Holiday Firsts

Last weekend we started two of hopefully many Christmas traditions: we took a family picture for our "holiday" card, and we went to see Santa.

It took Oscar a minute or so to realize he was on a giant red-clad stranger's lap. Luckily, the photographer took the picture before he figured it out.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful...

But the tiled-over fireplace is so delightful.

And since we've no place to be,

Let's hang in pajamas and trim the tree.

Thanksgiving

We're already fa-la-la-ing our way to Christmas, but I don't want to forget what a wonderful Thanksgiving we had. With the best excuse of Family, we cooked plenty of tasty food: roast turkey with mushroom gravy, brussel sprouts with apples, maple-glazed carrots, apple pie, and pumpkin tart. The food was delicious, no doubt, but the highlight was an actual relative to be thankful with (and for), John's cousin, Kimberly.

Oscar thought Kimberly was pretty great. She sang new songs to him and let him play with her bracelets.

The day after Thanksgiving we had to make two when-out-of-towners-are-here stops (in spite of all the t-day food)--first to Jim's for cheese-steaks (wit' wiz), and then to Isgro's for cannoli. Kimberly entertained O.K. as we waited in the long line at Jim's. We're so glad to have a bit of family on this side of the country with us.

Park Play

Up, down, over, under--O.K. is getting more mobile. Watching him explore the park with this increasing mobility has to be the best way to spend a sunny fall afternoon.

Pulling up and proud of it.

Crawling UNDER -- a first at the park.

O.K. watched intently while a few older kids climbed through the play structure and slid down the slide with ease. He is antsy to give it a try.


Oscar finds (and tastes) a leaf.


"And now I want to taste that shiny blue camera..."
(Where's a thought-bubble when you need one?)

Happy Birthday, Leroy!

One of Oscar's first friends just turned one year old! We went over to celebrate with Leroy and his mom, Chiugo, for a bit. Once again, my camera died in the middle of the action (this seems to always happen when taking pics of these two boys together), so this was the best pic I could get. To celebrate, Oscar and Leroy chased giant balloons around the living room and used all their strength to hang on to the coffee table.

A Whole New World...

Actually, they're the same old stores, but guess who's seeing them from a new perspective? That's right, O.K. has graduated to riding in the shopping cart sans carseat.

Halloween

O.K.'s first Halloween wasn't the treat-filled door-to-door romp through the neighborhood it may be in a few years, but it did include a neighborhood walk and plenty of tots in costume. Each year the West Philly neighborhood has a Halloween parade for kids 6 and under. Here's Oscar before we left, posing with our still-uncarved pumpkin.

The parade started in Clark Park and made its way up Baltimore, around the corner on Osage, and down a few blocked off streets. Houses were decorated for the occasion and there were endless treats being handed out (Oscar hardly seemed to notice, so this was easy to pass up--this year).

We met up with friends from our new parent group. Gavin is two months older than Oscar, which currently seems like a pretty big difference. Soon enough, I'm sure we'll hardly notice.

Monkey vs. Super Baby
(I'm puttin' my money on the monkey.)


We waited in the park admiring all of the fall color and creative costumes. When the drums started playing, we were off!

Oscar got a pretty good view of all the fall festivity.

Of all the parades I've been in, this was the slowest moving. What do you expect with half the crowd under three feet tall? (Not shown in the picture below for obvious reasons.)

Halloween hinky-pinky: What do you call an energetic chimp?