Halloween 2005 has been a much different experience than any other Halloween to date.
If you recall last year, Emma visitied four houses and then had reached her limit. This year Quackin' Duck couldn't get enough and we visited nearly every home in our neighborhood that had decorations inviting us to their door.
She was on fire and filled with purpose. Emma lead me around, choosing which house to visit next. She waddled down the sidewalk to each house's front door without even looking to see if I was following.
"Oh, they have a pumpkin. They're home, they have treats!"
"There's no car in their driveway... they must not be home."
"Trick or treat! Oh, you have a doggy! That's a silly doggy!"
"Thank you! Bye-bye! Have a good dinner!"
At last, once we'd comleted the circle and it was nearly time to come home I had to exert some Super Daddy Powers and convince her that she could trick-or-treat at our house and show Mommy all of her candy. The ruse worked and we made it home and hour and 22 houses later with a giant punkin' full of candy.
Once home, it was Henry's turn to enjoy Halloween. Truth be told, I think he's just as happy with the wrapper as with candy itself. Oh, to be 10 months old and completely satisfied by the simplest of things!
@ 9:48 PM by TNorthcutt | Comments (1)
"Hello. My name is Henry and I am a cutie pie."
These shots are from when Henry-boy was first beginning to eat "people food," nibbling on the food from my or Marla's plate. As you can see he loves it. If it would please the jury, I present the following evidence for this assertions.
Note the throbbing vein on the subject's temple in Exhibit A below?
Food item A was removed from the reach of Subject and the vein pictured below sprang into view.
We've noticed this phenomenon repeatedly over the past ten months when he expresses his displeasure with a given situation. We haven't yet detected the "vein-popping" during moments of levity. Clearly the subject does not like to have food removed from his reach.
In Exhibit B the subject is smiling despite being what most people call "a mess." Again, through observations made over the couse of subject's lifetime we have not detected similar pleasure during other situations where subject has "a mess" on other parts of his body.
We can thus conclude that the subject enjoys being "a mess" only when this state involves food.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we rest our case. The boy loves to eat.
@ 9:52 PM by TNorthcutt | Comments (2)
Marla's been saying for weeks now, "We took pictures at Leigh Anne's house. Don't forget to put them up." A few days would pass... "You know, we played at Leigh Anne's house that one day. You should put them up."
And then the next week. "You know those pictures? From the day ay Leigh Anne's house? Well, you should put them up."
And so, two and half months later, here they are!
We also wanted to share some pictures of Henry's first taste of buttermilk biscuit.
Now, to many of you this may not seem like much to celebrate but, let me assure you, to a Son of The South this is a big deal! I could live off of Marla's biscuits... at least until the butter clogged my arteries and I keeled over dead of a heart attack.
He was tentative at first but after his first bite the boy couldn't get enough. (The butter and strawberry-pineapple jam (homemade) on top surely couldn't have hurt the cause.)
@ 9:31 PM by TNorthcutt | Comments (2)
We took a trip to Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield to see the 45th Alabama Regiment give a "living history" demonstration. The girls (and sleepy Henry) had no interest in muskets and sweaty soldiers so Dad and I went alone.
I've always been fascinated by Civil War reenactors and it was nice to be able to talk with some of them after the demo was. (Truth be told I did a lot more listening than talking...) There are even reenactments out here in California!
Following the demonstration the rest of the gang joined us for a trek to the top of Kennesaw Mountain. It was a hazy day so downtown Atlanta was hidden (you could just barely make out the Georgia Dome) but we still enjoyed ourselves.
I picked up Don't Know Much About The Civil War from the park bookstore and am in the middle of it. I'm amazed at how things never seem to change in politics.
Lincoln won approximately 40% of the popular vote, but the combined totals of his three opponents were greater by a million votes. Lincon had crafted a victory by carrying the electoral votes of the big states in the North and West.
Sound like any other elections you can recall? There are numerous other examples like the partisan bickering in the House and Senate, states blasting the federal governament for butting in, politicians lameting the death of civility and so on. The more things change the more they stay the same.
@ 8:52 PM by TNorthcutt | Comments (2)
Thanks to persistence by Granma and Aunt Jessica (not to mention the wonders of the Internets), Emma Grace is now the proud owner of a Little Tikes Country Kitchen.
As loyal readers know, Emma is an avid cook. She pretends to be Giada and Rachael all the time. She knows the difference between fennel and anise and can recite the entire intro to 30 Minute Meals without breaking a sweat.
She's been putting her imagination to good use, pretending the the top of a speaker was her microwave that the oven was underneath the TV. She even had a very ghetto cooktop I'd drawn on a piece of cardboard. While on vacation she played with several different "kitchen sink and stoves" that Granma Northcutt picked up 2nd hand at yardsales and we knew that we'd have to find one ourselves.
The search is over and, as you can see, our little chef is as happy as can be.
@ 9:09 PM by TNorthcutt | Comments (0)
"May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."
We just finished celebrating Rosh Hashana, the beginning of the Jewish New Year. It is a happy celebration, with lots of focus on family and lots of reflection on the past year and the year to come. Marla made a yummy honey cake last night that I'm looking forward to digging into tonight!
Marla heard the Rabbi speak this week about his experiences during the past year that he and his family spent travelling the world exploring religion and God. It sounds like he learned a great many things - and came back with many more questions. I've always found that the leaders I looked up to the most were the first to admit that they didn't have all the answers and struggled to find their way, too. No wonder I like Rabbi Spitz.
He and his family were features in Faith and Fear in the OC Register recently. Use "poweredbysteam" as the username and "password" as the password if you don't have an account.
Happy New Year!
@ 4:32 PM by TNorthcutt | Comments (0)
I spent all of yesterday moving boxes from one side of the garage to the other, so we can finally get at least one car into the garage. Let me tell you, that is fun!
It's kind of like moving except you're not going anywhere. See, doesn't that sound great? No better way to spend your Saturday.
These pictures are from the last few days of our trip back to Atlanta. First up is a trip to the Marietta Square for some fun on the train. Next, we took Emma for her first round of min-golf with our friends the Ledfords.
Jonah and I spent much of the evening discussing the merits of the various factions in Pandemic's Star Wars Battlefront and what the future of the series might bring.
Though the golf was fun, Emma really liked the Dance Dance Revolution best of all.
The next day was an "ice cream social" with my brother Paul and his family. My aunt Daphne came over, too, and a good time was had by all.
There's nothing quite like hand-cranked ice cream in the middle of the day.
@ 2:29 PM by TNorthcutt | Comments (1)
