O's nanny does a bunch of fun activities with the kids, often including weekly art projects. Last week they were focused on talking about themselves and what they do and like. This piece of paper came home (filled out by the nanny, but obviously answered by O):
I am really good at:
I like to jump in the leaves.
When I am home with Mommy & Daddy & Zachary:
I like to jump in the woods.
If I could be anywhere in the world:
I would like to go to the park.
I am special because:
I have ice cream at home.
Clearly a bit of a one track response. Also, O often tries to avoid leaves when we're on walks, asking "what's that?" and then responding "I don't like the leaves." Oh, and he doesn't typically get ice cream at home, though he does every Friday at his nanny's. Ah well, silly man.
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!
Several months ago, while stopped in the car at a traffic light, O proclaimed, "It's a purple fireman hat!" It took us a few minutes to figure out what he was referring to.
To this day, he still points out the hat when we pass the sign. And then today in the car, O said "it's the raisin lady!"
A lovely Thanksgiving was had by all yesterday -- the food was delicious, the company excellent, and the boys decently well behaved. Hooray! Meh of course paid excellent attention to every detail; the kids even had their napkins wrapped in a ribbon with a feather that Z later decided to wear as a pseudo-headdress. My experiment with bite-sized challah rolls was a success (O both helped make them and ate a few), we had an enormous range of scrumptious sides and desserts, and there was a turkey cooked in record time due to our recent discovery (thanks to Alton Brown) of this preparation technique. Granted it wasn't easy; Meh eventually resorted to wrapping a rolling pin in a plastic bag and bashing the turkey trying to remove the last of the backbone. But in the end, a delicious bird that cooked in less than half the time of last year's! More pictures here.
Hooray for visits from Uncle B! Both boys were very much looking forward to seeing him, and had a great time once he arrived from the east coast. There was much playing, talking, dining together, and a nice family walk to the park. The weather is definitely on its way to getting colder, so Z even donned an excellent penguin hat that we'd received from Uncle B and Aunt J after a trip last year.
We got to have lunch with some mutual friends we hadn't seen in a while, at a restaurant called the Barking Dog. On the way there, O was very excited to see the dog, and while I figured it was just a name and tried to set expectations accordingly, sure enough, there was a cute little pug wagging his tail and greeting everyone as they arrived. O: "I like the doggie, he sniffed me a little bit." As an extra bonus, the restaurant had a good selection of coloring books, including a Cars themed one (score) that someone had stuck a bunch of Cars stickers into (double score); both boys were very pleased, even if O passed on the tasty-looking grilled cheese and only ate his waffle fries, while Z ignored the several pounds of pasta they served him. Ah well. Uncle B also visited an orchestra rehearsal and then attended my fall concert; it was great to have him there for support in the audience!
Alas, all too soon, the visit was over - though there was a final highlight as the boys got to drive Uncle B to the airport for his flight, and proceeded to exclaim happily as we drove past all of the planes parked at their gates. We were glad to get a weekend with Uncle B and look forward to seeing him again soon!
Yesterday O invented a new drink, taking his Halloween candy choice of the day (a lollipop) and discovering that not only did it fit nicely into the straw of his drinking cup, but that he could drink juice around/through it, making it extra sweet. "I like it, it's a little bit yummy!"
O and Z's favorite film series du jour is Toy Story (we're pleased they've moved on from Cars a bit). Z's toothbrush needed replacement, and he happily picked out Buzz Lightyear one when we went to the store -- and then both boys were very excited to spot the Toy Story 3 DVD in the video aisle (we only had the first two films). Many mornings (when we stumble downstairs at 5:30 or 6 in the morning) Z will now query which one we should watch: "Toy Story 1, Toy Story 2, or Toy Story 3?". If I ask him to choose he says, "one with the spaceman, Buzz Lightyear" - note that Buzz is of course in all three of them.
Both boys will then happily snuggle with the nearly-still-asleep daddy and/or mommy and watch at least the opening sequence. But when it's early enough, we tend to make it a good 20 to 30 minutes into the movie before the kids want to go play something else. The last few times, I've noticed O start to get concerned with a certain sequence, and this morning as it approached, he actually put his hands over his eyes and ears and told me "I don't like this part!" Such a cute little sensitive man! Granted, I've also caught Meh occasionally sitting on the ottoman, pulled in by one of the many heartrending scenes in the film. Darn those tear-jerker Pixar montage sequences!
Happy Halloween! For the first time, we completed a full circuit of the neighborhood - even through some spitting rain. Both boys did great at knocking on doors and ringing doorbells. About half of Z's candy collection ended up getting placed into O's bag; I'm not sure if he was self-selecting the candy he didn't want or if he didn't want his bag getting too heavy. Anyway, Z was even a minor celebrity: at school today, they had a parade of costumed kids, and many other parents (not us; Z tends to get concerned when he sees us at school if it isn't the end of the school day) had attended -- several adults and kids alike from the neighborhood recognized him during the evening trick or treating. A little first grade girl who apparently sits near him at lunch even helped her mom open the door at one house, she was very cute in recognizing and asking about him.
Both the boys' costumes were excellent, and I thought Meh's Mary Poppins outfit was great (even though she was bummed she couldn't find an appropriate umbrella). My own Bert (the Mary Poppins one, not Sesame Street) was basically a vest and a derby, and with the jacket on, mildly indistinguishable from being dressed as a parent taking his kids trick or treating), but it was great fun all around.
And Z's mind was mildly blown when we went to our backyard-adjacent neighbors' house: as we learned a few weeks ago, Z's kindergarten teacher's parents live there -- and his teacher grew up there and went to his same elementary school! When we got to their door and knocked, who should answer but Ms. H! Meh and O were invited in for a quick visit to our-house- through-the-looking-glass (aka same construction/layout but without some of the more "interesting" modifications subsequent owners have made to our house) while Z elected to continue to practice his "trick or treating!" (yes, with the '-ing') on the porch. We wrapped up the night back at our house, where each boy was entitled to one piece of candy before bath time, and before the older trick-or-treaters started making their own rounds of the neighborhood.
I really don't think words are even necessary on this post -- except to indicate the excellent outfit Meh had originally intended for this summer's Baltimore wedding has finally gotten worn and captured on film.
San Francisco has been a nice trip thus far, though we of course miss the boys a ton. We did get to get several kid fixes: we got to visit with friends A and E with their cute kids (they just moved here from Atlanta) on the day we arrived, and Meh visited friend S and her kids I and E (they just moved here from our neck of the woods) the next day in Sunnyvale (which she kept calling Sunnydale, to many teasing Buffy references from me). We've also gotten to do a small amount of exploring, including a nice walk along Lands End that featured multiple fly-bys by synchronized fighter jets (barely visible in the top right of the picture). Of course there's also been the prerequisite shopping and much tastyfood (mostly of the excellent breakfast/brunch variety)
-- my favorite was actually a spot that I must've been near dozens of times but had never realized existed before, a fabulous place serving no less than seven kinds of formal tea service. I had Moorish service and Meh enjoyed the Russian -- which included a trip to the eponymous samovar for an orientation on mixing proper zavarka. Our favorite meal thus far.
Mima has continued an excellent tradition of sending us daily correspondences of her adventures with the boys. I always look forward to them, though I'm also a bit sad when I see some of them timestamped before 6 am -- thank you again so so much, mima, papa, and Uncle J! Highlights from the first few days:
O: Which is your favorite cup?
Mima: The green one, I like green and the princess one.
O: Mommy likes the princess one.
Mima: That is because she is a princess.
O: No, she is a womans.
[At Target] O spotted Cars Slippers, only 2 pair left and they happened to be their sizes. Small battle getting O to put his shoes back on to come home.
Zachary's idea of a fun game, pulling off Uncle Josh's hat
O and I had Sushi in Bothell; after 2.5 cucumber rolls he came home and slept for 2.5 hours. He asked for the leftover sushi for dinner but tried it and told me that "it isn't delicious anymore".
Making pancakes at 5 am - reasonable
Making pasta at 7 am - not
We got a fingernail scrubber brush months ago. Occasionally one or both of the boys thought it was funny to put in their mouths, or to use to brush their hair. We of course use it to clean fingers that seem to get impossibly dirty considering they're not playing in the mud or anything. O decided it was time to test this contraption's correct use out, and we now have a young manicurist in the family.
The boys' Halloween costumes are all picked out (and Meh has impressively slaved away at custom creations for both boys) -- but no, these aren't them! The approach of Halloween, in addition to getting both boys talking about going trick or treating and getting candy, has got O even more into costumes and playacting than previously. Here's one that's a particular favorite with the boys' newfound discovery (and now love) of Toy Story's cowboy, Woody. Draw, pardner!
Later this week, Meh and I will be taking a short trip down the coast where I've got twoconferences to present at. We're looking forward to a mostly quiet few days to recharge and visit a few local friends in between my work activities. Mima, Papa, and Uncle J will be keeping the boys company - as always a huge thanks and we're so lucky to have such supportive family!
Several firsts today when mima and I took the boys out to lunch after a trip to the local park:
1. Owen ordered his entire meal by himself, directly engaging with the server. He was very cute in specifying "grilled cheese with french fries", [and to drink?] "a milkshake", [what flavor?] "vanilla". We just have to work a bit more on the please and thank you's, but go O!
2. More tremendously, both boys cleared their plates! This is huge; Z hadn't even taken more than a bite on previous occasions, but we found the magic menu option of straight up spaghetti noodles, and he was delighted to twirl them on his fork (mima helped) and wolf them all down. Tremendous! O was also impressive in polishing off his entire grilled cheese sandwich and all of the fries (except one or two that were "for daddy").
The rare weekend with both of us in town and both at home is now in progress. Somehow I think the boys save their more challenging days for the two parent days, which I guess is a good thing? But anyway, both were looking a bit shaggy, so it was time for haircuts -- and rather than take them one at a time as I did for the last outing, we figured we'd try the two boys at once. I called ahead and the timing worked out well -- neither had a long wait. Z enjoyed a bit of his favorite film (yes, still Cars 2), but then decided he much preferred the real thing, turning toward the window to watch passing cars on the busy street. They both did an awesome job at the hair salon and got to pick out lollipops for their efforts; alas, O fell apart in the car when he decided he really wanted Z's more than his own. Suffice it to say naptime soon followed!
Mima graciously thought ahead to reserve the boys a slot in the local home improvement store's excellent kid-focused construction activities. And with the boys ongoing (permanent?) obsession with vehicles, they were extremely interested to learn that this morning we were off to, as O put it in yesterday's video interview, "Lola's house to build fire trucks!" Meh left for work and soon after, we headed out to pick up mima and get to the store. And when we got there, in the back corner amidst the piles of lumber and a forklift (O: "I hear the forklift!"), was a mass of kids and guardians/parents hammering away at red stained wood, nails, and stickers.
The boys had an excellent time, even if it was mostly then watching intently mima and myself doing the actual assembly. Of course they focused in on the wheels (because what is a vehicle if it can't roll on the ground?), whose assembly was in the last step - but patience somehow won out and Z did a fine job hammering as we worked together to build two decent fire trucks. Though boo to the too-thin pilot holes and instructions that ended with tires being hammered onto dowels without an awkward gripping point; bent nails and skewed tires aside, the boys were thrilled. The store even gives out badges for completing their kid projects; Z was a bit confused and thought he'd have to give up the fire truck for the badge, which was quite the dilemma for him, but we explained that indeed he got to keep both -- along with the safety goggles and fine work apron.
Of course once in the car there was great interest in controlling both trucks at once. We assuaged/distracted by heading to the boys' favorite sushi for an early lunch, at which Z did a fabulous job of trying new foods, sampling some sesame noodles ("it's spicy!") and even the marshmallow frosting of a cupcake after seeing his brother wolf down one.
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!
This morning, O sang: "Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on this farm he had a dog and Bingo was his name-O,
E--I--N-G-O, E--I--N-G-O, E--I--N-G-O,
and Bingo was his name-O."
The boys are right back into the swing of things from our trips, with school back on for Z and play time with friends for O. O loves accompanying Z out to (and then onto) the school bus each morning, saying hi to "Miss Vicki" when the doors open (even if Z himself doesn't always) and then climbing onto the bus and finding a seat while I buckle in Zachary. O is definitely ready for school, even if he's still got around 3 years to wait.
The travels continue -- at least for the grownups. I had a work conference this weekend at a beautiful resort in northern California; while I was mostly indoors sitting at conference tables, I did make sure Meh came with this time around (last year she hadn't been able to), and she took full advantage of their spa treatments along with some quiet uninterrupted reading time. We both got to take a few nice walks together, on one of which Meh found a giant shed snakeskin right in the middle of the path.
It was a nice opportunity to recharge a bit after our two extended summertrips with the boys. And of course we spent much of the time thinking and talking about them
(I even woke up a few times with imagined/dream-induced fears that they were awake and getting into trouble elsewhere in our room) in between admiring the scenery and eating tasty food. Huge huge thanks to mima for watching the boys over the weekend. She reported in daily with great snippets of quotes from her many fine conversations with O and Z:
O: I wish I had a dog at my house.
M: What kind of dog?
O: A small red one that doesn't bark.
M: Zachary, Papa is coming to take us to breakfast!
O: There may be bananas.
Z: In Maryland?
Our now-seasoned travelling boys were excited and ready for this weekend's trip to Maryland for my cousin M's wedding. As Z pointed out frequently in the weeks beforehand, it was also an opportunity to go "get on another airplane" and a "space shuttle bus" to go see "Aunt I, Uncle S, Uncle B, Aunt J, Bubbie, Cousin M, Cousin M, Grandma, and J" (recited in various permuations, of course with names spelled out). He was also talking about getting to see Nanny and Poppy there, so I'm not entirely sure if he was just demonstrating his family tree knowledge. Anyway, there was a difficulty multiplier on the flight this time around: it was during the daytime (so we had to be ready for both boys to be wide awake), and there was also a snuggish connection. The boys actually did a great job all around, loving the flights as well as the stopover in Detroit. O traversed this particular course about 10 times:
And no, running around the moving walkways and towing his own suitcase apparently did nothing to burn off energy, as he was chatting and asking for entertainment the entire second leg as well. It was still pretty darn cute (if perhaps not fully FAA compliant) to see him stand up on his seat, turn around, and smile or talk to Zachary or daddy during the flight.
We landed without incident in Charm City, and after collecting our luggage, got to experience their convenient light rail system straight into the city. Z was thrilled to get on the tall train, though he quickly lost energy as the train departed and likely would've fallen asleep if O hadn't kept tackle/snuggling his brother. One more form of transportation for the first night: from the train (which dropped us right outside of a very hopping Camden Yards with the Yankees in town to play the Orioles), we got to hop a "red taxi van!" to our hotel.
The hotel (and the whole area of Fell's Point) is among the oldest in the city, with cobblestone streets and buildings that seem nearly as they must've been several hundred years ago. The area also has more than a hundred pubs, and clearly no less than ninety of those were situated right outside of our not-entirely-soundproofed hotel room. We settled in, had bathtime, and Z discovered his favorite perspective: climbing into the wide windowsills and looking down onto the passing people and vehicles (occasionally announcing those that seemed the most interesting to him). O of course had to imitate his big brother.
Meh and I did a quick unpack, and discovered my epic fail: as we'd been getting ready to head out of the house that morning, I'd realized that the suitcase's retractable handle was broken. Quickly, I'd grabbed another suitcase and transferred all of the contents over. Except somehow I'd managed to fail to transfer the bag full of all of Zachary's clothes. Thankfully he had his spare set for the flight, but our task for the next day became apparent: get Z something to wear. And, oh yeah, his super cute and Owen-coordinated Janie and Jack wedding outfit had been in that pile as well. Crap.
The next morning, after a quick browse of the local street market and a good diner breakfast (hooray: they served Z's breakfast staples of Cheerios and bananas), we met up with grandma and J (along with my high school friend J, who drove up from the DC area for a brief visit), and were off to seek out clothes for Z. The inner harbor has a number of shopping facilities, so, killing two birds with one stone, we took the water taxi to get there. The boys were in love with the whole experience (plus they couldn't get over the fact that there was a taxi that went in the water), though O kept wanting to stand up and peek off the boat, particularly at the fun passing pirate ship.
The inner harbor was packed (primarily with visiting New Yorkers?), but we headed to the mall where luck smiled upon us and we were able to secure both casual wear and a new wedding outfit that ensured Z would look as dapper as his brother the next day. There was also sushi in the food court, and O charmed grandma into getting him a cupcake before we headed back. We had a small family dinner near the hotel, where O was wolfing down french fries when suddenly he said "my tongue hurts, that one is too spicy!" Meh confirmed that some of his fries had heavy seasoning, and she proceeded to hand-inspect the remainder to ensure a tongue-friendly meal.
In the evening was the wedding party's pre-event, a trip to the O's-Yankees game. We'd hoped to all go or at least take one of the boys, but everybody was pretty wiped, so I headed over solo and had a nice evening watching a couple of formerMariners play for the Yankees, while the Orioles prevailed. I returned to the room to the two boys asleep, curled up around Meh in the double bed - both adorable and pretty logistically impressive.
Sunday was the wedding day, but as it wasn't until the afternoon, we had to figure out an activity for the boys; while we'd hoped to hang a bit with family, things were slow to develop and the boys needed a park ASAP; I discovered this one "not far" away (within a mile, but over rugged urban sidewalks that a stroller full of boys wasn't easy to navigate - yes, O has somehow figured out how to sit behind Z in the single stroller, which likely isn't quite to code, but is pretty darn cute), and we wheeled our way over there in the growing heat/humidity.It actually turned out to be great fun for the boys, with both standardish playground equipment and a very cool giant sunken gymnasium with scaled down architectural features of Baltimore in it. We played for a bit, then having burned through our snacks and juice bottles, stopped here on the way back for tasty sorbet for Meh and a big milkshake for O.
Then it was hypothetically time for a quiet nap back at the hotel. Of course the boys had other ideas, discovering that one of the chairs was spinnable.
Five minutes later (to answer the reference in the video's title), O got really green from all of the spinning, and I rushed him into the bathroom just in time for him to barf in the potty. He spent much of the rest of the trip talking about Z spinning him on the chair, his tummy hurting, that he barfed in the potty, and then the many other fabulous uses of our friend the toilet. Anyway, that was enough distraction for the day, and it was time to prepare for the wedding.
The ceremony was held on a beautiful wharf a short distance from the hotel, which was lovely for boat watching (the pirate ship and water taxis were announced on each passing by Z and/or O), but mildly nerve-wracking for us as the boys kept wanting to run right up to the edge of the pier and peer into (and talk about swimming in) the Baltimore Harbor.
We strategically sat in the back row, which placed us close to the string duet (every song they played was sung along to by the boys, generally with the lyrics of "Old MacDonald" or "Mary had a little lamb"), and also gave us a good view of the procession, at least until the boys decided to try to take off halfway through the ceremony. Ah well, it was still fun and a beautiful wedding!
The reception was back on the top floor of our hotel. Z was a clear hit of the party, with many in attendance complimenting his hat and giving him five as he walked by. O was also receiving many kudos on his bow-tie-featuring outfit and his dancing stylings. Our table happened to be right next to the wedding cake, which O was excitedly talking about for much of the meal, but then declined to try when a piece was actually served to him. Eventually we retreated to the hotel room with the boys and I wrapped up our family's representation at the reception/dinner; I did manage to sneak a plate of wedding cake back to Meh for her to eat once the boys were more or less down for the night. It was a wonderful evening; even bubbie was up and dancing to the incongruous Ice Ice Baby.
The final morning was a brunch in the cute basement/ground floor of the hotel, in what has apparently been a bar for hundreds of years - a fun brick room with flowering plants in recessed window frames that let in light from up at street level. Zachary was pleased to pack away more Cheerios boxes, while O had a nice deep conversation with bubbie. And before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye to everyone and ride one more taxi back to the airport (Z: "and go through security!"), before starting our long journey home. While I thought I'd cleverly timed the itinerary to allow for an O nap or two, he refused and exhausted Meh on the first leg, and when we switched sons for the second leg, he only conked out for me a few hours into the flight. Though we loved being able to spend time with our usually geographically scattered family for a very happy occasion, it's very very good to be home from our second family trip in three weeks!
O's nanny does a bunch of fun activities with the kids, often including weekly art projects. Last week they were focused on talking about themselves and what they do and like. This piece of paper came home (filled out by the nanny, but obviously answered by O):
