Extended technique

Z brings home his school work in his backpack nearly daily; he calls it "table work", and will frequently recount it among his day's full schedule: "first we'll have table work, then recess, then lunch, then P.E., then get on the yellow bus..." We see a fabulous progression of his handwriting, counting/numeric comparisons, and overall reading and math comprehension. We also get to see some of Z's creativity in action -- here was an assignment he brought home this week. I love how he extended the drawings to add legs (and apparently dresses?) to the characters. We also had him bring home what I think was originally supposed to be a connect-the-dots of a turtle that he insists is now a giraffe, and he drew a tall tree next to it that the giraffe is "eating".

Many of his table work assignments have the standard "name:" and "date:" fields at the top, which he dutifully fills out each time. It's been interesting to see that on assignments that don't have these fields, he's been occasionally adding them and a blank line (not actually filled in with his name) to the top. Z definitely prefers a certain level of consistency/formality to his school papers!

Z's class photos came back today, and they did not disappoint -- not pictured here is the "extended" 3/4 length pose version we also got, where you can see that his sweater's sleeves were long enough that they were completely covering and obscuring his hands. But such a cute and handsome smile from our kindergartener!

Back in my day...

When you return to a place you haven't been to in a while, you tend to immediately notice the changes. So while I was only a mile or two north of where I live for basically all of my Los Angeles time at college, it was a bit of shell shock when I drove into a downtown LA that had somehow gone upscale in my absence. Granted, my time there even predated the Staples Center, but now there's this whole entertainment complex thing attached to it. And crazy constantly-expanding affordable light rail service, which I (gasp) actually even used as a convenient way to meet up with friends one evening. Though hey, at least the traffic and driving patterns have stayed pretty consistent.

Anyway, it's been a very productive and good trip to Los Angeles; as with New York, I thankfully got to spend some time with college friends in between lectures (both giving and attending), meetings, learning about new technologies, and catching up with the latest from many professional contacts and friends. I got to catch up with a number of friends from both college and post-college, including friends J and A and their son L (who is close to O's age and really reminded me of him; J reports that he was still asking a few days later when I'd come back to read more stories, so I must've made a somewhat positive impression). And I even got to go see my friend J's excellent new documentary film in an honest-to-goodness first run mainstream movie theater as an anonymous patron -- there was spontaneous applause at the credits! Congrats to J, looking forward to the Seattle premiere next week! But even more than that, definitely looking forward to and ready to be heading home tonight, to snuggle with the family first thing tomorrow morning with the boys wake up.

Play Date

With the weather beginning to turn cold and wet, it's important to be consistently expanding the repertoire of kid-friendly entertainment options. Meh had work today, so it was time to find a choice that involved an at least mildly constrained/enclosed play space. Enter this epic indoor playground with attached hipster-friendly food service (something seems inherently wrong about a playground serving craft beers, but who am I to complain?) and big screen TVs broadcasting college football, and we had a winner.

The source of the recommendation was even able to join us, as O's class friend J came out for play time with his dad M. (J had been talking about bringing O here for some time.) Needless to say, big win; the boys could hardly be bothered to sit for food, preferring to run, climb, hop, nest (Z found a particularly isolated corner of a giant tunnel; it took me a few minutes to relocate him, though when he spotted me he smiled and talked about daddy in the tunnel), and pneumatically launch foam balls at each other and other crazy kids. Here's a video I grabbed; somehow the audio didn't make it onto Flickr, but I'm sure you can imagine the placid quiet that would accompany this scene: I'm off to Los Angeles this evening for two (no, make that three) conferences. The boys were a bit concerned to hear that I'd be gone (Meh perhaps more so?), though O was quick to add that I should bring them back presents of chocolate. Time will tell.

Mischief of one kind and another

Happy Halloween! We actually got to have a dry run early this year, as friends Z and A had a Halloween party at their house on Saturday night. I was all adventurous and brought the boys solo (Meh had a choir concert) -- they were a bit overwhelmed to arrive and discover not only an awesomely decorated house (laser lights, music, giant spiders with webs, and Halloween-themed everything [including hand towels in the bathroom!]) but also that they were the only boys in a sea of like ten little girls. We walked into the play room where they were doing arts and crafts jack-o-lanterns, and O was mystified that there were no cars in sight. But the boys had a good time overall, snacking on fun Halloween-themed foods (deviled eggs with spiders made of olives on top, cookies that looked like fingers, etc.) and watching a motion-activated skeleton on the piano start singing a song every time they walked past. O got to realize his months-long-ambition to be Buzz Lightyear, while Z reprised his Max (of Where the Wild Things Are) costume from last year. O thought that was it for the Buzz outfit, and was already requesting to dress up like a Power Ranger for "real" Halloween -- even though we're fairly convinced he still doesn't have much idea of what Power Rangers actually look like. (He and some of his friends "play" Power Rangers at school, which from his descriptions sounds mostly like something between tag and cops & robbers.) Thankfully I talked him into a second showing of Buzz.

Today was Halloween proper, and we fully celebrated the occasion. Of course, the day had to start with awesome mommy-created Halloween-themed lunches for the boys. I wore my costume to work (one of the few - c'mon, coworkers!) and had to resist the urge to constantly reenact the condescending Wonka internet meme. Mommy and O came to visit me at work, where there was trick or treating around our central cafeteria area as well as one of those little trains making a circle around campus -- alas, there weren't many train cars and the line was moving painfully slowly. O persisted for quite a while but eventually did grow bored, so we moved on to candy collection and snacks. In the meantime, Z marched in the school parade in full Max attire.

In the evening, everyone got back into their costumes and it was time for some trick-or-treating! Meh and I were the unlikely pair of Willy Wonka and Violet Beauregard. Mima and papa (Indiana Jones) joined up with us as well for the first half of the loop around our neighborhood:

The prize for coolest Halloween costume in the neighborhood went to a little two-year-old Ghostbuster (complete with custom made outfit and proton pack), whose mom had somehow modded an actual Ecto-1 vehicle out of a motorized kids cart for him to ride between houses. It was pumping out the Ray Charles Ghostbusters theme and was a hit with all of the parents (though most of the kids I'm guessing had no idea what it was about).

Of course the evening had to wrap up with a recounting of the candy, as well as choosing two choice pieces to eat this evening. O appeared to take the slightly larger haul, though both of them will likely have Halloween candy to last through the new year. Z was particularly careful in evaluating each piece of candy before choosing a bat-shaped lollipop. Happy Halloween once again -- far more pictures here.

Three's Company

If it's cleared to announce on the social networks, I suppose it's okay to post a blog entry -- we're expecting! Meh is due right around O's birthday in early March, and for the first time in more than 60 years, my family will be welcoming a girl! Meh's logic for announcing now was that of course we'll be taking Halloween pictures tomorrow, and her costume is Willy Wonka's Violet Beauregarde turning into a blueberry -- so she wanted to get out in advance and explain the joke as involving a pregnant tummy. :)
O has been more excited than Z (who internally is probably thinking "here we go again") -- he keeps talking about the baby in mommy's tummy, though we had to explain a bit more than we'd expected about it being a different part of her tummy than where food goes. This promptly got reflected back to us in this reported conversation with one of his teachers:

O: That's a cute baby! (as a mom goes by pushing a stroller)
Teacher: Is that baby cute?
O: Yes. I have a cute baby.
Teacher: You do?
O: Yes, in mommy's uterus.

Working for peanuts

A blissfully empty day in the family schedule, and we tried to take full advantage of it. O really wanted to "go to the mall", so we decided to take the boys to at least a different mall with a new play area. Foiled again -- the play area was torn up for remodeling (though hey, at least there was an indoor crane there to look at). On the plus side, opposite the play area was the Lego store, so we went in there and browsed. The boys were super excited by all of the Lego vehicles (Meh made me promise not to look at one particular section, where I suspect a potential Chanukah present lives), and there were several tables/stations for making your own inventions as well.

Mommy had some clothes to return/exchange, and it was still a few minutes before the restaurants would open for lunch (at 11 am mind you), so we wandered outdoors to some of the fun fountains -- the boys enjoyed watching the water sprays, but were clearly very focused on mommy coming back. We had a very nice lunch at an old standard. Then O and Z clearly still needed to burn off some energy, so we headed up to a favorite park for some exercise time. Granted, park activities generally end in more parent than kid exercise (pushing on swings, holding them up on zip lines, spinning the boys as they sit on merry go rounds, etc.) -- but still, somehow they usually seem more tired afterwards; go figure.

O has recently rediscovered our big wheels style tricycle, and has been asking us to clear the garage of vehicles so he can drive it around a bit. Since the weather was actually decent if still a bit wet, and the boys clearly had even more energy, we opted to walk up to Z's elementary school playground when we got home. O rode the tricycle, and alternated between peddling like a mad man and "letting" me help push him. He was very concerned that I not even touch the push handle if he could make forward progress solo. Anyway, when we got to the playground, the boys had a fabulous time -- Z kept talking about "recess", and really enjoyed pushing his brother around on the tricycle. Plus there weren't any spectacular crashes or wipeouts, so I'll call it a win.

The day wrapped up with dinner at another of the boys' newer favorite restaurants. Z continues to improve his reading, and at this restaurant it's particularly challenging to identify which of the many signs he might be sounding out at a given time (the walls are covered with large font reviews of the restaurant). Today he was working his way through announcing that "burgers are boss" -- while happily munching on a giant hot dog. In the meantime, O was having a wonderful time and making a spectacular mess shelling and eating peanuts. I still haven't gotten him to actually try the restaurant's tasty-looking grilled cheese sandwich, but it's a bit alarming just how many of their tasty french fries he can consume. Hooray for full family days!

Furlough / A guy walks into a bar...

It's been a long but good week! While the time in many ways flew by, and it was great to visit with family and friends, it's still very good to be back home after a solo trip to both Washington D.C. and New York. I hadn't seen my bubbie (grandmother) in quite a while, and as it's going to be challenging to get the whole family back east (though O is already frequently talking about it being our next flight destination), and I was en route to a conference in New York, I decided to fly first to DC and then take the train into New York.

The timing was somewhat fortuitous I suppose, if there's something positive to be said for a government shutdown; my aunt was off work because of it, and it was really nice to get to spend time with both her and my grandmother. I also got to have dinner with my uncle and cousin. There was good conversation, multiple rounds of gin rummy (my bubbie can still run the table), and of course lots of showing of the boys' pictures and catching everyone up on O and Z's continuing adventures and silliness. I did find some old family pics, and it was neat to see photos of my grandmother at my age, with my aunt and dad when they were kids.

I caught the evening train the next night to New York (productively getting a ton of work e-mail done with the free wi-fi), exited Grand Central station, walked a few blocks to my hotel, and walked into a crazy club scene -- I mean the lobby of my hotel -- at 10 pm. It was really quite the happening place; friend M who I caught up with later in the week indicated she'd had a date there. I rolled my bag to what I thought was the check-in desk, only to realize from the wide array of bottles behind the desk that it was actually the bar - whoops.

Of course everywhere I went, I was thinking about the boys and Meh; my route to the convention center took me past the horse stables (is there anything more incongruous in the middle of Manhattan?), and I snapped a picture of them getting ready to start their day. Similarly, I thought of my favorite librarian when I saw the New York Public Library lions. And I also was proven wrong by O in absentia; he has frequently said that any tow truck with its lights flashing is a "police tow truck", and I've tried to patiently explain that tow trucks aren't operated by the police. Sure enough, my first morning, an NYPD tow truck was getting ready to haul away an illegally parked vehicle.

The conference went very well; it was good to both catch up with a number of fellow audio folks and the talks I delivered seemed well received. I also got to meet a number of students in a "speed mentoring" session, and a bunch turned out to be in town for the conference from the technical college in my own home town -- small world! There were also evening social events; one of which was next door to an unlabeled storefront that must have been some kind of art space housing (I kid you not, see the picture) some glowing flying dogs with wings chained to what looked like a scrapped car engine. I have no idea, yet somehow I think it would not have been out of place if transported to my hotel's lobby. Anyway, I showed the picture to O tonight and he though it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

I was also able to catch up with a number of old friends for meals or coffee, and had an alarming number of kosher deli meals (yes, the links are correct; I ate at Ben's twice). And best of all, I got to spend time with my brother B and sister in law J, moving out of the slightly pretentious hotel for the weekend to stay at their very cozy new place in Brooklyn, along with sampling some of the best bagels in the borough. We had such a wonderful time hanging out, catching up, seeing some nice exhibits at the Met, and more. My brother and I also stopped by the movie theater that will be premiering my good friend J's documentary film in a few days -- alas, the operators of the theater were clueless and didn't even know that it was coming, so I couldn't find any publicity photos. Ah well -- huge congrats to J, and go see the film!

B and I also went to the not-yet-completed 9/11 Memorial, where there are a very emotionally moving pair of inverted fountains with etched victims names, the Survivor Tree (which somehow survived both the original disaster *and* Hurricane Sandy last year), and a building that will house a museum in the future, all adjacent to the nearly completed 1,776 foot tall One World Trade Center. A meaningful, respectful, and understated memorial; well worth the queue and substantial security.

I of course picked up presents for both the boys (two new toy subway cars that cover Uncle B and Aunt J's current commute routes) and Meh (a pair of black and white cookies, one from one of the most posh bakeries in town and one that was slightly more humble [authentic?] -- we'll have to see which she prefers). And at last I was back on the plane home -- another trip in a few weeks to LA and then I think I'm home for quite some time!

Kid Rock

Uncle J has headed back to Texas for a visit, and some of his items are in storage at our house in the interim. O was mystified by the big black guitar case that had magically appeared ("Is it a viola?" "Whose guitar is it?"), but when his curiosity had him starting to open the case, I redirected him to Meh's own guitar. She captured the following O performance. I "think" the first song is about toy cars, but many of the lyrics and the song's title were, shall we say, left open to interpretation.

Mister Bump

Several times last year, Z would return home from school wearing a brightly colored bracelet -- this indicated some kind of 'head injury', though thankfully they were all minor. There would also be an official paper write-up describing the injury ("bumped into a door", etc.) in his backpack. Mister Z came home yesterday with a bracelet, and *two* head injury write-ups -- poor Mr. Bump! Apparently there were two voicemails on the answering machine, but only the second merited a phone call to Meh's cell; when she asked if this was the same one again, the school indicated, nope, another bonk.

In slightly happier news, Z continues to amaze us (and amuse himself) by using repurposed Bananagrams tiles to spell out words and now increasingly long and complex sentences. Sometimes I'll visit the dining room table to see he's left a little message for us -- once it was "mommy is cozy", though as I tried to snap a picture of it for Meh, he scattered the tiles and started a fresh sentence. Meh was amused/mock saddened by the image below (Z later answered his own question, even if not quite correctly).

3DO

O had his very first class trip yesterday, to a very fun local farm. Mommy volunteered to be one of the drivers, and from the sounds of it, everyone had a great time -- and I do mean everyone: it was apparently most of O's entire school in attendance, not just his class. They walked through a hay maze, visited with turkeys and ducks, and even got to ride a tractor ride to pick out pumpkins. Friend A's dad J brought a fancy tripod rig and even took a cool pannable panoramic picture of the class.

Later that afternoon, Meh and I received an e-mail from his teachers. He apparently rarely takes a nap at school (often coming home to tell us that his friends couldn't sleep because he was talking to them), but they told us that they'd captured a picture of a rare O nap the previous day -- yes, hood up, and crocs on his hands.

O has also started a year-long project where they will apparently be drawing self-portraits. At the parent conferences/orientation on Tuesday night, Meh and the other parents in attendance were shown a pile of the kids' first draft drawings and tried to guess which one was their child's. Meh (and many other parents) guessed that the one that was just a little unidentifiable squiggle was their child's, but we were both pretty impressed with the one that turned out to be sketched by O - nice drawing, O!

How do you like them apples?

Friends J and S and their kids L and E invited us to go apple-picking this weekend, at the same place where Z took his first bite of an actual non-sliced-up fruit about three years ago. Meh unfortunately had to work, but I got the kids into the car with snacks and road trip music (it's about an 80-minute drive to the U-Pick apple orchard) in hand. O promptly conked out, so Z and I chatted about all of the fun things that we saw -- there was a parked classic steam locomotive, a building that looked like a crane (it was, appropriately enough, a crane supply/rental shop -- a ton of them were parked behind it), a car repair shop with a tiny old Fiat up on the room, the largest telephone pole either of us had ever seen, and an alarmingly large collection of drydocked boats spanning several miles of the highway.

O had perfect nap timing, waking up as we pulled into the farm. It was much the way we remembered it -- the boys even played on the same pink toy tractor that Z had on our last visit. (Despite the suggestion from the picture, O was not particularly unhappy about Z's turn; he was just waking up.) Then it was time to pick some apples!

The weather was glorious -- 75 degrees in October? The kids got a ride in the cart (which we promptly dumped at the first row of the orchard), and Z helped push. It's a bit later in the season this time, so some of the apple trees were already bare. Others had dropped *lots* of fruit, and what I thought might be a couple of flies turned out to be giant swarms of very happy bees. We gingerly stepped through and found apples to eat and to bring home for snacks and lunches (I put one in the boys' lunch today). Z found one particular apple that he was sampling for the better part of an hour. Then there was a hay ride. Well, the hay wagon part anyway; I think they do rides around Halloween. The boys had a great time; it took forever to coax them back out to help us pick out a pumpkin to bring home.

To wrap things up, they were pouring glasses of fresh apple cider; O was thrilled to sip one ("It's like apple juice. Only warmer.") on the walk back to the car. As we got into the car and buckled up, I told O about all of the fun stuff Z and I had seen on the drive up. He didn't believe me that he'd fallen asleep and taken a nap through it all, so I had to basically call out all of the landmarks in reverse as we drove home. He'd excitedly say "Oh! I *do* see that!", then immediately demanded I let him know what the next thing was that we'd see. Tourist.

More pics here.

To infinity -- from scratch

O has fairly consistently indicated he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween this year. What did Meh do? Make the most amazing jetpack with wings. From scratch. She really is simply amazing!
Both boys spent much of the day modeling (and, perhaps more importantly, very nicely sharing) the new jetpack.

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.

Backwards letters and numbers

Z's favorite toy of late is the magna doodle. In part from noticing the etched ID codes on the windows of our car, he's become fascinated with backwards letters and numbers, and will frequently either draw them backwards or sit in front of the hallway mirror, draw them forwards, and then hold them up to the mirror to see how they look in reverse. Did I mention he's also a huge fan of the percent symbol? This has even become a favorite toy to bring in the car, winning out over (gasp) toy vehicles. He seems to understand this is a bit of a game, often commenting after he draws a backwards letter, "Why did you draw backwards letters?". Tonight at dinner he had some letter cookies, and when I glanced over I noticed he'd flipped all of them over on his plate as well, saying "It's backwards letters and numbers!"

Booth babes

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.

Love is all you need

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.

Pedestrian effort

On weekends that mommy works, my goal is generally to find us at least one major activity a day - sometimes it's errands, when the weather cooperates we'll try to go to the park, when it's pouring rain (more often than not in the last few days, though today was thankfully beautiful) we'll find some kind of indoor play area. Yesterday was fairly typical -- the always energy-burning fun of the local mall play area followed by distracting O from the evil/brilliantly positioned cupcake shop right across from it, and completed with a sushi lunch (the waiter there knows us so well that he always concludes the meal with "See you again [insert arbitrary day of the week]!"

With the weather back to sunny for today, after dropping off mommy, I decided it was time to get back outdoors while we could (and O agreed, he wanted to "go to a park we haven't been to before"). So we drove over to the rarely visited Kelsey Creek park and farm. After playing on their playground for a few minutes, we hiked up to the farm proper and got to visit with some sheep, chickens, roosters, bunnies (all grazing and/or drinking water, but ignoring us), and a couple of sleeping pigs. Then Z was hiking away from us and I saw some goats and a horse down the path, so I figured sure, we'll follow him and visit with those animals. Then he kept hiking and suddenly we were on a trail. Again, I figured it was probably some kind of loop through the park (I'd checked a few maps beforehand and saw a pair of less-than-one-mile loops), and Z did an awesome job of sounding out the trail signs to see where we should go next. Alas, O wasn't quite as into the hike as Z, frequently panting dramatically and saying he was getting too tired -- so there was a fair amount of piggy backing. Anyway, we were gradually ascending alongside the creek, and eventually Z read a sign that put us .1 miles from the road that bounds the park. I figured there would be a bench or something there and we'd just stop for a snack then walk back along the road until we could cut back in on another path. Nope -- no benches, and no more trails as we proceeded to walk the southern circumference of the park back to the entrance. I've roughly estimated that we did a 2.5 mile hike -- not bad for Z, and even O was down and walking a fair bit. What I'd forgotten was that this road is pretty much a high speed divided highway; thankfully there was a wide sidewalk for most of it, which provided immense entertainment for Z as he kept turning around to catch vehicles whizzing past. We eventually did just camp out in a shady spot on the sidewalk, where the boys proceeded to devour the entire stock of snacks contained by the backpack. Hiking is hard work! Anyway, an unexpected but all in all successful adventure; we returned to the park where the boys insisted on playing on the playground once more before we finally headed back to the car and then home for some chill time before mommy was done with work. Hooray for positive outdoor experiences, even accidental ones!

Curtain call

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!

School lunch

First day of school! This year, both boys were off to class this morning. Kind of a stuttering start to the school year since Thursday and Friday are Rosh Hashana, but at least there are a few days to start to get acclimated to the classroom, meet teachers and new friends, and in general start to get back into the fall swing of things. For Z, we were mildly unprepared by the bus actually being early (same driver as last year; her voicemail had even said "hooray!", as Z is one of her favorite kids to pick up), since driver V had warned us she'd probably be pretty late on the first day. Still, we managed to throw on Z's clothes and new raincoat (as if on cue, the weather flipped to rain today) and get him out the door and onto the bus in time to head out. He brought home a nicely colored first day picture, signed with his name -- and he'd then continuing on around the perimeter of the paper to count the numbers up to 20 - now he's just showing off!

O in the meantime had an excellent first day at preschool. He comes in knowing two friends (and actually one of the teachers was a counselor at Z's camp this summer), and in the picture they e-mailed back after day 1, he was happily chowing down on apples and honey and then sitting with friend A watching one of the teachers read a book. But when we asked him what his favorite part of his first day was, it was his "special lunch"; mommy made him a sandwich shaped like a school bus, and he was apparently exclaiming about it for the rest of the day. He at the whole thing "but not the crusts", as he told us later in the day. Z's similar school bus sandwich didn't get nearly the ecstatic verbal reception, but his lunch container similarly came home nearly empty. Happy first day to everyone!

He's a pirate

With huge thanks to friend R for the heads up in advance, after a tasty brunch with mima, papa, and Uncle J this morning, we headed onward with Uncle J to visit two tall ships temporarily docked at a nearby pier. The boys were super excited; O insisted on wearing his full pirate getup (we had to talk him out of wearing it into the restaurant), complete with hook hand. They were nearly onboard the Hawaiian Chieftain before we'd even gotten out the camera. The timing worked out well and we got to say hi to R, M, and their son J, who were also aboard. These ships apparently sail the Pacific coast from their Grays Harbor home, teaching people about 18th/19th century seafaring life. Oh, and also starring in practically every film that requires a ship of the vague general period; the second ship we boarded, the Lady Washington, was featured in Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Trek: Generations, and the Once Upon a Time TV show. Meh was of course pleased to follow in the steps of Jack Sparrow, while I was happy to occupy the same bridge as Jean-Luc Picard. (dorks)

The boys had an excellent time exploring the ships, looking over the edge of the ship at the water (I had to remove O's hat for fear it and/or he would go overboard). And O was very intent on operating most of the ship using his hook. More pictures of the boys and their plunder here.