Cold Spaghetti

“Mommy, I two.”

“That’s right, Will. You’re two years old. But next month is your birthday and you’ll be three.”

“Yeah, I’ll be three. I’ll have a birthday party!”

“Would you like a birthday party?”

“Uh-huh”

“Would you like to invite your friends over to play in the yard for your party?”

“Yeah. Invite Gabby and Aya, too!”

“What kind of party would you like? Do you want Bob the Builder, or Dinosaurs, or Pirates, or Airplanes, or Animals…?”

“No, Mommy. We not Bob Builder. We not Dinosaurs. We not Airplanes. We PIRATES! Argh!”

Will was into it this year. He picked up on the system pretty quickly. Except for needing a lift to reach the bell, he managed the exchange independently. He knew to say “trick-or-treat” when the door opened. We were proud when he knew to say “thank you” but surprised to hear him add “Happy Halloween” — unprompted — with such enthusiasm and smile that more than once, the candy giver turned around and gave him MORE.
Folks noticed that we were out with TWO pirates. Will did a good job of introducing Baby Kate, mostly to people who already know both of them, without his usual moment of confusion (“she’s my big brother.”) Kate only spit up in front of a candy-giver once.

The moment Will got home, he was into his loot. He immediately grabbed a bag of Skittles as his “one piece” of candy to eat. Two bites into it, he asked to spit it out. “It’s not chocolate, Mommy.” At least the kid knows the good stuff.
Being carted up and down our block was rough on our tiniest squirt. She was asleep on the floor within a minute of our return home. Here’s a surprise: despite all the trick-or-treaters we watched go on the porch to retrieve candy from the bowl while we walked the block, we came home to a still-quite-full bowl. We did a good job of loading up the next kids that came, but were still left with way too much — and most of it is chocolately good stuff. May the force be with me.

Laurel Street Bakery had a special cookie decorating event on Sunday. We found out about it a few weeks ago and marked it on the calendar.We had fun! It was so fun that we were even able to ignore the local Mother Mafia, who decended on the Bakery en masse a few minutes after we arrived. Will made 6 cookies. He used candy corn to make eyes on his pumpkin and stood up the corn rather than laying it down. Several kids noticed and followed Will’s example. A trend setter at 2. Happy Halloween!

When Will began eating solids, he wasn’t particularly thrilled with them. He’d eat, but for the most part, there weren’t any moments with us digging desperately at the bottom of a jar for more to put in his eager little mouth.

Until my Mother came along. The voodoo she played over those bowls of mashed fruit and cereal worked wonders. We were amazed at how she got Will to eat… and eat… and eat.

Was it a special angle in her spoon delivery? A certain consistency of cereal? A just-right temperature that was the key? No. Her secret was sugar. She was lacing his food with sugar.

When given the option this weekend to give Kate her first cereal, Mom declined because I vetoed the addition of sugar in her first meal. She didn’t want to feed her something that “tasted like paste.” So Kate’s first meal was postponed until Sunday. I mixed up some cereal with breastmilk and was ready to go… and paused. Did it really taste like paste? In the past, I’ve tasted formula, pureed peas, and yes, even breastmilk. So I tasted Kate’s first cereal. It was sweet, just as breastmilk is sweet. Maybe it would taste like paste if made with water or formula but with breastmilk it definitely does not need sugar. Kate loved it. The hardest part was keeping her from thrusting the spoon too far in her mouth as she grabbed at it. Kate has officially started solids! Without sugar!

We were thrilled that this year, it was back in full force. We enthusiastically bought our tickets months ago for the annual event. No, not this one. THIS one. (What? Did you think we might actually have adult lives?!?)

Boo in the Zoo is held every year as THE Halloween event for kids under the age of 6. Trick-or-treating is not so popular around these parts. In Nawlins, no one gets out of bed unless the day is brimming with opportunities for live music and good food. Dressing up is always a plus. We donned the gear. All four of us, pirates. I’ve been working on Will’s costume off and on for months. Not that he is actually wearing what I’ve been working on (except for the loot bag); I did want him to look presentable. Will began the evening sporting an eye patch and earring, but after 5 minutes of pulling them on and off, requested the neon shades. Arg, that’s a bright sun, Matey. Paul and I wore “Keep to the Code” pirate tees, black jeans, and long red sashes. Will had a fantastic vest (with some specially-added dohickeys) and knickers with a tee-shirt that said “Natutical Acquisition and Redistribution Specialist” and Kate’s laid it on the line with “Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Milk.” We all wore pirate-themed do-rags. We looked good, even if we looked a bit more like bikers than sailors.

My parents came in from Mobile for the event. We scored extra tickets during the week (it had been sold out for over a month) and met up with Aya (who had a fantastic pink spider costume) and her parents at the gate. The costumes on the other 3000+ people (who, like us, had restricted VIP 5pm early admission) were fantastic. NOLA is a city serious about costuming, whoa. (Did I mention that there were a ton of people??) We hung around people-watching, knocked down some hot-dogs to prevent the kids from diving head-first into other people’s candy, and picked up freebies for the first part of the evening. Then we handed Baby Kate off to her grandparents and headed down with Aya and her family to the Ghost Train. Being the four capable and responsible parents we are, we DID briefly stop at the sign reading “May be scary for children under 8,” but determined that we were so good at parenting that our kids would not have enough material for therapy later in life. So we pressed on. Who knew that 15-year olds giggling in poorly ventilated monster masks dancing to “Thriller” would be terrifying to preschoolers?? Despite our honest appraisals (e.g. “Aren’t they being silly!” “He’s chasing us with that chainsaw to get our attention.” “Interesting casting choice to use the African-American actor as the one hung in the tree.”) the kids clung to us, shaking like little leaves. We adults did have a heart-stopping moment of fear when Paul mentioned that he’d heard the ride ended with a sighting of Ray Nagin… gasp!… but the ride didn’t produce our imaginary Mayor.
Nighttime fell while we were walking through the “non-scary” haunted house (read: lights on and all the actors saying “Happy Halloween” to the kids) and waiting in the line to go trick-or-treating. As the sun went down, the crowd grew to approximately twice the current city population. Grooving to the tunes, kids tightly in hand, we retreated to the toddler area. (The kids were all very well behaved. I think they instinctively knew that with that many people, in that many costumes, under the veil of night, it would have been very easy for us to have swapped for another model.)Safely in a contained spot, Aya and Will ran around while we held their place in line for the moonbounce. Granna and PapPap hung out with Baby Kate, who spent the entire night totally chill. That is one awesome baby.
After her active night of being awake, calm and completely wonderful, Kate fell asleep in the car ride home and stayed asleep long enough for us to get dinner at Whole Foods, eat it, and get everything set up for bathtime. What a champ!

Arrrrg!

The Abeona Toddler and Preschoolers took their first field trip today, walking the 9 blocks to St. Andrew’s for the Annual Pumpkin Patch. The kids searched for pumpkins, ate snacks in the ‘patch, had storytime in a hay-filled story spot (complete with black owls and scarecrows), and played ring-around-the-rosey. It was really fun… and exausting.
I had a great time photographing the event. Lots of fantastic photos of the motley crew as the wound their way — chain rope, wagons, and strollers — down Oak Street. We sang “Who are the People in Your Neighborhood” and waved to all the shopkeepers, musicians, and random folks on the street. Virtually all of the photos from the trip feature kids other than my own, so I am not posting them here, but believe me when I say that they are fantastic.
Will picked out a pumpkin to paint in class later this week. The way home from the ‘patch was hard for The Little Man. He pushed another child out of the wagon they were playing on (not acceptable) and got very upset when we explained that it was not appropriate behavior. (He was pretty tired.) The whole event consituted a reason to cry the entire walk back. One of his teachers called this “tenacious.” I thought the situation called for other choice words, but she’s the professional. Have I mentioned that we do not pay them enough??

Is this the right thing to do? Remove children from their families, countries, friends, and relatives… so that rich Western icons can feel like they are making the world a better place? I’m sick over this. You want to help raise an African child? Fine. Help to create a better environment, economy, and world of opportunity for his community and family. Don’t take away the kid. “Money and position didn’t help.” As if.

INHL 615: Nutrition and Health in Complex Emergencies starts tonight. Professor Mock is in Africa; I’m on for introductions and teaching the lab for the next class Thursday night. I posted syllabus, course readings and other odds and ends to the website last night. This afternoon, I’ll reserve a conference room with blackboard and computer for once-a-week office hours/discussion sessions and finalize the course schedule to hand out tonight. I still have to finish the lab assignment that I’m introducing and giving out Thursday. We’ve got some great speakers lined up… if only I can get them all to confirm. Two strapping young men have agreed to be my lab hustlers on Thursday. The course is good material and I will enjoy the reading and discussion… but I want my own class!! Cue: she works hard for the money.

Will got bit in school today. Impressively so — incisors punctured the skin through his jeans. I was told that it was an unprovoked outcome brought on by some group physical play. I’m mostly feeling very happy that Will didn’t bite or hit back. The whole incident probably scared both kids to pieces. We’re keeping it clean and keeping an eye on it; he’ll live. I feel awful for the other parents, who are undoubtably wringing their hands with worry about what to do. I know very well that this could just as easily be my child who develops a biting habit.

(Will’s “monster face.”)