Stickiness

Today was my first full day back at home after 4 days in New York. It was, well, sticky.

Sticky fingers. This morning, Jake and I made pancakes. He wanted to make "Monkey Muffins," which is muffins with bananas, eggs, walnuts and chocolate chips, but the bananas were no more, so we I dubbed our apple, walnut and choc chip pancakes Monkey Pancakes and we made appropriate "eee - eee" noises while eating them. They were a hit, though by the end of breakfast we were all very chocolatey and very sticky.

Stick in the Mud. Mike decided to accompany Jake and me on our nearly weekly Sunday walk in the Park over on the Saunders trail up to Monticello. The parking lot was full, though, when we arrived and it had rained here for 3 days straight. We slid in the mud next to the paved area and before you know it, our Honda Pilot was sliding down the hill towards a paved ravine. One more foot and the car was going to turn over. We stopped, got out and Jake informed us we needed to call Bob the Builder to come help us.


We did not know Bob's number, but while on hold with AAA a wonderfully generous guy on his way to hike with his 3 year old daughter offered to come back with his 4 wheel truck and a chain, and he did so so fast we were able to get the Pilot out of the mud, park the car, and go on our regularly planned hike. All great, except that Jake kept lamenting that there had been "no Bob." We said, no, it was Jason today, not Bob, but weren't we happy that Jason helped us? Blank stare.

It was Mike's first time on the trail, and once we got to the covered, shaded part where the bridges start he marvelled at its beauty. It was an overcast day, cool and we hiked up at full speed with Jake in the stroller singing and babbling lightly, and then hiked down with Jake running at first, then walking, then, finally, after we fed our bread to the fish in the pond, sitting on the ground in the middle of the trail. We were all VERY tired and Jake skipped lunch entirely to make his way upstairs for his nap. Mike and I nestled on the couch together to watch a second season episode of HOUSE with Cynthia Nixon in it. She was great.

Sticky ghouls and ghoblins. Last but not least, it was Matthew C's 2 year b-day Halloween party. Woken early from his nap, Jake refused to put on his dragon costume, but liked the idea of being, yes, you guessed it, Bob the Builder, so we gave him a plaid shirt and a truck and some tools to hold ( he accepted only the truck), told him that from now on his name was Bob, which he repeated happily, and made our way over to the Clubhouse at the lake. The festivities were well underway - craft tables for the kids to do playdough, cover wooden houses with icing and candies, and stickers of houses, cats and ghosts to stick on paper plate wreaths. Huge frankenstein floats and jackolanterns and a huge floating haunted house outside. Jake and I ate about as many candies as we stuck on our haunted house. Jake also ate chicken, hot dogs and fries, and sang happy b-day to Matthew while Mike took some pix of the candle blowing by Matthew and his dad (see photo), and a good time was had by all. Jen Z. was running around (12 days to due date) looking like she was a huge balloon about to burst. Jake played with Aiden, Emily, Emeline, Sam, Connor, Matthew, and many other friends.

Dinner was breaded fish, corn and couscous and Jake refused to have any. He loved his bath, which he spent squirting water into his mouth and on his head, had a lovely naked run around the upstairs and went to bed quite happily.

Who's stuck now? Mike and I spent the bulk of the evening looking at photos he'd taken today and discussing our different approaches to cropping them. Finally, we got tired and stopped. That must mean we agree, right?