Fall leaves

Turns out that the tree outside of our sunroom is a bonafide Maple. And she has been working hard to impress us with each passing day, turning her leaves from light green to light yellow to gold to deep, rich amber. It's particularly stunning today with the bright sun and clear blue sky helping to define each leaf.

If you've read the blog for the past few years, perhaps you remember how I love to admire fall leaves? From Copenhagen to Cambridge to Evanston, every year I get out the camera and turn the lens up toward the sky to try and soak in the magnificence of Fall Colors.

This year should be no exception - I'll get out there with the Canon within the next day or two before the leaves fall.

Assorted things of note.

1. I thought that the blowouts created by a 100% breastmilk diet were behind us (pun intended) now that we're all into a nice mix of solids. Apparently not as there are still costume changes required throughout the day. BUMMER. If only I could convince Christopher that a diet including something other than fruit and vegetables might be worth considering.

1a. What will we do when pears are out of season? Let's not even think about it.

2. Christopher and a little almost-1 year old girl kissed at playgroup the other day. What?!?! I know. A younger woman! It was cute and then surprising and then a little shocking as my mind raced forward 14 (13? 12?) years. Wait! Let's not go there.

3. After two weeks of practice, he is now 95% bi-ped. Way too grown up for that crawling thing now that he's 13 months old.

4. I love this blog and THIS POST at Jennifer Rivera's fabulous site. Judging by a 7-degrees-of-separation kind of measurement, I'd say that she and I are about 2 degrees away from knowing each other. Fact is, the entire opera world goes in about 2 degree increments. It's tiny. I love this post because, if she's on *that* side of the glass, then I'm on *this* side of the glass. Does that make sense? It's never easy.

5. Mike's group moved into their lab! The steady path to world domination via ribosomal machinations may now proceed with full steam.

6. We bought gourds at the Farmer's Market this morning and a flat of tomatoes so that I can make some sauce. Mmmm. Our tomato plants in the backyard are going bonkers, too.

7. By the time we left the market, C had crumbles of pumpkin scone lodged all the way down to his bellybutton on the inside of his overalls and only one half sock on his right foot. And he was exceedingly happy with himself.

8. Thursday we had the entire playgroup over for what seemed to be summer's last hurrah. 10 babies between 4-15 months old and their mamas with push toys and a water table. We enjoyed the 89 degree weather and today... it's 55 degrees.

9. Number 9, number 9, number 9... the foam square that is C's favorite.

10. Time for a shower so that I can wake him up from that nap I insisted that he take... ahh, the brink of another napping transition.

To be or what to be...

The most important question of the month:
What should Christopher be for Halloween???

This is an urgent matter. Please email me if you have an idea that I need to consider.

Thank you.

Worldly palate

As we came rushing in from our morning outing, I plopped Christopher in his highchair and gave him a few cubes of cheese and a handful of Cheerios to keep his hunger sated while I could pull together something more well-rounded.

I tried offering perfectly-ripe organic nectarines (delicious), freshly cut cantaloupe (also out of this world), and some banana. The whole time he was eying my plate of leftovers.

Well, duh. What comes off of Mama and Daddy's plate is *always* better than what he's been offered (disclosure: 9 times of out 10, we're eating the exact same thing, though slightly less mangled since we have full sets of teeth).

Okay, so last night was the final evening of our Staycation* and we ordered Thai food. Truly decadent by our standards. In fact - why didn't we do this for the whole "Staycation"? Seriously - why was I cooking dinner and lunch and breakfast??? Mom - I now understand. It's not vacation when you're still cooking and cleaning up after dinner...

So I gave him some of my Pad Thai and he proceeded to gobble it up and beg off more from my plate until we had just about shared what was left.

Next time I'm going to pretend to have PB&J and wait until he's asleep so that I don't have to share. Hmph.

*By definition: what 30-somethings do when they've just bought a house and have young children, thereby leaving them without the discretionary funds they once possessed for indulgent trips to explore other continents.