"Maybe...Yes!"

This is Sam's new reply to any yes or no questions. So today I said "maybe...YES" to a new post. This has been the moment where I have finally felt like/had time/had a kid willing to tolerate loading pictures and chatting since before the new year. I have been busy-- happy busy, but busy enough to remind me that I do not multi-task well. That said, I have been taking pictures, so there is a photographic record of this period, whether published on the interwebs or not! This is what we have been doing lately, in no particular order.

Last weeked was gorgeous, so we finally (I'm talking to you, Grandad) took the wagon out of the house. A church up the hill had mulched a tree, so there was a tempting free pile of chips-- and a sign that even said "Free!" We filled the wagon and scored a couple of outside trucks from another neighborhood "Free" pile.

(Free piles appear to be a big Seattle thing. Awful handy for scavenging.)

In other news:

Potty Training!

I had to lobby hard to get this one into the blog.

C was completely against it.

But this is how he runs around most days-- shirt, nothing, shoes. Like the signs say, "No shirt, no shoes, no service." Well, this way he can go to our local French bakery and be okay.

Another teenage Sam look.

Breakfast with the Cat Minion

Playing in the sink

"Whoa...my hand got TOTALLY wet!"
A walk around the neighborhood, before we picked up Nana at the airport.
Very big into tossing balls around outside. Good way to run a toddler down.

The beloved rock pile on the corner of 67th

Hanging out on someone's parking strip. Evidently utility covers hold great fascination to toddler boys.

Boy, With Sticks.

And a puddle.

"I put SuperLamb on Monk. It makes him feel COZY. Make him feel better."

Sam's got a thing for "button shirts" right now. He DOES NOT want something going over his head. So I snagged three from Target and we have a truly fantastic hawaiian print one that we circulate. You'll be seeing a lot of plaid. I like the orange one, above, best. Of course, it sets off Monk well.

The potty training is going reasonably well. We're focusing on daytime work right now, but he seems to be getting the general idea of things. I find it more disgusting than diapers, but I can't pinpoint why. However, I do love the idea of the two giant boxes from Costco being the last boxes I will buy. We are going to have to ease him away from the notion that Mama or Dad will read "Curious George" out loud for every toileting event. "Curious George" is long. Very, very long.

While Nana was here, Sam figured out how to ride the tricycle we acquired from C's co-worker. Once C gave it a tune-up, Sam started tearing around the 'hood. Downhill is great, but since we live in a sub-neighborhood of Ballard called (alternately) Crown Hill and Whittier Heights, right next to Phinney Ridge, you can sense that there is an equal amount of uphill for the down. Tricycles do not have a good low gear.

We spend as much time outside as possible. It's the typical "June Gloom" right now, but it's warmer and this boy needs to move. He's figured out how to hop (I'm not sure that sports are really in his future) and talks like a maniac. He still hangs out with his buddy Holden (and the fantabulous Meg, mom of Holden and life saver of Sarah) and the sharing is getting better. There's hope for socialization yet! He will not live as if raised by the cats!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you who take care of all of us!




(Apologies for the mouth full of food-- the only way to get him to sit still!)

We love you all so much and miss you even more!
Sarah Graceful
Little Charlie
Sammy Z.

Happy Birthday Nana!

With you, everything is better.

We love you!

Good Job, Mama

To say it's been busy is a wild understatement. But I would like to relate a couple stories that continue to illuminate the character of Samuel Zephyr.

1. Snow
As last night's snow turned to slushy mush, Sam and I took a walk. Fresh air is a necessity in our lives. Sam stopped and was picking up clumps of snow-- snow-wads rather than snowballs-- and tossing them down the sidewalk. My response is usually a "Hey, nice one" of "Good job" to the thud of wet snow on pavement. He then turns to me and says, "Mama do it." I oblige. Sam offers,"Good work, Mama!"

2. Drinks
Over Christmas, while at my mother's house, we were all relaxing in the living room. Sam approaches me with his sippy cup full of milk and stands before me, offering/demanding "Mama drink!"
"Oh, no thank you. Mama doesn't like milk." I reply.
He withdraws the cup and looks at me seriously for a moment, nods slightly and says, "Mama drink beer."
In between snorts of laughter, Charlie offers that Mama prefers wine, but Sam seems unimpressed and sticks to his first assertion.

He is a frank and delightful kid.

I'm glad he's here to tell it straight and give me the occasional "good job" right now. He's going to have to replace someone who was very good at that, for me: S. Nina Pinckard-Fechtner. Yesterday I got the tragic news that Nina had died suddenly over this past weekend. Nina was my friend, my boss and a mentor from the time I was 19. She was the Costume Director at SRT in Santa Rosa, the Costume Shop Manager at CSUS and the woman who built my wedding dress. She was one of the best cutter/drapers I ever knew and one of the best collaborators I ever had the privelege to work with. The things I learned from her, I can't even begin to count. She leaves behind her beautiful family, a group that is a model for the kind of relationship I hope to have with Sam. Nina was a straightforward, no b.s. person with an ever so slight gruff exterior. Behind that, she loved her husband Don, and kids Katie and Eric deeply. It is a far grimmer world without her in it. But the world is so much better for Nina having been a part of it.

QUAY-MAY!

This is what Sam says, loudly, when we say we're going to the Seattle Aquarium. Best money ever spent on a membership-- thanks Grandad! We've been a few times this fall and Sam's enthusiasm for fish does not seem to be waning. This was the first time Charlie had been with Sam in a while. We toodled over there on Labor Day.

Window on Washington Waters display

Sam is deeply suspicious of the divers that appear during the talk/shows,

but likes the display

Playing in the tidepool

With Mama in the Tropicals room.
Notice how he is completely uninterested in anything but
the fish.


Pointing out fish to Dad
Looking at water birds

Rare photographic evidence of both parents!

Mama and Sam

(Agan, totally uninterested in anything else!)

I think this captures the "addicted to FISH" quality nicely.

Here is Sam, attempting to say "anemone"

Halloween, the First Real One

When Samuel's first Halloween came around, he was four months old. He went as a baby. The second one, we were flying back from CA. We had been staying with Nana, and Sam was just getting the hang of walking. Because of this, I had grand plans to dress him as a zombie, but when we finally made it home, everyone was just tired. So this was Sam's first real, live Halloween. With a costume and candy and pumpkin carving--the works. Here goes...

We started the day with pancakes. Or, Samcakes, as Charlie calls them.

There's quite the pile of whip cream on that pancake.

We harvested our volunteer pumpkin on Saturday. (Volunteer as in, a volunteer plant from an uncomposted pumpkin seed in our compost that was spread on my garden bed.)

The toddler is there for scale.

A good looking specimen. It never got fully orange, but a gorgeous striped green and amber.

"PUMPKIN!!"

Intrepid carvers

Totally disinterested in posing with the handiwork.

Mama designed and carved. Sam supervised. And scribbled Sharpie all over himself.
Shaun the Sheep!

I attempted to re-recreate the overall look of Shaun. Sam loves the animation, but really didn't get the concept of a costume until we had him fully dressed and showed him his reflection in the bathroom mirror. THEN, he got into it.

If you don't know Shaun, you should: http://www.shaunthesheep.com/

The scene in Ballard.

For two hours, families swarmed Ballard and trick-or-treated the merchants.

Getting to work.

(Note the mitten "paws." I am especially proud of those!)

Okay, it looks like a fluffy mob cap, but Shaun has quite a tuft of wool on top.

Sam was very serious about the whole business.

Shaun's oversized tail

Distracted in Secret Garden Books.

A family was posing their kids on the other side of this tree, so Sam decided that it must be part of the whole Halloween business and got to it.
Sheep meets duckling
Bergen Place (or the Five Corners)

Dancing with Dad

We grabbed a cupcake, then headed out to harass friends. Over to Greenlake to see Zip and Jeanmarie-- plus the bonus of Erica. Then a stop at Zeek's for some pizza. Finally, we headed over to Capital Hill to visit the Cousins and crash their friends Geoff and Barbara's party. Cousin David was stationed on the porch scaring trick-or-treaters with elaborate tricks. We hung out and helped-- as in, Sam yelling "No, no! Go 'way!"

Hanging by a thread, but it lasted!

Ten years of costuming, my friends.

Sam was confused by the whole concept of using "trick-or-treat." But after I dropped a chocolate coin in his pumpkin, he was enthusiastic about the product, if not the process. He's been running around suggesting, "Treat!" in the perkiest tone.

Our favorite moment of the day:

Standing in line at Cupcake Royale, there was another little boy, about three, ahead of us. He was wearing a Batman costume, with the mask pushed back. Sam stepped ahead of us to lean on the cupcake case and gaze adoringly. Then Batman spied the Sheep, and the Sheep returned the gaze. Their eyes locked. Batman raised his hands to ever so slowly lower his mask. This was all wordless-- Charlie decided the subtext was, "So, Sheep, we meet at last."

Insanely surreal and wonderful.