Nate Nate

A Wonderful, Magical, Scary, Numbers Filled Halloween

So it's October 31.  Certain little boys who in the past were not particularly excited about the holiday, who in the past wandered up to houses and tried to go inside for a visit instead of grabbing a candy and madly dashing for the next house, who in the past simply shouted, "Trickortreatgive mecandythankyoubyebye!!" were, by now, Halloween pros.  It was very exciting!  We had Diego:

a baby lion in need of rescue:

and a conventioneer!

 

Unfortunately, boys were much more interested in trick or treating than in picture taking, so that's about all I have for you people. 

Jonah, who did not partake in much Halloweening last year, was very impressed.  He would only go up to about half of the houses, though, because he tended to get scared off by things like dangling witches, spooky ghosts, and a pair of disembodied hands doing some kind of creepy dance.  Then again, he was also afraid of the adorable Celia in her costume, so he's not exactly a great judge of scary:

He loved carrying a flashlight, though, and when it stopped working three houses in, he handed it to Daddy.  "I want you to fix it!" he commanded.  When he got it back, he commented, "You fixed my flashlight!  Great job, Daddy!"  Is it just me, or is he just talking like a regular person now? 

Nate also loved it this year.  He marched up to each house and gave a perfect, "TRICK OR TREAT!!!" followed by a perfect, "THANK YOU!!!!"

Here's something else I learned tonight.  I may have mentioned that Nate has memorized the number of every house on our street.  Tonight I realized that that is not only not an exaggeration, but it's actually kind of awesome when you see it on display at all once.  As we walked down the street, in the dark, he announced the number of each house coming up.  And there is no way he could have seen them.  After the 15th consecutive house where he did that, I just went ahead and asked him.  "Hey Nate," I said, "how do you know the numbers of every house?"  And here's where it got really awesome, because he just flat out told me.  "I learned them!" he replied.  "How did you learn them?" I asked.  "I keep them in my head," he explained.  "Why did you learn them?" I asked.  He thought about it.  "Because I love numbers!"  I swear, it was the most insight I've ever had into Nate's great and perplexing mind.  Can you imagine what it would be like to be him?  It's like he can't not memorize every number he sees, because he really does love numbers.  He loves them.  I don't know whether to laugh or cry or both or neither or what.  But it did make for an interesting Halloween.

Both guys enjoyed handing out candy to the hundreds (literally) of trick or treaters who trekked up the stairs to our door.  Jonah, however, ran away in terror at the sight of about 80% of them, staying to hand out candy only to a 1 year old Little Red Riding Hood and a tiny bumblebee.  And both guys were in bed, out like lights, by 8 pm, without stirring at the many doorbell rings that followed.  All in all, a perfect holiday.

Requiem For A Bouncy: A Tragedy In Three Parts

If there's anything sadder than watching your beloved little kid experience his first true grief, his first sense of loss, I don't know what it is.  In the case of young Nate, this heartrending experience came not when we moved away from the only home he'd ever known; not when we left the friends and school he'd been with for 3 of his first 4 years; not even when he realized we could no longer go to the Gelson's right by our old house.  It was when we said a premature farewell to our faithful blue and faded red/orange Ryan's Room Backyard Bouncer.

Part 1.  The other day, we realized that the main, outer circle of the bouncer (a/k/a "The Bouncy") had been ripped, presumably by one of the fluffy squirrels that lives in our backyard.  Since it was no longer particularly safe to bounce on, Daddy deflated the rest, had Nate say bye bye, tossed it in the garbage, and moved on.

Part 2.  This morning, Nate wanted to cut something on Daddy's Exact-o Board.  I explained that the cutting thing that goes with it (Exact-o Knife) is something only mommies and daddies can use, so he'd have to wait for Daddy.

Part 3.  This afternoon, in chatting with Celia about our weekend, I prompted Nate to describe the super fun thing Abby has in her backyard (an awesome playhouse).  "A bouncy," he mumbled.  "Really?" I said.  "I didn't know she had a bouncy."  All of a sudden, Nate's lips started trembling, and tears began just pouring out of his rapidly reddening eyes.  "My bouncy is all gone!!!" he wailed in a voice that will probably continue to tear at my heart for the rest of my life.  "Daddy broke it with the thing that only mommies and daddies can use and now it's in the garbage!!!  WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!"

It was seriously the most heartbreaking look I have ever seen on another person's face.  Even though we were running late to an appointment, I stopped to boot up the computer and find one online to order for him, which seemed to appease him.

About half an hour after he went to bed tonight, just as I was sitting down to blog, I heard someone wailing from the boys' room.  I went in, only to hear, "MY BOUNCY IS IN THE GARBAGE!!!  DADDY BROKE IT WITH THE THING ONLY MOMMIES AND DADDIES CAN USE AND WE SAID BYE BYE TO IT OUTSIDE AND THEN WE THREW IT IN THE GARBAGE AND I CAN'T EVEN REACH THE GARBAGE!!!!!!!"

Oh, I'm tearing up again just thinking about it.  It was horrible. We had a very long talk about how toys break ("I want no toys to break!" sobbed Nate); about how we sometimes lose things we love and feel sad, and sometimes we feel better when we get new things or after time passes; how we will always have Mommy and Daddy and Jonah; etc. etc.  But whether it's a goldfish, a doggie, or a beloved bouncy, a child's first heartfelt loss is one of the saddest things a parent can go through.  So I'm sure Bubbe won't mind that I used her similar bouncy moment to make him feel better:  I told Nate the story of my beloved Natalie doll, and how Bubbe burned her on the stove (accident!  accident!).  In fact, as I told him, the current Natalie I still have is actually Natalie No. 7.  Nate had a great time speculating about the untimely demises of each of the first 6.  But, in sum, it was pretty darned sad around here tonight. 

Other stuff has happened lately as well.  Our team won the World Series, and Jonah immediately regretted the tattoo he ran out to get after swigging too many celebratory Sam Adamses:

Boys enjoyed Ye Olde New England tradition of jumping in leaves, even in a teeny pile from just our front yard (notice Jonah's awesome cheese-tastic Glamour Shots pose here):

and Jonah and Buzz Lightyear took a rocket ship to the moon:

Jonah has clearly elected Buzz as his new best friend.  Today he insisted that Buzz had pooped and needed a new diaper approximately 38 times.  When I finally wised up and told him that I was all out of diapers in Buzz's size and would have to get some more at Target, Nate busted in with, "Here you go, Mommy, I bought you a whole new box."  (Greeeeaaaaat).  Thus we continued changing Buzz's diapers ad nauseum right up until his final change, in the crib with Jonah before bed.  Jonah is also very certain that Buzz must wash his hands whenever Jonah does; Buzz must put on his seatbelt in the carseat with Jonah, and if Jonah is getting a kiss goodnight, Buzz had better get one as well.  After they ate dinner tonight, Jonah and Buzz sat under the table for quite a while, while Jonah told Buzz the single knock knock joke that he knows over and over and over.  Buzz didn't mind.  He was happy just to sit in a green Ikea strainer and listen.

Oedipus The Hero

Nate has become very interested in weddings, and in particular in the "big parties!" following weddings, ever since paging through our album a few weeks ago.  This morning he was talking about having a wedding and a big party, and I asked him who he would like to marry.  Without hesitation, he responded, "You!"  Just like Dr. Freud said he would! 

Nate also had a chance to show off the baby animal rescue saving skills he has honed from watching such shows as Diego and Wonder Pets.  We all took the ferry over to San Francisco today, which both boys totally dug.  Before we left, as we were admiring the boats on the waterfront, the grownups struck up a conversation with two moms and their 3 year old boys who were heading for the same boat.  At one point, young 3 year old Ben climbed a little higher than he should have on the rail overlooking the harbor.  While all the grownups were engrossed in their parenting stories, Nate took charge, gently grabbing the dude's leg and looking around for a mom to step in and determine whether such climbing was allowed (it was not).  And another great thing about Natey is that he wasn't all tattle taley about it; he just saw what needed to be done, and he handled it.  My hero.

Jonah totally enjoyed the boat ride, excitedly exclaiming to all of our fellow passengers:  "Hi!  Oh look, isss ocean!  There's the water!  Right there!  I see water!  Isss dirty!  I see train!  Onna tracks!  Choo choo!  Isss Thomas!  I ride the boat!!" and so forth.

Nate apparently was previously unaware that the Bay Bridge is separated into two parts by Treasure Island in the middle.  After we passed the first half, he got a little confused about seeing more of it.  "Mom!" he exclaimed.  "There's the Golden Gate Bridge!  They painted it gray!"

Later, he poetically noted of the foaming brine:  "The soap is dancing."

And really, what could be more fun than playing with the sourdough turtles Daddy bought the guys in the city?  Not eating them, that's for sure.  Both boys looked horrified at the thought of biting into their new best friends.  Instead, they pretended to have their turtles chase each other, kiss, go night night, etc., while Jonah noted, "Isss turtle.  Ribbit, ribbit!"

Jonah also managed to pass about 20 minutes by pretending that a tiny strip of the wrapper from his Diego snacks was a rocket ship.  I promise you have never seen someone get so much pleasure out of a tiny shred of garbage.  He was just overjoyed to countdown "Three, two, one, BLAST OFF!!! TO INFINITY.  AND BEYOND!!!!" while launching it into the air.  Much to the delight of the whole boat, I'm sure.

We finished off our day with a dinner party at Nate's friend Abby's house.  All four kids spent two blissful hours watching Nick Jr. on demand and eating cookies while the parents had an actual conversation.  Win-win-win.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Halloween

Thanks, for the Halloween pjs, Grandma Nan!

We also received awesome Halloween books from Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Toshi, as well as Bubbe and Lou.  Who knew that Halloween was the new Chrismukkah?

The guys are loving these, especially Nate's, which feature spiders and thus give us reason to shout our favorite catch phrase:  "Spiders!!  Eeuuww!!!!"  It seems that every third house here has a huge, scary spider creeping up its side for Halloween.  Some even have entire families of giant freakish looking spiders.  We know where all of the spider houses in the neighborhood are, and we adjust our daily routes accordingly.  Unfortunately, we have no idea where these are purchased, but we have learned that we need to kick it up a bit before next Halloween, as our "Happy Halloween" stickers in the window are not cutting it in this festive neighborhood.

We've been having a lot of Halloween lately.  Tonight we practiced treak-or-treating, complete with ringing the doorbell, having Mommy open the door, yelling, "TRICK OR TREAT!!!!" and receiving candy.  Jonah got so excited that he totally bit it on his way out the door, thereby getting the big fat lip you can see if you now scroll back up to the picture above.  He seemed ok, though.  It went like this:  "Wahh!  Wahh!!  Where Spidey trick or treat bag?  Oh, thank you Nate.  Candy!!"  He was totally annoyed that I made him come back in and wash the blood off his face before continuing his trial run.

Nate is, as usual, fascinated with numbers.  I finally broke down and started teaching him how to tell time for reals, instead of just on a digital clock.  He's taking to it right away, and he's very excited to learn the whole thing.  I can't decide if it will be better when, instead of asking me what time it is every five seconds, he just starts announcing what time it is every five seconds.  He also learned to count to 10 in Hebrew at school (he also learned it in Spanish), and the really neat thing is that he didn't just learn to count; he also knows the numbers.  As in, if you ask him, "Hey, how do you say six in Hebrew?" there will be about a five second pause while he counts it out, and then he announces, "SHAYSH!" with a big smile. 

This morning he did something else that was pretty cool.  When we got to school, his teacher asked if he'd like to contribute a thought to the birthday card they were putting together for Hannah, who is turning five.  "Hannah's birthday is on October 22!" Nate shouted.  "No," said his teacher, "it's on October 25."  So then there was a pregnant pause, during which you could just about see the little thought cloud above Nate's head, as he counted on his fingers and then announced, "Hannah's birthday is on Thursday!!" 

Jonah is continuing to outpace me, chatter for chatter.  This morning he requested a stop at the playground.  "I love the playground," he noted.  "Bye bye, Starbucks lady!" he sang out to the crowd at the store as we left after our snack.  "Mommy, let's go pick up Nate," he suggested as we had lunch.  He cautiously tasted his grilled cheese.  "Mmm, that's good," he said.  I identified all of the Pooh characters on his new splat mat (apparently we were not so much with the Pooh this second time through the nursery stories), and while he enjoyed repeating "Pooh," "Piglet," and "Eeyore," he refused to say "Heffalump," instead insisting, rightly, "No, das elephant, Mommy!"  Tonight in his crib, he flipped through a Sesame Street book and came across Oscar in a trash can.  "In the trash can," he noted.  "Yes," I told him, "that's Oscar the Grouch."  "In the sorry movie," said Jonah.  "Sorry movie?" I asked.  "Elmo Grouchland!" he replied.  [Because there is a lot of "I'm sorry" in that movie, as Mandy Patinkin realizes the error of his grouchy ways.]  "Thas scary movie," he added thoughtfully.  "Watch it now?"

Happy Brothers

So the boys like hanging out in the kitchen and having dance party.

We've been having a lot of hanging-out fun lately.  Today we had a picnic with Nate's preschool at a really cool playground we'd never been to before, and both guys totally dug the cool concrete slide and rock-climbing wall. 

I'm not feeling particularly full of funny stories tonight, but I wanted to post some pictures, so I'll just mention the tales of our recent Evening Adventure Walks.  Last night, I suggested that we walk up to the bus stop to greet Daddy when he arrived home from work.  Hilarity ensued when we left early so we could stroll the neighborhood, only to realize that by the time Daddy's bus arrived, it was pitch-black and also raining.  Which did not make it the best time to be roaming the street with two little boys, particularly when one of them took the stick he was carrying (they're ALWAYS carrying sticks) and literally decided to see what would happen if he poked himself in the eye.  I could not even make that up.  So Jonah is now without stick privileges for a while.  Nate is continuing his happy pasttime of memorizing every house number on the street and is so excited to visit his old friends, such as 1212 that is missing a 1 (the new 1506, you might say). 

Tonight we went on a slightly earlier adventure walk, and we decided to check out the path to the local elementary school.  We were very excited to discover that not only is it a mere four blocks away, but it also has two very cool playgrounds with some really neat equipment.  Which means that our Evening Adventure Walks are now likely to have an actual destination.

That is literally all I have to say.  Here is a shot of Jonah getting some work done at the computer:

As well as the best shot I have of Nate getting his hair cut today.  For some reason, he did NOT want to go, and although he had a perfectly good time once we were there, he looks extremely pissed off in all of the pictures.  Here's my favorite:

It's All In The Delivery

Nate:  Knock, knock.

Us:  Who's there?

Nate:  Abby. [Note: this is from his book of jokes, not one that he made up]

Us:  Abby who?

Nate:  Abby Birthday!  Haaaaa!  That's hilarious!

************************************************************

Jonah:  Ok--knock, knock!

Us:  Who's there?

Jonah:  Abby-oo!

Us:  Uh, Abby who?  uh, oo?

Jonah:  [pause].  [pause].  [pause].  Ummmmm, BIRFDAY!!!!!!!  Haaaaaaa!  Yaaaaaayyyyyy!!!!!

Jonah The Cute

Sometimes they're just really stinkin' cute.  Today Jonah and I went to a new (for us) indoor play place, a very cute coffee shop/toddler play area that was the perfect spot for a rainy morning.  Jonah is a great companion at such places, in part because he really likes to balance playing by himself (while Mommy catches up on such important news sources as Life & Style and Us Weekly) with playing with Mommy.  When he could drive in the big car solo no longer, Mommy was coaxed into the passenger seat, where Jonah announced that we were driving to "outer space.  With the Wonder Pets!"  After returning to Earth, he decided that we were going, "to the zoo.  We see the animals.  We see monkeys.  Ooo ooo ooo!  We see memephants.  nnneeeeeaaahhhh!  We see...more monkeys.  More ooo oooo ooooo!" 

He's also decided  that many things that were formerly ok are suddenly scary.  Nemo is scary.  (Nate:  "Hey Jonah, do you want to watch Nemo?"  Jonah:  "No.  Das scary!")  Spiders are scary.  And today, Jonah turned to me with big sorrowful eyes, held up a piece of Pirate's Booty and said, "Mommy, das scary!"

Always a huggy boy, Jonah is taking it to a whole new level lately.  Tonight we were reading Make Way For Ducklings before bed, and right in the middle of the story, he looked up from his seat, which was in the "snuggled up against Mommy position," and said, in a very sweet little voice, "Hi."  Then he kissed me.  It's kind of hard to top that.

La La La La, Jonah's World

The most junior member of our family has begun to have a very rich fantasy life.  We've noticed that his pretend play is really taking off; the other day, he was munching on a slice of bread when he held the 1/4 remaining piece in front of him and announced, "It's--mamephant!" and proceeded to make elephant noises.  Soon thereafter, he picked up a shoebox and said, "Look, Mommy, a car!  Beep, beep!" as he pushed it around the floor. 

Suddenly, his whole world has turned into whatever he imagines it to be.  "I got haircut today!" he informed me, pleased as punch.  "No, Jonah," I pointed out, "you didn't get a haircut today, silly!"  "I got haircut today!" he insisted.  "With the man!"  Tonight, after we'd gone approximately half a block on our evening walk, he told us that he was tired and wanted to go home.  When Daddy attempted to hand me the keys, Jonah wanted to carry them.  "I hold the keys!" he exclaimed.  "I like to drive."

Nate is much more of a literalist.  His latest obsession is, as hinted at in previous posts, the clock/calendar.  He always needs to know what time it is, and he likes to guess what time the next thing will happen.  So if we get in the car after school, the first thing he does is to shout, "It's 1:05!  Last time we got home at 1:08!  Today we will be home at...at...1:25!"  And his predictions are getting better.  They didn't start out very accurate; the other day, when we were about 10 minutes or so from home at 6:00, I predicted that we'd be home by 6:10, and Daddy took 6:12.  Nate remarked, "I think we'll be home at 7:24...and Jonah thinks we'll be home at.......12:18." 

The other thing is the calendar.  He LOVES the new calendar Bubbe brought us, and he gets quite a thrill from writing in activities for each day.  He also always, always, always knows what the date is, which is very handy if you're ever writing a check and need to know.  This afternoon, as we were eating lunch, I was complimenting Daddy on his excellent getting-Nate-to-eat-lunch technique (you probably don't really want to know, but it involves numbers and a lot of real-sounding enthusiasm), and, after tallying up what Nate had eaten, I was in the middle of commenting, "Wow, that was actually a pretty normal lun--" when I was interrputed by Nate exclaiming, "It's October 15!" 

Friends and relations who have been hounding Mommy for more pictures should be happy to hear that I have finally, finally located all pieces necessary for clearing my camera of old pictures, leaving me (presumably) free to start taking pictures again.  As proof, here's one that's been sitting on my camera since  our old house, lovingly referred to as "816," fresh off the download:

The wisdom of kids:

Jonah, throwing his hat in the "I Spy" ring:  "I spy ... something ... something ... something ... a house!

Nate, on approximating time (after noticing Mommy says "it's about 8:00" when the clock says "7:58"), and noticing that the clock says "7:24":  "It's about 7:26!" 

Nate, trying to get Jonah out of his hair so that he can play a game with pieces too small for Jonah:  "Do you want to take a nap, sweetie?" 

Nate, on why Mommy should "go slow" in the car:  "Because that's enough fast!" 

A day at the pumpkin patch

Lots of pictures from a great day at the pumpkin patch with Bubbe:

Oh, and here's Nate, like his daddy in a way, throwing things: