crazy month

This has been a busy month for us. So much going on! We just got back Monday from a three-day stay at a beach house in Washington state to celebrate Jonah's uncle's birthday with him, his wife, and another couple who also has a baby on the way, due only a month before ours. On the way up we stopped to visit Jonah's great-grandmother who lives half way between us and our weekend destination. I included a picture of her with Jonah and Tim. More pics here.

We had a nice time on our trip.

Other than work, parenting, and pregnancy I have been juggling academics for two classes I have recently taken and a family emergency of sorts many of you know about. If not, drop me a line and I will explain. I don't want to put this one in the public domain.

As if that wasn't enough, some jerk, either an unsuccessful thief or crazed vandal, completely smashed in the passenger window on our family car while it was parked in front of my work in the evening. So we had to deal with that.

I try to not let things get to me, especially being pregnant, since I don't want the stress to mess up my or the baby's health. But it hasn't been easy. The getaway definitely helped, as do autumn activities like baking, cooking, and fall holiday rituals.

Not to forget, on Monday I have my citizenship interview and civics test, for which I have to study, so keep your fingers crossed. (How many native-born Americans can correctly recite the thirteen original states, state the exact year the Constitution was written, name the person who wrote the Star-Spangled Banner, say how many voting members are in the House of Representatives or give the correct number of constitutional amendments? If you can without looking it up, holler.) By the way, how tricky of them is it to schedule my appointment the day after the time changes, huh? Since the clock moves back, though, coming in late is not as much of a possibility as showing up one hour early. That would be a drag! If all goes well, I will be able to vote in the next presidential election for the first time. Who hoo! I definitely look forward to that.

Mr. or Ms. In-Utero

Today was check-up day. The whole nuclear family was involved, as usual. Tim likes to be at all the prenatal appointments and Jonah always comes along as well. "It's a family affair," just like Sly and the Family Stone used to sing.

Jonah likes visiting our midwife. She has a basket of toys for kids to play with, which he enjoys immensely. Today he tried the child-sized stethoscope. Fun!

Mr. or Ms. In-Utero seems to be doing fine - strong heartbeat, about the right size and weight as far as we can tell ... I feel good. Twelve more weeks to go (or so). On Friday I will be entering the third trimester.

Jonah doesn't seem phased by the idea that there is a baby in my belly at all. He takes it quite matter-of-factly, a fantastic surprise.

When I told him that last weekend we were going to go to a beach house and see friends, among them one who has a baby in her belly, he said without pausing or flinching: "Like mommy." He totally gets it. How amazing.

Halloween

Everybody at work wanted to know if we were taking Jonah trick-or-treating today. Because most of my students have children trick-or-treating age, I ended up canceling class, so as not to break up families, or at least not to feel guilty about ruining family bonding time. Jonah, on the other hand, is still too young for walking around the dark streets in a costume, looking for candy.

Tim and I were so lackadaisical about Halloween, as we are about most things, that we let the one pumpkin we brought home from the pumpkin patch rot through and through before getting to the carving. Luckily we had another one we bought from the farm store adjacent to the pumpkin patch. Tim tried to get Jonah excited about carving the pumpkin while I was at work today to no avail. He did get Jonah to scoop out some of the innards while quickly snapping a picture.

I don't believe in purchased costumes or ones made only by adults, and especially not in dressing up children that are too young to know what's going on just to parade them in front of the fam or everyone else on the block. Despite that, this was cute. Daddy decided to dress son up in a construction outfit comprised of items which are already part of his wardrobe: overalls, flannel shirt, and a hard hat Jonah recently got in the mail from his grandma. Tim helped Jonah stuff his pockets and loops with tools including hammer, wrench, paint brush, and screw driver. When I got home from work early, Jonah was in the midst of fixing everything he could get his hands on as sort of a combination repair/construction man. He instantly pulled me into his activities by handing me his tools and asking me to paint the mini cement mixer and fix his tiny pick up truck.


Right before dinner, we lit up the small pumpkin Tim had carved on the porch. Lo and behold, we did have one set of trick-or-treaters. They were a boy and a girl about six and eight years of age with their mom hovering in the background. The girl was dressed as some unrecognizable (at least to me) character and the boy had on a cape and a hideous gray plastic mask that covered his face with thick warty skin and head with fake matted hair. Talk about scary. They refused the candy I handed them and reached into the bowl for a different type: "I don't like that one. I want that one." Okay brats, I thought. Their mom, embarrassed, giggled in the shadows.

Jonah was scared and traumatized by this seemingly mundane event. He reached for me in a panic, wanting to be picked up as soon as ugly boy showed up. Afterwards he couldn't stop asking: "Where Spooky went?" We even made a trip out on the porch to check and make sure "Spooky" was gone. I tried explaining that Spooky was just a little boy wearing a mask, but the encounter was just too real and terrifying for Jonah. Bye, bye, Spooky a.k.a. Brat, don't you come around here no more, I say. And no nightmares either, please.

first pumpkin patch experience

This afternoon we decided to venture out to a pumpkin farm with Jonah. The farm we picked was huge! It was the perfect day to go - no rain! Jonah loved the hay ride and then walking around the patch, looking for pumpkins, most of which were already rotten or blasted from the torrential rains we've had. We did finally find a good one. Jonah seems to love being on farms. I can tell farm life is in his blood. After the trip to the farm, Jonah said for the first time: "That was fun."

I put some pictures here and here is a couple of videos from our pumpkin patch adventure:

hay ride:



a walk around the pumpkin patch:

insomnia's here again

Well, now that I am nearing the third trimester of my pregnancy, my dear friend from the last go-around, insomnia, has visited me again. Almost every night I wake up between one and three in the morning, wide awake and can't get to sleep for about two hours. What do I do then? I get a snack and look up stuff on the computer. Sometimes I blog. I wish this wasn't the case. Now I'm dreading getting bigger, heavier, and achier and having to endure it for another three months. I'm actually still pretty comfortable, but compared to my non-pregnant state, I am definitely beginning to feel the discomforts creeping in - the tight back, the lessened ability to stand and sit for prolonged periods of time, the weight of my belly in bed at night, and the wariness of lifting things, which can get hard when Jonah insists on being picked up and carried.

Hopefully the next three months will go smoothly and quickly and then the next three hectic and sleepless months after that will all seem a blur in retrospect. I know it's all worth it. Just sometimes I get a little grumpy about having to shoulder the physical stress of it.

full day

This was a full day for Jonah and me. In the morning, he got to "drive" a digger, fire engine, and ambulance as part of the Children's Museum's Truck Petting ZOO event. (I forgot to bring the camera, of course. But that's okay since taking pictures of your child during occasions like these feels a bit forced and cheesy.) You can guess what Jonah's favorite vehicle was. A digger, of course.

To avoid the rain which has been coming down in feet per hour, I swear, we went inside the Children's Museum and met up with a new/old friend Cari and her family. Her son is ten months younger than Jonah. I think we will see each other frequently since they just moved to town from New York and Cari is a stay-at-home mom by day and writer by night. We went to college together, but until this month, hadn't seen each other in twelve years! It's really great to connect again after all these years. I am excited to have a new friend with a toddler in town.

Just so you know, as an aside, here is what I think of the Children's Museum. First of all, it should not be called a museum. It's basically a big playhouse for preschool-aged kids. Hardly anything art-related or educational about it. Also, it's a germ trap with hundreds of little slobbery hands touching everything in sight. I'm no germophobe, though I know I'll have a hard time convincing you of that from now on, but runny noses and slippery fingers that have been god-knows-where have me cringing and washing my hands as well as Jonah's hands obsessively. Last year, Jonah had about eight colds. Pretty much one each rainy season month. This season, he is on his second cold. But I digress.

Back to my new/old friend Cari who, as if she hasn't had enough of us lately, invited us over for dinner this evening. I had such a great time eating and chatting with friends. I don't get to spend time with groups of adults very often. My life these days consists mostly of family time, work or one-on-one friend time, so this was a special treat. Jonah felt comfortable at Cari's house as well, playing with his new friend's toys and riding his tricycle all over the place. Poor Tim had to stay home with a bad cold. The funniest thing was when Cari told a story she remembered about me from our college days. I had no recollection of half of what she described, but it was slightly embarrassing to hear about my wild days that are all a blur now. I wonder what else she remembers about me that I would rather forget about now ;) I wish I could remember something naughty about her, but my memory is so poor that I really truly have nothing on file on her. Sigh.

Another highlight of the day was the new sofa that was delivered this morning. Ahh, smooth chocolaty leather! It's great! We love it! But it did get scratched on the way here. So it looks like we will have to have it replaced. Darn. We fell in love with it and now we'll have to part with it again. Who knows how long this replacement process will take. The old sofa I promised I would write about is now advertised on the web as a free giveaway. A few calls have come in, so it will hopefully be out of our hair shortly. It has served us well. I will commemorate it here soon.

car talk

Often when I drive with (or without) Jonah in the car, I complain about others on the road. And I mean it. With Jonah there I am pretty mild, just making innocuous remarks. Alone, it's a whole different story.

When he hears me comment on the rudeness or calessness of the other drivers, Jonah asks me: "What's happened, mommy?" I usually reply: "Bad drivers."

Today while Jonah and I were getting in the car, a car parked in the same parking lot honked with such a force - I am certain not at us - that Jonah wondered: "What's happened?" Then he answered his own question: "Bad driver."

I almost fell over laughing.

work song

I hardly ever write about my work on this blog, but it is a big part of my life and I, for the most part, like my job quite a bit. My students periodically evaluate the courses I teach. I want to share some of their feedback here with you. It makes me proud:

"I improved my English."

"I received much information [about] medical careers."

"I know how to successfully apply for a job."

"The teacher teaches clearly."

"[I liked] the enthusiasm of the teacher."

"All the lessons really helped me to realize the skills needed to work in the office."

“Everything was great. . . thank you for everything.”

“I learned a lot of things.”

“This program is well organized and the instructor always supports us. I’ve learnt a lot of hands-on experiences, especially the resume, cover letter, and job interview techniques. They are very useful!”

“I liked to learn both in the class and field trips. Tereza arranged (for) us to go some places to visit, and they did help me a lot with my future career.”

“[I would] definitely [recommend this class to a friend]. This course helped me to get a broad view of the healthcare industry in the U.S. I think that this course is well-organized and practical. I believe I’ll find a good job in the U.S. soon.”

“Tereza, I think you are a great instructor. I really enjoyed my studies here.”

“[The course provided] valuable information and ideas you may not get on your own. [Also,] good feedback from instructor and peers.”

another ZOO adventure

Today Jonah and I went to the ZOO, though the weather looked quite unpredictable, as is the case every day this season. Of course, it did drizzle, but we were ready. The biggest attractions at the ZOO for Jonah are . . . drum roll . . . the out-of-commission tractor for kids to “drive” and the sand box with trucks, buckets, and shovels. The animals are largely an aside at this point.

I love going to the ZOO because it’s lush and green - actually gorgeous colors of autumn now, it’s one of the highest points in the area, thus the air there seems the best, and because I like to check in with some of my favorite relatives (read monkeys) and friends (read otters and sea lions). It’s a good place for Jonah to run, because of the relative absence of cars.

The weather today was sketchy, like I mentioned, which meant that we were there practically alone. What a treat since the ZOO is exceedingly crowded at all times of the day in the summer months. It seemed as if we had snuck in over the fence on an off-limits day since most of the morning it was just us and the employees cleaning and setting up Christmas lights for the annual ZOO Lights display.

This had its advantages. The animals seemed more responsive to our presence and less tired of the crowds. They also seemed a little less inhibited than usual. The monkeys especially. We caught the mandrills in their most intimate moment (if you know what I mean), a first for me and my as-of-yet unaware child. The amazing thing was that these creatures were so casual about their encounter. No frills, no big deal, nothing that required any sort of a ritual or noise. Wham bam and not even thank you ma'am.

The marmoset, the smallest monkey in the world and one of my favorite distant relatives, flirted with us through the glass. It seemed to want to be pet, so it jumped around, switching between teasing us from its branch and coming up close with just the glass between it and our fingers. Jonah loved that little dance.

The orangutangs lounged around lazily, switching between eating leaves off birch branches and gazing at us with their sad human eyes from underneath cardboard. Jonah wanted to know: "What's that doing there?"

Something I was proud of was that Jonah went without a diaper. He peed on the potty before we left, then at the ZOO on the big toilet twice. I had to initiate each time, but it worked. No accident. What a good boy!

into the distance... diaperless

Last Friday marked a big milestone in Jonah's life. He walked with me all the way to the "park on the hill," as we call it, and back. No stroller or backpack. The park is ten blocks from our house, which is quite far for a two year old. Not only did he walk there and back independently; he also ran around the park like a maniac. And to top that off - he was diaperless. When he has no diaper on, I have to constantly remind him to pee. He gets excited to pee on new and interesting objects in the great outdoors.

"Jonah, do you want to pee on a tree?" is usually followed by an excited: "Sure," even if Jonah doesn't really need to pee at the time. In that case, he will push as hard as he can only to admit: "It's hard to pee now."

I have been taking him on short trips diaperless too. To a restaurant and the grocery store, for instance. He did great the other day when I took him to the women's restroom and let him stand on the toilet and "pee like a man." Occasionally he still pees his pants, but he's getting much better at this and is proud of his accomplishments.

language

The other day I came across a conversation I transcribed that Jonah and I had seven months ago. It's amazing to see how much his language and brain development have progressed since then.

Jonah turned 26-months today. This time my monthly email article from babycenter.com which sends me updates on Jonah's development said this:

"By now, your child should be able to use at least 50 single words, construct simple two-word sentences, and follow a two-step command such as 'Please get your shoes and bring them to Dad so he can put them on.' You can probably understand what she's saying about half the time, but don't expect to make sense of everything she says until she's around 4. Young children often confuse pronouns — so you might find her avoiding them completely by saying 'Brother get' or 'Baby throw.'"

I can't even count the number of words Jonah knows, but his sentences consist on average of four to five words:

"What's daddy doing there now?"
"It's hiding now."
"What's that one, mommy?"
"How to do that, mommy?"

Tim's observation the other day was spot on. Jonah has transitioned from mostly naming objects about seven months ago to discussing and asking about ideas: how to do something, how to describe something, etc.

Jonah uses the present continous (e.g., "Jonah's cooking something.") as well as simple past (e.g., "I dropped it."). Not always, but often. Very interesting.

Jonah's word choice can be quite entertaining too. Today the landlord was around, tinkering with things. Jonah watched the landlord, who was standing on a ladder and playing with the house paint, out the living room window. He kept yelling: "Landlord! Landlord!" with sort of a British accent, trying to get the landlord's attention. Then he graduated to yelling: "Landlord, fart! Landlord, fart!" I don't know where he came up with that idea, but it was the perfect way to counteract our landlord's robotic demeanor as well as his odd, if not alarming habit of inserting "caulk" into every conversation he has with us. Nicely done, Jonah.

nesting

Some may call this the nesting instinct, but whatever it is, Tim and I have been reorganizing our house and ... drum roll, please... splurging on new furniture. Using a gift certificate from Tim's parents for the new Ikea store that opened in our area, we bought new bookshelves. One for each member of the family. Jonah loves his and Tim and I are just putting together and organizing ours. Ours are made of real wood - quite special these days - and painted a bright cheerful red. We decided to add on glass doors to keep the kids from messing with our books and to keep the dust out. So far, I love my new bookshelves and I have been relishing my time ordering and re-organizing my books.

We also ordered a new sofa. I'm really anti-dust these days. I think my sensitivity to dust has been elevated due to my pregnancy. So, we decided to get a leather sofa. Easy to clean and not a dust trap! When it arrives, we will have a party to give it a test run.

Buying new stuff is a big deal for both Tim and me. We are generally thrifty and uncomfortable with spending too much money on any one item. The new sofa we are getting is the most expensive single item we have ever bought for ourselves other than our *used* car. It feels daring and a bit scary, but exciting too.

Sometimes it's good to treat yourself, I guess, especially considering that our last sofa cost us five dollars. How we acquired it is actually a pretty sweet story that I will share next time I blog.

midwife appointment

I had my monthly midwife appointment today. Jonah knew why this time. Our midwife's office is so cozy and great for the whole family. She makes tea for us, we chat, then we get to business. The atmosphere is so relaxed that I look forward to my visits there. There is always a basket of toys in the room that Jonah loves to play with. Today our midwife let Jonah stand on the scale and help her put the gel away after she listened to the baby's heartbeat.

All is going well with the pregnancy (knock on wood). The heartbeat is normal. My iron level is strong, I feel good...

For those that don't know, Tim and I decided to keep the sex of the baby a surprise until the baby is born. With Jonah, we wanted to find out and did so as soon as we could. This time I wanted a different experience. The mystery appealed to me. Plus, if it's a girl, maybe we can avoid the flood of pink frillies at least until the baby is here. Everybody tells me they think we are going to have another boy. I am not sure. Let us wait and see.

"See him?"

Yesterday at a bookstore I read -or more accurately narrated- a children's book to Jonah about a mom expecting a second baby and preparing the older sibling for the change. I wasn't sure if it was too early to start the preparation, but thought I would see how he reacted. When I got done describing the pictures in simpler language than the book offered, Jonah asked me to read the book again. He was intrigued. I then took the next step and posed the question:

"Did you know mommy has a baby in her belly too?"

Jonah thought about it for a second, then repeated in Czeglish: "In the pupik (meaning belly)," pointing at my stomach. The most amazing thing was that he didn't seem surprised.

We didn't discuss it much at the bookstore, but when we got home, I brought it up again. This time Jonah got very excited. First he asked: "See him?" I told him we couldn't see the baby yet; that the baby was small and needed to grow and sleep inside until it was ready to come out and that then it would come out of my vagina and cry and we would hold it and feed it. He has, by the way, already known about male and female anatomy (as much as a two-year-old can grasp) for some time, so this simple explanation of birth was not a big surprise either.

Jonah then began to fantasize about all that would follow. His stream of consciousness went something like this: "Baby sleeping in there. Still growing. It's still growing."

I nodded. He went on like this for some time: "And then the baby come out and then baby cry and Jonah hold it. And then baby walk and open the door and Jonah walk and hold baby's hand. And mommy put baby in Jonah's stroller and baby eat something."

I couldn't believe how easily he grasped the whole concept. I actually expected him to be confused and was ready to instantly abandon the topic if he showed any signs of confusion. I guess I underestimated him. A friend of mine told me that she began to talk about her pregnancy with her two year old daughter too, and that her daughter was receptive. So I thought I'd try it.

Later in the day, Jonah brought up the topic again while I was at work, discussing the new baby with Tim. What a marvelous little two-year-old brain.

hiking in the rain

Today was an especially rainy day, but we didn't let that discourage us. As planned, we went hiking in the Columbia Gorge, bringing with us our friend Mike.

We picked a wooded trail and didn't really get that wet in the forest. The trail led to a beautiful and dramatic waterfall called Ellowah Falls, rimmed at the bottom by large rocks covered in bright moss and ancient lava flows.


The forest smelled like pine needles, fresh soil, and mushrooms and the undergrowth was almost entirely made up of small new ferns. Indeed we found lobster mushrooms, which we promptly sauteed in garlic with butter, salt and parsley for dinner. Delicious! They not only resembled lobster with their coloring, but tasted like seafood too. Even Jonah loved it. I put a few pictures here.

back from Prague

Just got back from Prague. Though I was only gone nine days, it felt like months. Already on the plane to Europe I felt homesick. I wanted to pull out the photo album I compiled for friends and start looking through it, but stopped myself, feeling pathetic.

Once in Prague, I was able to relax and enjoy my time alone, though I felt rather strange... naked without Jonah.

As always, the trip was a whirlwind, mostly comprised of socializing with friends and family, catching a couple of cultural events, and rushing through Prague to buy presents and snap photos, which always embarasses me because acting like a tourist in my birth town is a bit awkward.

Most of the time was spent with my grandmother whose eightieth birthday is coming up in the spring. We always have such a great time together. She treated me to a concert - a sixty-some piece orchestra playing Britten, Berlioz and Dvorak, of which Dvorak was of course my "unbiased" favorite.

I also saw my dad and his wife and met my two cousins' fresh babies, the only two offspring carrying the family name so far. The story of how these two came about is actually quite amuzing - a bit like a fairy tale. My uncle - the king in the story, also a severe hypochondriac who believes every day is his last, was getting tired of waiting for grandchildren, so he declared one day that he promises to bestow one million crowns on the son that brings him his first grandchild. Sure enough, my two cousins got to work and just a few short months later, both announced their girlfriends were pregnant. The rest is history.

The old, the young, the dead... all of those were on my list of family members to visit. Thus, my grandmother and I made our usual pilgrimages to place a flower on my grandfather's and stone on my paternal grandmother's grave. On the way, we placed a small stone on the grave of Franz Kafka as well.

My dad was super busy juggling his two careers - one as an actor and theater director, the other - a recent development- as a Senator. He invited me to a staged reading of Vaclav Havel's lesser known play Spiklenci (or Conspirators). My dad cast and directed the reading. He also read the stage directions and a couple of bit parts. Some of the actors were, by Czech standards, quite well-known personalities. After the performance, my dad made me pose for pictures with him and the ex-president. I had my camera with me, but was too shy to take it out and request a snapshot for my collection of curiosities. You will just have to take my word for it - I was there.

In addition to family, I made my rounds and got together with most of my favorite friends my generation and my parents' generation. The highlight was a reunion I organized of my grade school classmates. Ten of us were there (from a class of about 28). We finished grade school together in 1987, and most of the people I saw at the get-together I hadn't seen in twenty years!

Though I'm not a great fan of the television, I watched the news nearly every day, trying to get a sense of what my birthland is currently going trough. One day I read the newspaper as well. The entire first section was taken up mostly by huge articles and exposes on the corruption of the government. Shadily bought shares, government money spent on delux apartments and fancy cars... in short, the topic de jour seems to be the misuse of power of those in the government. I also learned that I had temporarily switched places with the current Czech president, who, while I was visiting the Czech Republic, was attending the United Nations conference in New York, apparently giving scandalous speeches that deny the fact that global warming is occurring at an alarming and dangerous rate and that it is indeed largely caused by humans. He and Bush are the only heads of state still in denial, I sware.

Now I'm back. It's great to be with my boys again.

If you are curious, I put together the best pics from my trip and posted them here.

first hot chocolate and homemade cookies

Like I've mentioned before, we've been trying to keep Jonah off sugar for as long as we can. That doesn't mean he doesn't eat sweet things. His favorite are raisins and fig bars. He has only had cookies a couple of times in his life and of course, as any child would, he loved them ... too much.

Just the other day on one of the first cold fall days, I decided to make hot chocolate - with real cocoa powder and organic cane sugar. Jonah got so excited to have his first hot chocolate that he ran around repeating "chocolate, hot chocolate, chocolate" over and over, greatly emphasizing the "ch" sound as he often does with words that are special: trucks, trains, etc.

I put the hot chocolate in his special little teacup with a blue fish on it and we sipped hot chocolate together on a cold rainy afternoon like good friends.

Over the weekend the whole family made chocolate chip cookies together, a first for Jonah. He had a pretty good time mixing, but he liked licking the dough much better than eating the finished cookies. I must say he looked sharp in his apron!

best treat of all

Ever since we started giving Jonah chewable vitamins, he has been wild about them. They taste like candy and for him it's the only candy he gets. So after breakfast or lunch he gets one and then he wants more. We tell him he only gets one a day. He is starting to understand the concept, because the other day he asked me for another one and when I said no, he remarked: "Tomorrow."

water weekend

Yesterday Tim, Jonah's uncle Andy, a couple of friends, and Jonah and I drove out to a river beach at Oxbow Park. The drive was about forty minutes. The park is basically just past the eastern-most suburb of Portland, but it could be a hundred miles away. It feels so peaceful and secluded. The river is pretty slow there with the flow hardly noticable. It's lined with small cliffs and leaf trees, and as you swim in the cool but pleasant greenish opal-colored water, eagles coast overhead.

Jonah enjoyed the water in his kid-sized life vest. Best of all, he enjoyed throwing rocks in the river and pounding rocks against rocks. At one point all the men that were part of our group surrounded Jonah and watched him pound small rocks with a large rock he called a hammer. The sight was quite primal- cave child pounding rocks surrounded by cave men relaxing after a day out hunting - I mean working (Yes, most of them came straight from work even on a holiday).

Today we enjoyed city style water at an urban park filled with parents and children. The center piece of the park, or rather square, is a fountain that pours water out down sandstone slabs onto the tiled floor of the square. The water then recedes like the tide and comes back a minute later, filling up the area again. Kids love that place and Jonah does too. This was our fourth time there this summer, I think. Jonah scooped water into his bucket and poured it out an infinate number of times. He also scooted himself, seated, along the bottom of the "pool," with only his head sticking out saying: "I'm a boat." He tried splashing a couple of kids in the face to see their reaction, but the kids didn't really care so he quickly abandoned that form of entertainment. Once he even filled up his bucket and ran up to a flock of birds chirping on the ground, hoping to soak them. The birds outsmarted him, of course, flying away quicker than he could run. Good times.

We topped off the three-day weekend with a delicious dinner, if I may say so myself. I made the best rice I have ever made: chopped onions, smooshed garlic in the garlic press and fried that in a generous amount of olive oil. I added the rice and fried it with a large dash of cumin and cardamom until some of the grains turned brown, then added water, salt and a pork chop bone (yes, in my pregnancy I have been craving pork, which I haven't eaten in over two years). The beans I also started with onion frying in olive oil. I let the beans simmer for a while, flavored with cumin. We ate that with chicken pulled off the bone and heated in the oven. All of that was topped with a salsa of fresh cherry tomatoes off the vine in our garden - just with some salt and red wine vinegar. Then lettuce. So tasty!!! And simple too. Jonah stuffed himself too. Very rewarding!

anniversary & party at the park

I can't believe it's September already! This summer has gone by in the blink of an eye.

Tim and I celebrated our wedding anniversary a couple of days back by having a family picnic dinner with Jonah at a park, then watching a unique fall phenomenon of hunderds of swifts swirling around in the sky and diving into an old elementary school chimney. I had heard about this happening at the same place every year, but never had gone to see it.

From what I hear, the number of swifts rises through mid-September until there are about ten thousand of them gathering together. It would be worth going back just for that.

Jonah enjoyed himself too, though not as much watching the birds as running around and watching kids about four years his senior sliding down a steep grassy hill on cardboard. There was even a girl soccer practice giong on nearby. So much to see!

A guy came up to film us for his documentary on the swifts. Jonah was so excited to see the giant camera that he shouted over us like a maniac. I doubt the filmmaker will be able to hear anything over him. The funniest was when Tim mentioned that we came to see the swifts for our anniversary. The guy asked how many years we have been married. Tim said three and after thinking about it a moment, in typical wife fashion, countered that it has been four years. It came off pretty funny.

On another note, yesterday we went to one of Jonah's friend's birthday parties at the park. The park had a toy jeep for kids to drive. Jonah was so obsessed with it, he drove it and crawled all over it for hours. Even in the middle of the night he rememberd it when he woke up and began to narrate a story about it in a super loud voice.

My two favorite moments at the park where the party took place were:

1. Jonah and the birthday boy singing ABCD together.

2. An incredibly overweight and expressionless pug dog with a studded leather punk leash in the playground toddler swing, pushed by his "mommy," its tongue sticking out slightly on one side (as if post-stroke).

3. Jonah standing next to a stranger, watching him take off his sandal to wipe bark dust off his foot, and proclaiming in a loud and declaratory voice: "Dirty foot." The man sure was embarassed. Kids say the darnest things.