Mommy is a mess

Tonight I went to the Nutcracker at Pacific Northwest Ballet. I went years ago and theirs is a truly beautiful staging, with costumes and scenery designed by Maurice Sendak (famous for writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are).

In a few years Ben will be old enough to go and I suspect he'll love it (if he can stay awake that late), but this year I just wanted to immerse myself in the gorgeous music and the fun of the holiday ritual. So I bought a single ticket.

Ben was all impressed with my outfit. Compared to most of the dressed-up women there, I looked just okay, but since he sees me in jeans pretty much daily, any skirt must look like a ballgown to him.

So great performance, really lovely evening and I'm feeling all grown up and sophistiated. Until the end of the performance when I head to the restroom. I think to myself, "What IS that thing sticking out of my shirt?"

I'm wearing my shirt inside out.

Halloween '08

I go to get Ben up from his nap (well, he didn't sleep, so I usually call it a "non-nap") and he tells me "I want to be Laura for Halloween next year." Last night I read him a little kids' version of the first of the Little House books. So he's telling me he wants to be Laura Ingalls Wilder for Halloween.

Fabulous! I think. The kid has great taste in literature.

Then he spins his idea out a bit. Turns out he liked the part where Laura and Mary got to play in the attic where all the food is stored for the winter. I think the bit he really liked was where they use pumpkins as tables and chairs.

I go to change his diaper and notice he's wearing striped socks. I'm sure he was wearing blue socks this morning. Turns out that although he did not trash his room, as he often does when he doesn't sleep, he did help himself to a new pair of socks. Why? I'll never know.

Rex continues to master English

After a full day of trying, I finally succeeded in uploading this video of Rex in his high chair. Be warned that it's pretty long, but I just couldn't bring myself to edit it. It's too beautiful as is. I am amused that it took me two years of university-level Spanish to learn to even occasionally roll my R's, but he has an unusual ability to roll his D's!

Why I've been silent

I talked to my Mom and Dad today and they had correctly guessed the reason I've taken a break from updating the blog lately. Everyone has had colds (except me, for some reason) and Rex's hit concurrently with a particularly nasty bout of teething. Life around here has been pretty unpleasant.

Ben is generally such a sunny, good-natured kid that when he starts behaving like a real pain in the ass we know he's getting sick. This one was worse than usual and both Glenn and I had to remind ourselves repeatedly that his behavior meant that he was in pain. Motrin helped a bit, but it was just not fun.

This is Rex's first real cold and it's so pitiful to see him struggling to breathe through a clogged-up nose. I try to remember that as adults we know the cold will pass, but for him, there's no reason to think this isn't the new order of things.

So two days ago I was up with Rex at 4 AM, standing on the cold front porch (taking him outside calms him when he's worked up a real steam), jiggling him and singing songs. And last night he woke up just as Glenn and I were getting ready for bed. So from 9 till 12 I was up with Rex. I finally got him settled at midnight and he woke at 3:30. Another couple of hours and he and I both went down for a nap, just as Glenn and Ben were getting up (Glenn spent the night in our basement guest room since he had multiple deadlines today, but wasn't able to sleep through all the baby's wails. I should feel horrible for him, but the lack of sleep seems to have affected my ability to sympathize.).

Here's a photo that Glenn took that I quite like. I have none to illustrate my point in this post since we don't usually take pictures of the kids when they're screaming...

Halloween

Well, this was it. Ben's first year of trick-or-treating. I had rehearsed the routine with him in advance; first knock on the door, then say "trick or treat!", then hold out your jack o'lantern for a treat, then say "thank you!" But when I asked him what kind of treat he thought people might give him he'd inevitably say "A toy plane!" or "A truck!" Honestly, candy never occurred to him. In fact, in the late afternoon I wondered if I should disabuse him of the idea. It was just barely possible he'd be disappointed when he got candy. So I said "Do you think some people might give you food for a treat?" He looked at me with surprise and then his eyes lit up: "Maybe they'll give me yogurt-covered pretzels!"

Yeah, we're pretty tight with the sugar at our house.

Here is a giant collection of photos from our outing with our friends. Iris is the red daisy, Ami is the ladybug (who didn't want to wear her wings), Ben is the silver plane, Devon is the pink princess, Ethan is the little lion, Dominic is a fluffy chick, Rex is the pumpkin. It was quite a scrum of parents and grandparents escorting the trick-or-treaters, as you'll see.