november already?

october has historically been my favorite month.  i think it began during childhood, with the wonder and excitement of halloween.  it evolved into a love of fall, when a break from the hot summer is welcome, as is the beginning of so much celebration and warmth during the holidays.  it was famously such a favorite time of mine, my future husband elected halloween for this moment:

 and of course, there was this...is tomorrow election day again?  it feels simultaneously like yesterday and 100 years ago that i was last at the voting booth.

 but, like many things in the chicago vortex, october blended in with everything else.  i remember the first year it rained almost every day, and the evil bean fetus was making me vomit frequently in public.  not my favorite october.  the next year, we tried to regain our footing with this valiant effort:
                                      
but spending our extraordinarily limited time carving pumpkins made it stressful and we all had colds.  we have no documentation of the next october, presumably because with the arrival of big boy, i was unaware that october even happened.

but this year, with our relocation to liberal utopia where everything is about family fun, i knew we could get back on track.  trick or treating at the down town shops?  yup.  charlie brown showing at the independent theater?  roger that.  whole streets decked out with halloween decor?  you betcha.  corn mazes and pumpkin patches?  indeed.  farmer's market with patrons in costume, games, activities and animals?  sure.  actual trick or treating?  more enticing with mobile children and not in a high rise.  we even hosted a halloween party for the neighborhood kids of which there are zero pictures since i was churning out quesadillas and trying to prevent said children from destroying the house (next year might be an outdoor party...).

we painted in lieu of carving pumpkins...the thought of curious little hands grabbing at our newly sharpened knife collection seemed like a bad idea.


we wore costumes.

and the kids even trick or treated!  at their grandma's.  where they received bananas.  but the tradition has begun!  

check out the differentiated radius and ulna on that skeleton!  you know a medical professional lovingly cut out every fossa.  david is actually supposed to be bean, not a terrifying cross dresser.  it did cool off a little the day of halloween (though now we're back to the 80s), but nothing like michigan where we either covered our costumes with coats, or had to creatively incorporate coats into the costume.  anyhow, they don't totally understand halloween yet, but they seemed to enjoy themselves, and bean has asked multiple times to paint pumpkins and trick or treat again.  success.

octobers seem to be a little hectic around here...apparently that and may are the big months for children's birthdays in this community (we can vouch for may in our house), and the halloween festivities are plenty.  but, in spite of the relative lack of obvious autumn markers, i'm happy to say it's making a comeback in our family.  i missed it.

otherwise, life has been good!  the kids continue to amaze, entertain, and inspire us with their growing grasp of the world and generally really impeccable behavior.  reese is talking more every day and putting together some very short sentences, as well as making progress on counting and letters.  he's also the cutest baby ever, still.  and just as suddenly as his naps ceased, three days ago for no apparent reason, he started snuggling up without a peep for 2 hours each afternoon.  i'm not prepared to say we're out of the woods since we're coming off two straight months of scream fests, but the last few days have sure been nice.

bean is a little wonder.  i love to hear what she's thinking and doing, which she explains to me constantly.  she is so verbose.  today we were walking home from the park and i crossed the street rather leisurely, and she said, "mom, can we get out of the street?  i want to go to the sidewalk.  the street has cars and it's not safe."  recently, she's become very enamored with coloring and will sit and color by herself for much of the day.  the neurosis about personal safety and contentedness in quiet solitude remind me eerily of myself.  she always wants to draw pictures of dinosaurs.  i don't know where this affinity came from since we've got no dinosaur books and they don't watch any tv.  they are fighting more over toys, mostly because bean wants to play with anything reese has and now he's putting up a fight.  but she's frequently very tender and nurturing with him as well.  

i continue to enjoy my temporary retirement since not a single hospital seems interested in even interviewing me.  don't be fooled by the alleged "nursing shortage."  while i'd anticipated difficulties finding a job, it's always humbling applying for nursing positions.  again, i feel like everything i've accomplished is worthless to potential employers.  but that's okay.  i'm having a great time with the kids, and i know i'm a damn good nurse who will one day again be valued by an institution.

and i can't say i'm really jonesing for crotchety old people to scream at me while i clean up their filth when this is my alternative:

the cutest.

eucalyptus grove, berkeley ca

mendocino, ca

so i'll keep waiting, thankyouverymuch.  what else?  we've had two lovely visits from nani, the first of which we really took advantage of and got away for a night sans babies in mendocino.  

this is a cute little town up the california coast about 3 hours from us.  i'm sure most people go wine tasting there as that is the thing to do in norcal, but we've yet to do any of that despite a few trips now to wine country.  instead, we drove in, grabbed some lunch, and found a nice spot for a hike and a picnic.

we spent the entire next day on an extended canoe trip up a river that begins at the ocean.  thus, you are able to spot some non-traditional river life, like seals.  i had a rather intimate encounter with one as i hung my backside off our boat to pee.  i think we both hope that never happens again.

david continues to love his new employer and his career.  he is currently buckling down to study for the latest in what feels like an endless onslaught of board exams, the latest installment coming up mid-november.  he's been gracious in making some free time for continued dayventures around beautiful northern california:

tahoe

berkeley

 

and even though kcwc ended, i have continued cranking out new projects at every opportunity.  after much thought, i started a new blog to record those projects so that i wouldn't continue clogging up this one with tales of torn seams and stained fabrics, among other compelling reasons.  if, however, you would like to see what i'm up to when the kids are sleeping, visit me at http://everythingelsewedo.wordpress.com.  i would love to see you there!  you can sign up for email updates at the bottom of the page.  unfortunately, it feels quite cumbersome to keep up these two blogs and beansngreens, so i plan to post recipes on the new blog as well.  not enough hours in the day, folks.

speaking of which, i've got to do a crash course on propositions before hitting up the ballot box first thing tomorrow morning.  thanks for stopping by, and we'll check back soon!