Picture Day, the Epilogue

Wow, to think that last November I was posting every day. I'm such a slacker.

I was perusing my photobucket account to see if I'd uploaded any images and forgotten to blog about them, and lo and behold, I had!

You may remember a month or so back that I reported about Nora's defiant unwillingness to get her picture taken on picture day. Well, they tried again two days later, and last week, we got to see the results. (And, since our scanner isn't working, these are slightly blurry and dark photos of the actual photos.) This, by the way, is the nice not-happy-with-this face. There were a few outtakes where she looked downright ticked off.


Letting her wear her Brewers hat at least elicited a goofy smile. Though with her hair jutting out that way, she reminds me of Derrick Turnbow.


We also got Owen's new school pictures back. And, other than the fact that they're inexplicably not sharp (seriously, what's up with the soft focus?), he did a great job. He's at the age where the direction, "smile!" often results in a strained, overly enthusiastic smile that causes the tendons in his neck to pop out. Not cute. But, wow, when did he get so grown-up looking? Check out last year's picture (which I know I reacted to with the same sentiment; and I'll surely repeat this sentiment every year for the next 12 years of picture days.)

Halloween 2009

A bit late, but here are some highlights from the costume and trick-or-treating travails of the redheads on 51st Street.

First, the costumes.
Owen decided months ago that he wanted to be a caterpillar, so after I scored his costume for $5 on eBay (woo-hoo), I tried to convince Nora to be a butterfly. 'Cuz wouldn't that be cute and all. But she wanted nothing to do with that idea. No, my adorable 2-year-old daughter wanted to be a shark. So, back to eBay and she got her wish.

Our trick-or-treating was almost a whole week early, but at least it was at night. I borrowed a double stroller, recruited the help of a couple friends as extra eyes and hands, filled a thermal mug with wine and headed out :)

Hey kids, this is supposed to be fun!


Owen knew just what to do--walk as fast as possible to hit as many houses as possible.


They block off a 6-block or so area for the trick or treating, and most of the houses that hand out candy go all out on the decorations. Had to take a picture of this one. I guess John McCain really IS scary in our Democratic-leaning neighborhood.


Nora wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing at first, but once she realized she was collecting a bag of candy, her mood perked up. She'd happily walk up to a couple of houses, then take a break in the stroller and feast on her bounty. After I took this picture, it reminded me of another picture taken after Owen's first trick-or-treat a couple of years ago. Hmmm, eating two suckers at once must be some sort of right of passage or something...

Got My Sticker

Election Day. Woke up this morning EXCITED. Felt a little like that mix of nervous energy and anticipation of a kid on Christmas morning. I love voting. I love Election Day. I don't even mind waiting in line. There's just something about standing there with your fellow neighbors waiting your turn to help decide WHO.

Due to a mix of events that's affecting my schedule today, I was going to try to hit the polls early and be done soon after 7. Since our polling place is only a block away, I peeked at the building at 6:00 and 6:15 and saw little commotion, so I waited to head over there until 6:30. By then, there was a line, and by 6:55, it had really grown. But by 7:15, I had colored in my little arrows, submitted my ballot and collected my "I Voted" sticker.

And now we wait.

Say "Grumpy!"

So, yesterday was picture day at Nora's daycare. They take every kid's picture and then a couple weeks later, we get to see the prints and can buy as much or as little as we want. Although it lacks the control of taking the kids to a photographer ourselves, it also lacks the stress of taking them to a photographer ourselves. Unfortunately, Nora wanted nothing to do with it.

In her last photos from daycare, she had this demure, serious-beyond-her-years look that was the result of her not wanting to smile for the photographer. Yesterday, though, she took her protest to a new level and apparently stood there with her arms crossed and refused to go in front of the camera. I can imagine that her face looked something like this.


She does have a lovely smile though, when she decides to share it.


It's too bad, but hey, I also admire her moxie (even if it's really only a 2-year-old declaring her independence). She's got spunk, that little one.

Happy Oct. 13th!

It's October 13th, which isn't just Columbus Day, it's also the day we began potty training Nora AND the premiere of the new "WhoBob WhatPants" SpongeBob TV special. I'll give you one guess which event Owen has been anticipating by marking off calendar days since the beginning of the month.

This One's Got Fizz

The Brewers won yesterday, staving off elimination for now, and avoiding a sweep. It was obvious from the mood in the stands that the fans who came out felt they played an important role. After losing two in Philadelphia, the Brewers were home, and maybe, just maybe, if we all cheered loud enough, we could propel our team to a victory. Well, it worked -- that and an aging pitcher who threw more than his fair share of balls.

I have never been to a baseball game like that. The crowd was crazy intense. Every pitch, every strike, every hit was a reason to leap to your feet and YELL. In the paper today, I read one fan's description of the crowd, that it was like popping a shaken up beer that sprays everywhere. It was electric. And it started hours before the game. The parking lots were packed with tailgaters. It was a sea of people as almost every vehicle pulled out a grill and some chairs as the occupants sat down to relish the taste of playoff baseball in Milwaukee. My clothes still smell like grill because the smoke was just everywhere.

And so baseball fever continues in the Brew City for one more day. Today I'll be taking the kids to pick pumpkins and apples (I promised Owen that Sunday was "pumpkin day") and then we'll hightail it home to watch the game at noon.

The Final Inning

The tough part about not blogging for over a month is deciding what to write about when you return.

There have been numerous events that have been worthy of note -- a wonderful trip to North Carolina, seeing the Packers' new quarterback in his first win at Lambeau Field, Owen starting "real" kindergarten, Nora's new obsession with Bruce Springsteen and Alicia Keyes. And lots of not-that-worthy-of-note stuff, too, like harvesting my first crop of heirloom tomatoes or successfully making a "diaper cake" for a coworker.

But I'm not going to write about any of that today. No, today is all about the Milwaukee Brewers.

It has been a crazy week to be a fan of the Brew Crew. They went from a disappointing "what could have been" to having a glimmer of a chance...a chance...to make the playoffs. And now it all comes down to the last game today...or maybe tomorrow. I'll turn to sports writer Gary D'Amato for an explanation:

Here are the scenarios:

• The Brewers win and the Mets lose. The Brewers clinch the wild-card berth and face the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL Division Series beginning Wednesday in Philadelphia.

• The Brewers and Mets win, or both teams lose. They finish with identical records, and Milwaukee travels to New York for a winner-take-all game Monday.

• The Mets win and the Brewers lose. You don't want to think about that one.

Egads!

At least the possibilities are clear. For weeks, Brewers fans have been speaking about the playoffs in code -- lots of hand signals and "you know whats" in conversations about October and baseball. But now it's down to today (or tomorrow). And they just need to win.

In the middle of all of this, I keep thinking of my grandpa -- a lifelong Brewers fan -- and how excited he'd be to have baseball be exciting in late September. I remember when I used to visit Milwaukee in the summers, and on baseball nights, he'd walk around the house carrying a transistor radio so he could listen to the games. And I can recall going to at least a few games with him and my grandma at the old County Stadium. He'd listen to the play-by-play on his headphones and keep a scorecard.

I can't say Milwaukee deserves this any more than the Mets do, but I can say Milwaukee is ready. A sell-out weeknight game against the Pirates on Thursday tells me they're ready. The plethora of Brewers shirts anywhere you go tell me they're ready. The fact that many people will be flipping between the Packers and Brewers this afternoon tells me they're ready.

So try to win one for my grandpa, Brew Crew, and all the grandpas out there who passed down a love for the blue and gold to their grandchildren. We're ready.