Rhubarb

Hot chocolate

SNC00297.jpg, originally uploaded by seasara.

I took Ethan for hot chocolate on Sunday, his first of the season (although he doesn't remember ever having it, I don't think it was his first ever). We got two with whipped cream, which he licked off just as you should.

Growing in the background

Austin is awake a bit more lately, but it still seems as if we hardly see him. Enough so that I am often surprised, many times a day, by things he can suddenly do. He can grab at things with both hands, and manages to hang on for a few minutes. I'm not sure if he intends to do this or if he just grasps at whatever is around, and then can't figure out how to let go. This morning he spent several minutes staring at both of his hands (not easy to do when they flail around and you have only partial control of your head).

...

And in the day between when I started this post and now, he has learned to suck on his hands to his heart's delight, which has bought me just a few more minutes of free time when he's awake. I know from experience that in the blink of an eye he will be talking to himself in the next room, no need for me at all, so I will treasure his dependence dearly.

Having two little beings growing faster than I can believe makes it seem as if there is no time to rest and savor, everything is change. I can understand why people keep on having kids, each time thinking you will be able to slow time and really experience babyhood, but each one just seems to make things go faster.

Halloween

Despite aforementioned anti-climactic nature of the evening, we did do it up to full effect, with spiderwebs and jack o'lanterns. Phil's is on the left, Ethan's on the right, my uncarved and semi-rotten pumpkin lies lurking, somewhat ominously, in the back.

Ethan and I did have a magical time picking them out, in the afternoon after my preschool coop shift, we went to the market and he picked out three pumpkins, then we walked to the bakery and bought autumny treats and watched a parade of costumed preschoolers walk around. Austin slept through most of it, but woke up and grinned at us outside the bakery. Having this giggly, clueless baby around makes it all the more remarkable, and awesome, to witness the articulate and jovial companion that Ethan has become.

Happy autumn everyone! The feeling of imminent holidays has deepened, now that the days are shorter and we all long to curl up in bed by 6pm.

Big kid

Although Ethan still insists that he is a big boy, not a big kid (that amorphous age between big boy/girl and grown-up), he has recently stopped using either the stool or the child's potty seat when he goes to the bathroom. Just climbs right up by his lonesome, or even stands up just like his daddy.

Seems like we'll have a big kid on our hands soon...

Halloween

This was Ethan's third real Halloween, since he was only 5 months old in 2006. His first year we dressed him up as a rockstar and went out with one of Benjamin's cousins from around the corner. He loved walking up to people's houses, but as often as not he put candy from his bag into their bowls, and showed no interest in actually eating any of it.

His second year, he wore a lion costume and went out with his best friend from daycare, a monkey, and they vacuumed up candy around our apartment complex, a Halloween kids mecca. He and S ran boldly up to every door until someone opened it up dressed as a ghost and silently extended a long, pointy ghost finger at them both. The managed to work through their fear for two more houses, but the jig was up. It took us longer that year to gradually throw away most of the candy, so he got to eat quite a few pieces before it disappeared.

This year he had picked out Tigger costumes for both himself and Austin, but as it turned out the pictures I took the day we bought them are the only shots we have of them both dressed up. Ethan refused to dress up while he helped Phil hand out candy for a while, pushing his hand through the spider webs and jack o'lanterns decorating our door. Only when Phil started to walk next door with Austin as Tigger (babies are so cooperative!) did Ethan consent to put his Tigger pants on and venture out for candy. We handed out most of the rest of our candy and called it a night.

It felt a bit anti-climactic after all was said and done. What makes our complex fun for Halloween - the sheer density of kids and candy-giving households - also takes away some of the drama of the night. Our old neighborhood had those dark spaces between houses, where you can imagine all kinds of spookiness, wonder whether the next house will be dark, candlelit, or haunted.

Last year, the light and activity where we live were perfect for two-year-old boys still at sea in the very idea of Halloween. But now, I think Ethan is old enough to dwell in that space of fear, excitement, dread and adrenaline that make Halloween what it is. His current fascination with aging, scarecrows, and death is the very kind of intense grappling with what it means to be alive and human that is the driving spirit behind Halloween.

I think next year we will return to our old neighborhood and its pockets of darkness and mystery, maybe even I can recapture the excitement I remember from my childhood, faces sweating in our masks, even in freezing Minnesota, as we explored a neighborhood rendered unfamiliar for a night, never knowing what might greet us at the next door.

 

Second child

It's so true that second children get photographed less... not because my urge to document his babyhood has abated, but simply because there is less time, I am less organized, and there are fewer tranquil moments. But here's one from almost two months ago (September 6), still looking on the skinny side.

I will make a point of capturing his deliciously fat thighs in the next photo shoot.

Haircut

Ethan has had several at-home haircuts (most recently from Phil, whose effort to even out the bangs resulted in a Jim Carrey from Dumb and Dumber impression). We finally decided it was time to let a professional handle things, but convincing Ethan to let a stranger with scissors play around with his head wasn't easy. Yesterday, Phil hit on the brilliant idea of telling Ethan he could have the towtruck he's been begging for these last few weeks if he got his haircut. Ethan jumped right on it, and ran around the house in a frenzy to get ready and on his way.

He balked twice, when we first walked by, so we walked up the street and turned around. When we parked the stroller outside he hesitated again, but only for a minute. He waited patiently (asking loudly why the man in front of us was having his hair colored) and hopped right up into his booster seat when it was his turn. He insisted on holding my hand throughout, but never flinched or budged, despite her firm hand, rapid pace, and vast array of loud clippers.

I guess bribery has its place in child-rearing, because hearing him talk about how brave he was, and watching him clutch the tow truck on our way home, were priceless.

 

Vacation

We just got back from our first vacation in a while, to Texas. We saw Ethan's uncle Stevie, grandma cake, and an assortment of classmates from my old high school in Austin. All things considered, it was an easy and remarkably fun trip, given a 3-month-old with a persistent cold on top of the normal logistics of traveling with two small kids.

We finally got a few nice family shots, so our photo albums will no longer look as if P and I moved to separate states shortly before Austin came along. I still look like someone who was very pregnant only a few short months ago (I no longer believe anyone who says otherwise), a physique that I am reluctant to document for posterity, but there you have it.

And of course we were reminded that many of the things we imagine are unique to the Bay Area are, in fact, not, which of course begs the question of why we are paying such a unique price to live here. But then here we are, stuck for another few years at least, so such thoughts will have to be put on hold, if only temporarily.

Reunion

We are in Austin for my 20th high school reunion, soaking up the Texas sun and enjoying seeing my old friends. Ethan is in a lovely, happy phase, full of questions and funny comments, not as easily upset as he was only a couple of months ago. He weathered a 3-hour delay at SFO with nary a whine (more than I can say for myself). I trust this is a honeymoon between phases of craziness, so I'm trying to savor it. Yesterday on the potty he told me "Mom, you don't even want to see this poop I already made." Priceless, no?

Austin has a bad cold, which we only really discovered while waiting for our plane to board, when he had a wracking coughing fit. It seems to be just a cold, but it's still hard to see a little baby feeling obviously sick. I trust he will be fine by the time we get home.

Austin

I haven't managed to get many picture of Austin up here, just because I'm so behind! He has been growing faster and faster each week, and is no longer a cuddly newborn, only content to snuggle with his mama. Instead, he spends longer stretches entertaining himself by fabricating conversations with a plastic lamb.

Austin communes with his plastic toy from Sara on Vimeo.