Halloween Eve Eve

Yes, I know, Halloween is technically on Saturday, October 31, but remember we are in the land of the O and the H and the I and the O, where everything is just a little bit Stepford. Our neighborhood was assigned to have Trick or Treating (or Beggar’s night) on Thursday night the 29th between the hours of 6-8pm. I’m not sure, but I think you can call the police if some adorable costumed child knocks on your door before 6pm. Other neighborhoods are assigned to Friday evening, and a few are granted the actual holiday itself. If I were an enterprising trick-or-treater, I’d hit each designated neighborhood and really cash in on the candy. Despite my sarcasm, it was a really fun night – beautiful weather, good turnout, and a nice chance to hang out with the neighbors. eaw chose to be Scooby Doo again, and was as adorable as ever. He was still a little unsure of the whole ritual, but Colby showed him the ropes and he hit the streets like a champ! Upon his triumphant return, mtw made sure all the candy was “safe” before allowing eaw to ingest any of it. I think the safety test required taste samples of each piece of candy. eaw helped distribute the rest of our candy to the many “customers” (costume – ers, I think) as he called them. We live very near the Ohio School for the Deaf so we had many trick-or-treaters who used Sign Language. eaw learned the sign for “Happy Halloween” and “trick-or-treat.” It was a fully successful evening, although our last trick-or-treater was an older boy with a very scary mask. Eaw completely freaked out and the boy quickly ripped off his mask to calm him, saying “it’s just me – just a regular boy in here – I’m just pretending, but I’m not really scary.” eaw was calmed, but not convinced and is still asking about the boy in the mask. It was a sweet gesture, but maybe next year, I’ll bring him inside once the older kids start their rounds.

The Terrible 3s?

eaw is amazing and adorable and bright and sweet and charming and fully capable of asserting his needs (or in this picture, telling mom what he thinks about getting his picture taken right now):

My Secret Garden

Happy Birthday Grandpa Durham! mdw returned from Texas at the end of September (on her birthday) to two very eager boys who had planned a lovely birthday celebration. The gift of the day was a “sitting garden” in our side yard, complete with a stone bench, stone walkway and birdbath. mtw and eaw had worked on it (I think mtw did most of the work) during my time away and it is the sweetest gesture I have ever received (and a lot of work - they had to pull out enormous bushes, build planter boxes, make a stone paver patio, paint the foundation of the house, and plant some beautiful flowers). eaw and walk in it every morning on our way to the car as he asks, “do you like your garden mama? I made it for you.” I’m grateful for such beautiful companions with whom I get to share celebrations. We have been enjoying it all season.
ps For the record, eaw has mastered the banana cake batter beater licking, a Durham family birthday tradition.

Movie Night!

Here at chez Wall we have instituted a special occurrence known as movie night. Since we don’t have cable, television viewing happens either on the computer or via dvd and has become a rare activity in our home and lifestyle with eaw. We discovered that by adding popcorn and a friend, the 20 minute video viewing approaches holiday status. It’s really fun to hear eaw ask for movie night and to hear the excitement in his voice. One of mtw’s colleagues lent us the 4-disc series for “Wallace and Grommit” and we have been enjoying sitting as a family under the blanket with popcorn on movie night.

Ama visits!

We enjoyed a lovely visit from Ama during the first weekend in October. She showered us with her grace, generosity, and grandma-awesome-ness. A pajama-clad eaw stayed up late to go retrieve her from the airport (I mean, one of his favorite people at one of his favorite destinations). She accompanied mdw and eaw on Saturday morning to a “Mud and Muck” Toddler workshop at COSI. The workshop consisted of stories and songs about mud and getting dirty, and provided hands-on (literally) engagement with all sorts of sticky, goo-ey, messy, slimy textures and materials. eaw liked the “clean mud,” the flubber, and the cornstarch concoction the best. The adults seemed to enjoy getting messy more than the toddlers. It was really fun. Grandma stayed with eaw and mtw for the remainder of the day while mdw had a tech/dress rehearsal for a performance that evening called “60 x 60” which was 60 one-minute pieces of choreography to 60 one minute electronic music compositions. Cool idea and very experimental. mdw was assigned to three different minutes and one of them involved 7 inch heels and a heavy down jacket. Mom came to the later performance (which was held at a gay bar) – so needless to way, she was a great sport! On Sunday, we went to Leeds Farm, a local farm that opens for weekends during the fall season only. It is fantastic, goats, and donkeys, a huge sandbox full of feed corn, a banana boat ride, zip lines, jumpy pumpkin, large feed tubes, hay barn, homemade pie, and yes, a pumpkin patch. It was so great that we returned the following week with colleagues from work. So fun to celebrate Fall, and to start off our celebrations with a visit from Ama! We love you.

It's good to be alive

Much to report, but too busy at the moment living it all so here's a little snippet until we can pause to write it all down. Today we aim to celebrate the magic in the mundane and to take off for large adventures in our own backyard...