a bit (she was so proud that she, er, left it for me to view). And today he wanted to sit on the big boy potty himself. But he couldn't quite figure out how to climb up, and when he kept squatting next to the potty, I was starting to get a bit nervous. Still, trying to help him up led to more of the insistent "Owen do it" or "do it myself" that shows just how determined he is. Meanwhile, Z has now turned around and started to imitate O imitating him (!), hanging out in the bathroom on the tiny potty and reading his favorite potty books -- sotto voce, of course:

Challah for breakfast

Our roadtrip to Texas continued with the drive from Houston to Fort Worth. Unfortunately, stopping in the very fun Austin wasn't really an option -- the mapping software indicated it would nearly double our journey. Speaking of mapping software, I think the most challenging part of Texas might be all of the frontage roads for freeways - half of our directions ended up placing us on streets that apparently aren't really even streets. Anyway, so we travelled along the fairly non-descript I-45, making stops at scenic gas stations, sub shops, but also at a brand-spankin' new rest stop that featured, among other things, a giant sheet metal buffalo (O was entranced) and an excellent playground (both Z and O were excited to stretch their legs). I was amused to note that the playground's springy ground cover was actually a giant red, white, and blue Lone Star -- are they really that prevalent that some playground company manufactures them en masse, or was this custom for the rest stop?
Anyway, we arrived in Fort Worth (more specifically Benbook) after dark but did get to have a tasty pizza dinner with M and K (N was already asleep) before landing at our new hotel. Again, luck was with us: the room faced a gas station/truck stop with at least 4 big rigs parked outside for Z to enjoy in the morning. We then headed over to the S family, where Meh and the boys got to meet N for the very first time! She was initially shy, but warmed up to us pretty quickly. We all had a shared breakfast of challah french toast expertly prepared by M; friend C who we had been visiting previously on this trip in Houston had used my recipe and made an extra loaf for us to bring up to Fort Worth -- thanks C!
Then it was onward to the day's activities: a craft fair for the ladies (Meh had a great time and even discovered a new favorite jewelry artist), and a nice Fort Worth park for the dads and kids. O proceeded to sleep through the entire event, while Z swung and swung (he even started to get the hang of pumping his legs to go "faster!") and N alternated between slides, swinging, rocking, and climbing.
After tasty exclusive lunches out (Meh and K ate Texan barbecue, while the dads and kids had yummy Mexican), we all regrouped for a relaxing afternoon in the wonderfully warm (though I suppose M and K might argue cool when compared to the 100+ degree summers?) weather, taking a long stroll around the neighborhood with the kids, playing, reading books (Z was quite pleased to discover a prisitine copy of his favorite), and in general just chilaxing -- it was so nice to just stay put. Oh, and Owen and N went shopping around the house.
The last day of our trip started with Meh and K doing an extended run (Meh is prepping for the Seattle Half Marathon in a few weeks!) followed another lovely M and K produced breakfast. Then we headed to M's school for the grand tour; the large fountain was a big hit, as was a large grass field in which to run wild. Zachary and Owen were both calling the TCU horned frog statue a "dinosaur". Indeed.
After wrapping up our tour, we had a lovely group stop for ice cream before heading back to the airport. It was so great to catch up with M, K, and N (their own recollections here), and we hope to see them again very soon! All too soon we were saying goodbye to the "black car", wandering the many terminals, riding the airport train, eating lunch, and at long last catching our flight back -- both boys were still light on the sleep, but enjoyed watching "looootttts of big airplanes!", and Z even celebrated the flight by watching Curious George's airport adventure episode. An exhausting couple of days, but it was so so good to catch up with friends and family, and have a little Texas-sized adventure!

Pirate booty

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!