Weekly

Aaron's turn

We took Aaron to the ophthalmologist yesterday, just to check whether he might need glasses like his brother. The exam for two-year-olds is even more astonishing than for five-year-olds: they showed him letters on a computer screen, and asked him to "find the match" on a card he was holding. It seemed like a complicated game for a toddler to play, but he hit it every time. And they were letters - T, V, O, H. Did you know two-year-olds could match letters?

After establishing that he understood the game, they patched one eye for the real exam. (That was the only part he didn't like.) The result: Aaron has excellent vision. Yay!

Making heat

The dryer is not heating. Based on a prior experience and internet research, we ordered a new thermal cutoff and high-limit thermostat for $20 and installed them ourselves.

It didn't solve the problem. This is particularly a bummer because the clothes we took to dry at the neighborhood laundromat today came back reeking of cigarettes. Eew.

I did make heat in the kitchen today: my first-ever batch of chili sauce, from homegrown chilis. It is eye-poppingly hot.

Halloween

I like to learn about holidays. This year I learned that Halloween probably originated in a Celtic festival marking the start of the dark half of the year, and that the pumpkin carving is an American reinterpretation of turnip carving, imported by the Irish. Have you ever seen a carved turnip head? Totally eerie.

Our own Halloween began with a carving party at Jordan's school. Jordan, as you can see, is The King. (We know not of what.) Aaron, unlike last year, was excited to wear a costume but only if it was composed of familiar elements: add a fireman hat to your usual raincoat, and ta-da! No masks: Aaron has a horror of masks. We can't even watch the diver at the Seattle Aquarium because Aaron comes unhinged at his snorkeling mask.

The climax of the festivities was lining up all the pumpkins on bleachers on the stage, lighting over 150 tealights (which took a while), and turning out the lights to admire the spectacle.


On the holiday itself, family and friends converged on our house for an orange-themed dinner: carrot soup, kabocha squash galette, and mac-and-cheese. Crazy how you invite two families and it's twelve people! Kari and Sam made candy apples while Holstein Man scanned the horizon.


It was not possible to round us all up for the group shot.


Trick-or-treating was a gas. There were six kids, ages 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, and 8, and they were explosively enthusiastic. They got so much candy they literally filled up their buckets and could collect no more. Sam's handle actually broke from the weight. Then they came back to the house and methodically chewed and crunched and licked and poured.

They have not asked for any of it since.