So. We are now the proud parents of a full-fledged toddler. He now sees walking as the preferred method of locomotion, and for some reason being upright has instilled in him a new sense of independence. He is the master of his own destiny. Gone are the days when he'd crawl around the family room playing with his toys and occassionally the TV remote. He needs to unplug everything in the house. His sense of style is offended by the candles by the fireplace, so they need to be lined up on the carpet. He's also yelling alot. Not unhappily, just sort of a "I am Toddler, Hear Me Roar" kind of thing. Oh, and his favorite word is "TV." We're so proud.

Yeah! Aidan's walking on his own! He walks like Frankenstein and thinks it's a fun game, but not really a way to get around. But he will take up to about 20 steps on his own, provided we're watching and ready to applaud. I was worried we were going to have to send him to kindergarten with his little push toy, which is the only way he'd walk up until now. He's 15 months today. And, to top things off, he saw Santa, sat on his lap and smiled! OK, he cried at first, but then when I crouched down and said, "I'm gonna come give you kisses!" he grinned as you see. He's a sucker for the kisses. Tonight we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory with sister Robin, her DH Steve, and their kids Kyle and Arianna. I thought Aidan was particularly attached to me lately, but imagine my surprise when I look over and he's giving the same, lick-your-chin/kiss he gives to me to Robin! Hmph! He's just such a little lovebug. Greg was describing my blog to them and said I had a "surly, but in a nice way" tone. Surly? Me? I always imagine a short little "Danny DeVito as Louie in Taxi" kinda guy when I hear surly. Sarcastic, maybe. Sardonic, hopefully. But surly? I'm going to have to start growing out my eyebrows nice and bushy so I can fit the part.

New fishies - Thursday and Friday II. I'll get a photo of them soon but their bowl needs tidying up first. So far so good (i.e. still alive). We went to AZ for Thanksgiving with my family. It was surprisingly cold, but my dad had turned the heater on the pool so high that it was like bathwater. Really warm. Aidan loved it. He cracked up when people would blow bubbles in the water, then he'd stick his face in like he was going to try it, too. But he ended up drinking the water, which I don't think tasted very good, given that it's a salt water pool. I also got a pedicure at Elizabeth Arden that still looks good! Too bad it's winter and I can't show it off. Met some on-line friends from my Aug 03 playgroup, and that's always fun. Aidan was sick, and then Greg and I got it too. I think we left it with most of my family, unfortunately. All of us are now on the upswing, fortunately. Photos from Thanksgiving are on my webshots site.

We named the fish Friday. Friday died. I'd just bought a larger tank, gravel and a castle for him to hide behind, and treated the water for chlorine. He liked all that stuff in the small bowl, and was doing fine, but the larger bowl just did him in, or maybe he was terminal anyway. We'll never know. Greg says I'm running a fish hospice.

I had another Seinfeld moment while getting a burrito the other night. I walked in and the place was deserted, probably because of the trendy new burrito place a block away. Anyway, I order my burrito and pay, and the lady, the ONLY other person in there, gives me a receipt, circles the number at the bottom and says, "Number 60." Um, OK. So she goes behind the counter, makes the burrito, puts it in a bag, places it on the counter and calls out, "Number 60!" I look around just in case someone has walked in and I missed it, and thank her. I was afraid she was going to ask to see my receipt just to make sure I was in fact Number 60. Even though NO ONE else was there, not even a custodian or another cook. I guess rules are rules.

Here's our new family member (top pic). Still no name, so we're calling him Fishie. We're considering AaahhhDa since that's what Aidan says most often. Also took Aidan to a pumpkin patch to take some photos in his costume. Poor kid - it was like 90 degrees and I walked several blocks the wrong way before I found the darn patch (really a parking lot with pumpkins in the corner). He was less than happy about being plopped in the middle of some pumpkins with a fuzzy sleeper-like outfit on, not to mention the dreaded hood (why do kids hate things on their head?). He did OK, though, and I got him out of it as soon as these were taken.


Oh yeah, and it was my birthday yesterday. I worked all day and no one knew it was my birthday, but we went to SFMOMA to see the Chagall exhibit. Man, was it crowded - but a word to the wise - buy tickets in advance, and take a stroller. We got to use the staff elevator and go right into the exhibit instead of waiting in line for an hour and a half. Thank goodness, since Aidan was a pickle and fussed the whole time. So we went into each room, turned around and looked at the pretty pictures, then left. Lunch at Buca di Beppo was great. Someday I'm going to sit at the big round table with the pope bust in the middle.

New furnace is installed and today we have A/C! Neither Greg nor I have ever lived with A/C so we're very excited and a little cold. I won an as-yet unnamed goldfish tonight at the roaming carnival.

The Pumpkin Festival was everything it promised to be. Pumpkins everywhere. We ate pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin rolls, and pumpkin pancakes. We also had yummy sauteed artichoke hearts from the Knights of Columbus (or, more accurately, their wives) and a wonderful dinner at Cetrella. I had Frito Misto (many fried things) and Greg had a Spanish seafood stew. See photos here.

Today Aidan's picking up the cell phone and holding it to his head and says something approximating, "hoh". Apparently it's not working and he's irritated.

We're off to Half Moon Bay for the big Pumpkin Festival. Woo hoo! I've always wanted to go but there's only a 2 lane road heading in and out and it's a mess this weekend. So we're driving in today and staying over. Halloween is my favorite holiday, so Aidan and I are all ready with our orange pumpkin socks. Greg has pumpkin boxers but he won't wear them out. Party pooper. Anyway, I expect we'll take lots of photos of Aidan celebrating fall. I installed a new counter on the site because MegaStats won't let me sign in to see my stats. But now I've screwed up the sidebar and don't know how to get it back. It's now at the bottom of the page. Grrr.

Mmmm....KFC. So I'm in the drive through tonight, with Aidan patiently hanging out in the back seat. The car in front of me orders a freshly slaughtered chicken or something that takes forever to put together. She finishes, and because there are cars in front of her, she can only pull forward about two feet. Not enough room for me to pull forward to the little speaker box (why can't they make it in the shape of the colonel? I think that would be a good idea.). But for some reason Miss KFC doesn't see that and I hear her voice saying, "May I take your order?" Don't they have a camera or something that shows if a car is there or not? Anyway, I'm still a good 15 feet away, so I wait. She asks again. I sing, "I'm not there yet!" like she's going to hear me. Then she says, "You think it over and decide and just go ahead when you're ready." Thanks for the reassurance - very supportive, our Miss KFC. About 10 seconds go by, they're still slaughtering that chicken, and she asks again. This time I lean out and yell, "I'm not there yet!" I suppose I could've yelled, "A number 4 with Diet Pepsi!" instead, but it felt stupid. The cars pull forward and I finally get to give my order and I'm wondering if she's thinking, "it took her that long to decide on number 4??" Anyway, they actually got the order right and mmm...love those crispy strips.

Hola! Hopefully this will be my space for learning web editing, writing and getting some "me" time. I'm a psychotherapist and a mother, so lots of my energy goes to others. I'm in danger of becoming one of those women whose major topic of conversation is whatever was on Oprah or Dr. Phil, so I hope it's not too late to save myself.

My current favorite blog is Jenny's Blog. I like to fantasize that I have time to do all the stuff she does. I also just think the site's really cute. Speaking of cute, my one-year-old son, Aidan is adorable. I know it's true because other people have told me. There are more photos here.





This is the biohazard posting currently in the doorway of bedroom. We had asbestos removed from our attic in anticipation of our new furnace. After they remove it, they test the air and will give us the results tomorrow. If they find any asbestos in the sample, they have to come out and vacuum again. I feel like we're in that scene in ET where ET's sick and the house is quarantined. We can get into the bedroom, it just looks like there's a plastic shower stall attached to the closet.

By the way, the title of this blog comes from a BNL song on a rockin' kid's CD Aidan and I listen to. Got it for $3.50 used at Amoeba. Verrry exciting. I'm bummed, though, because we're going to miss them when they come to Berkeley. They just went on sale on Sunday and are already sold out. As luck would have it, they'll be in Portland during Thanksgiving. And, of course, it's not our year to be in Portland for Thanksgiving. Grrrr.

Well, I think I've done pretty well tonight, what with posting photos and links and so on. Not exactly anything a 5th grader couldn't do, but it's a start. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time to add a scrolling marquee. Or one of those cascade things that follows your cursor around with moving stars or hearts or something. Just kidding - I hate those.