The day after Thanksgiving

The day after dinner for 15.
Jack up at 5:10am.
This would be a nice day to have a nanny.

San Francisco in November

We had a quintessential San Francisco autumn morning today -- hot chocolate at the Crissy Field warming hut, a long beach romp, several glimpses of a sea lion feasting on fish just off the shore, and finally, grass-fed beef hot dogs for lunch. A glorious, warm day!

Almost a whole week at home

Jack woke up Monday with a slightly runny nose, so I kept him home from preschool. It was a good call, because he was super cranky and clingy, and I doubt he would have made it through the day at school. I confess, we watched a good deal of Word World Monday, cuddled up on the couch with the blankets wrapped around us. For a special treat I made him some hot chocolate for the first time, and he liked that a lot.

Jack got a good night sleep Monday and on Tuesday his nose seemed to have dried up. In the afternoon we took a drive down to Yerba Buena Nursery for our annual native plant shopping trip. Jack slept for about 20 minutes in the car, but woke up pretty happy. He got to choose a plant (wild grape) and together we selected huckleberry, salal, and sticky monkeyflower for the garden. It was a really fun trip and he did great on such a long drive, which gives me hope for future hiking excursions.

On Wednesday school was closed for teacher-parent conferences. Jack did not like Hans and I leaving him outside to play while we talked to his teachers, and instead wandered around inside whining and saying "go home now". Later after lunch the two of us were headed to the playground and he fell asleep in the stroller. So we trucked back home, I got him out of the stroller, back inside the house, into his room. Still asleep. I plopped him onto his bed and he continued to sleep and sleep, for over 2 hours. At one point he rolled out of bed onto the floor and stayed asleep. He woke up happy and the rest of the day was fine, except he didn't get asleep until 9:30.

Today I'm so hoping he'll be able to go to school and make it through the afternoon. I don't think he's sick, but I do think his brain is going through a lot, with learning to spell. I can really use a break!

Wake up calls

Most mornings, most good mornings anyway, the house is quiet.

Then...
Little feet go thump thump thump.
"It's 6 o'clock! The clock says 6!"
Door opens.
Little feet go thump thump thump, closer now.
"Morning time!"

This morning Jack crawled into bed with us. Hans kept his eyes closed and tried to sleep just a few more minutes. Jack snuggled next to me and we watched the clock numbers change for about 10 minutes.

Then there the bad mornings. 5:15. 5:20. Any time before 6. Jack wakes up and trudges into our room. "Watch Word World NOW!" I never say yes to this, because I know if Jack thinks he can get right up and watch Word World first thing in the morning he will start waking up at 4:30 to do so.

Time to rearrange the bookshelves

Sweet innocent voice: "What does s....u....c....k....s.... spell?"
(pause)
Shocked mommy voice: "That spells sucks, like with a straw."
(book in question is Roger Ebert's "Your Movie Sucks.")

Sheesh. So, he's spelling. And he loves it. I blame "Word World."

Halloween

Jack was a coyote for our preschool party and yesterday evening we recreated the costume as much as possible (he was super tired and the brown pants were in the wash). We tricked-or-treated 3 houses, Jack ate one piece of candy, then went to bed! Here are some photos from the party and Halloween, including his annual pumpkin photo.