Pumpkin time again!

Fall 2014:

Fall 2015:

That is all.

(Except for this fun fact: he can still wear the Fall 2014 outfit. He was just THAT fat as an infant : ). He finally started to lengthen out this summer. I'll miss the rolls and cheeks, but it's nice that pants fit him now. Bonus is he still fits in a lot of last winter's clothes. They just look very different on him this year!)

Kitchen Adventures: Cooking with the Bear

It was just a matter of time (and ability to stand on a step stool) before Alain joined me in the kitchen.  Despite his allergies, he's just as enthusiastic about food as I am. After a summer spent picking tomatoes and berries almost daily in g'ma's garden, he was ready to take the next step with food prep. So, he stands next to me at the counter (on said step stool) and plops (not throws!) chunks of potato into a pot of water, or pieces of broccoli into a colander. He was also somehow involved in helping g'pa make lemonade recently. And he helps set the table for most meals by at least putting his fork and sippy cup on the table.

Of course, there are no photos of my newest kitchen helper in action (or the food we've made) because 1) I haven't uploaded any all month, and 2) trying to take selfies while your 22 month old stands on a step stool and you have a large knife nearby is not a good idea. Some favorites he's helped with so far are black beans and rice*, sautéed potatoes, and steamed broccoli. I wish he wasn't allergic to everything in cookies and cakes (flour, butter, milk, eggs, etc.) but I suppose it's for the best that his taste for delicious baked goods isn't developed yet.

(Taison caught us cooking and snapped a shot-selfie problem solved!)

Coconut is also a new favorite, but he prefers eating it straight up to cooking with it

*He's obsessed with my black beans and rice. We just made a batch today and he hugged my legs as I was serving his because he was so excited to eat it. He insists on having a squirt of lime juice on top of his. Here's the recipe, modified from Epicurious:

4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed with a garlic press
1-2 strips bacon, chopped
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small bell pepper (any color), seeded and finely chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano

2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
2 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained
2 cups water

lime and hot sauce for serving, optional

We were lucky enough to have it alongside grilled shrimp with mango salsa : )

August

We've been everywhere this month! Looking back at the calendar, I just realized that we were finishing up vacation in the Outer Banks at the beginning of August:

 Almost the whole fam

Cool dudes on a hot beach

Alain and I were obsessed with these figs from a tree in the backyard of our beach house.

Then Alain and I went to Richmond for a long-overdue visit. Then Taison took him on his first visit to the National Zoo:

Then g'ma, Alain and I went to the Berkshires so I could sing Beethoven's 9th ("Ode to Joy") at Tanglewood. And Alain met a llama near our AirBnB rental:

Alain got a lot out of this year's visit to Tanglewood; he is now obsessed with "Ode to Joy" and enjoys singing along and pointing out the instruments ("cello!" "horn!") in a YouTube video of the piece. 

Then we went to the Vineyard with Taison! The sand and water were great, but the Touch a Truck event at the local school made the biggest impression on Alain:

"Fire truck!!"

A visit to Julian's stone at Edgartown Lighthouse

Our annual photo overlooking Edgartown Lighthouse

I'm exhausted and tired of packing and re-packing, but it's so worth it. Alain soaks up each experience and seems to remember everything. It's so much fun to watch him process these experiences. We have one more trip this weekend (wedding on Long Island that should be a lot of fun) then will go back to regular life, for the most part.

3

Dear Julian,

You would have been 3 years old today. Alain seems like a big boy to me now as a 19 month old; I can't imagine what a 3 year old would be like! Your little brother loves playing with the big kids when we go to the library or the playground. I wish you two could play together.

I spend a lot of time talking about and to Alain, but I still think about you a lot. I wonder how similar or different you would have been from Alain-bear. I wonder what it would have been like to hear you say "mama" and "daddy", or what your nickname would have been. I wonder if you would have been as excited about buses and fire trucks and dogs and splashing and berries as your brother is.

I wish and wonder a lot of things about you. The few things that I know are: you were strong and beautiful, and you were and will always be loved by many. I'm honored to have carried you and given birth to you. Happy birthday, my sweet little one.

Love,
Mommy

July in a New Place

It's Julian's birthday month, the first one away from Boston. I've been thinking about him a lot lately. Even though we've moved, I still feel close to him. I think Alain helps. He is so full of love and laughter that it kind of spills over into my thoughts and memories of Julian in my quiet moments. It's nice that Alain is a snuggler, too. Those generous bear hugs of his help, at least a tiny bit, to make up for the snuggles that I've missed out on with Julian.

The End of the Beginning

Our condo on Magnolia Street is empty and now we live in VA. I was definitely ready to say goodbye to our first home, but seeing the nursery empty was hard. That room held a lot of hopes and dreams and fears and regrets. Julian sent a double rainbow to see us off the night before we left, just after the movers finished loading the truck.

He sent another (double) rainbow a few days after we moved in, when Taison and I were on our way home from an afternoon movie date.

Alain's room here in VA is beautiful. Both his room and ours look out on a pond across the street. One of the first things Alain likes to do when he wakes up is open the blinds to see the "agua". We gave him a big boy haircut shortly after we arrived, which he loved. He's having a great time living with g'ma and g'pa and Coco...especially Coco. He misses Taison, a lot (so do I). Luckily he'll join us in just a couple more days. Overall he's adjusting well to his new home.

We still have a lot of unknowns, but I'm comfortable with that for now. It's summer and I get to explore new possibilities with the bear (and my mom, and sometimes Taison when he's not working), and we'll see where we end up.

Success

My semester ended at the beginning of this month. I was a little nervous to open my course evaluations, because I wasn't sure what type of feedback my students would have for me. Between all of the blizzards, travel, and the bear still not sleeping that well, my hopes for having more time to fine-tune my teaching this semester fell a bit short. During the semester, the only feedback I really received was how my students did on graded assignments and how engaged they seemed in class. My class met for 100 minutes at lunchtime, so I often got yawns and blank faces (even though I instituted a mandatory stretch break halfway through class ; )). A few students did go out of their way to send me relevant articles or film clips that they came across during the semester, which I suppose was a good indication that at least a portion of the class was interested.

To my surprise, the evaluations were very positive! What a great confidence booster. It's nice to feel successful at something. There are a lot of small successes in parenting the bear, but there is also a lot of uncertainty and some failures (most of the failures have to do with getting him to go to sleep!). And then there is the crushing failure of losing Julian that will always loom in the back of my mind. I'm grateful to have had the chance to experience this success in teaching, and am interested to see what's next for me professionally once we get settled in the DC area.

The bear and I have started saying our goodbyes to friends and colleagues and favorite places in Boston (and by "Boston" I mostly mean Arlington, Cambridge and Somerville). The weather has been fabulous lately, which has been nice for our farewell tour. We spent most of today in actual Boston, visiting my old office at NU and Symphony Hall.

Hanging out near Symphony Hall

Theme song for this month: Nina Simone's cover of "Here Comes the Sun"