Skip to main content

Alexander the Grape

A witty costume thought up by Paul and realized in fabric by Grammy Cavano. Her productive procrastination is an inspiration. We wore the costume to playgroup, on a visit to Daddy's department, and then to visit a good friend. Many of the neighbors were not at home -- I guess they knew we hardly get any trick or treaters. With such a great costume and so few opportunities to wear it, we wanted to get as much mileage out of it as we could.

With 10 minutes of trick-or-treat time to go (yes, there's a city ordinance), we've only had ONE group stop: the family down the street, with a little boy and twin girls. Great costumes -- a shark, a bass chick, and a wizard. Unfortunately, they only took five Smarties amongst them! (I'll have to find some cookie recipes that require pushing Hershey Kisses in the middles.)

An exciting development today worth noting: Alex has started to voluntarily let go of our fingers to try to stand by himself. He's showing definite improvement and is so very proud of himself when he does well. It's a real kick to see the self-realization set in.

Comments

CavanoGram said…
Oh my, he'll be running to us when we arrive at Thanksgiving! Nice to see you keep this going, as it is hard to remember to tell everyone everything. Our venture into do-it-yourself plumbing hasn't caused a flood yet, so we're hoping for the best.

Can't wait to squeeze the little grape! Fruit of the vine, and all that jazz...how lucky we are, eh?080

Popular posts from this blog

Masterful Manipulations: Short Story Homeschool Co-op Class

I taught a class on iconic short stories this spring at our homeschool co-op. I don't know how many of my former English teachers may have passed since, but any that have are rolling in their graves at this news. I find teaching especially stressful but this class exceeded my expectations in basically every way and that might have made it worthwhile. We read 20 short stories, which I was free to choose primarily on the basis of how much I liked them. I organized them based on loose associations. Table of Contents (We never officially read this, but it was so short, I included it in case I needed to read it aloud during that first class.) One Summer Night , by Ambrose Bierce Short Story Elements To Build a Fire , by Jack London Irony The Necklace , by Guy de Maupassant The Gift of the Magi , by O. Henry The Ransom of Red Chief , by O. Henry Irony - American The Veldt , by Ray Bradbury The Lottery , by Shirley Jackson Setting - Irony - Foreign The Sniper , by Liam O'Flah...

Growth spurts, a necessary evil

Why does Alex always "growth spurt" AFTER a stint of excellent sleeping? During our week visiting Paul's family in NY, the little man slept 4-4.5 hours in the first stretch, then usually about 3 hours, which meant I only had to get up once in the middle of the night. Last night, I was up four times. Ouch. I like to think that our regularly scheduled programming will return soon. I guess that really means that I like to think that's our new schedule.

Lost and Found

I had to take some pictures yesterday for a Web site I'm working on, and discovered the turkey pictures that have been languishing on the digital camera since I brined and baked my first-ever turkey in January. It was the tastiest turkey I've ever had, and one of the handsomest, too. Find Alton Brown's recipe here . The show transcript can answer any questions. [The Good Eats Fan Page is a great source for all info Alton Brown, including transcripts of his shows: MUCH more informative and coloful than any mere FoodTV recipe could be.] Now, we just need to get ourselves back to CNY when my Aunt and Uncle break out the turkey fryer, to see if peanut oil can rival the brine. (Can you brine and fry, or is that a turkey bomb waiting to happen?) In other news, there is a duck hanging out in the neighbor's yard, across the street to the south. There's a creek that runs about a block north of our house, where we occasionally see our fine feathered friends, but I do...