Holidays

I've been composing posts in my head all along, but precious few of them have made it out onto the computer. So here's a sum-up of the past few weeks of life with Jo, and in the Family O in general.

Autumn is the Jewish holiday season, so we've been pretty busy. (And those of us with a foot in the Jewish and the American worlds find it crazy-making that the Christian/American holiday season comes right on its heels.) We spent Rosh Hashanah with family friends, and my mom and stepdad came down for Yom Kippur. (In past years, Co has made rules about my mom and I spending too much time together while we're not eating, but it actually went well.)

To be accurate, we spend the 2nd night of Rosh Hashanah with family friends. We had no plans for the 1st night, and ended up ordering Chinese food. Chinese food is never far from the spirit of Judaism, I suppose, but I was really sad. It was my own fault -- I stubbornly insisted on not rescheduling music class, since we didn't have plans anyway, and we realized as we reached home just before 7 that there was no way we had time to roast a chicken. The lack of traditional food triggered my sense of abandonment. I hate the way the term "triggered" is bandied about these days, but I do think that's exactly what happened...I have a wonderful family of my own, but I was raised with large extended family events. I've posted about this before, but to be concise: my mother has re-centered our family around my sister's in-laws, a fact made especially easy since both my mother and my sister's mother-in-law moved within ten minutes of my sister's house. Most of our friends have family in the area, so they get to go to their family for holidays. But we're building our own family now, me and Co and Jo, and we'll have our own events.

Nephew Sam's second birthday was yesterday, and my mom's birthday was Friday so after Yom Kippur we headed up north to celebrate. We've been video-chatting with Sam and my sister, and he calls myself, Co, Jo, and Maggie by name. In person he was most excited to see Maggie, of course. My cousin D. got some amazing pictures at Sam's party. Here are the cousins sitting together at a kiddie picnic bench:

Jo got his cute on practicing standing with a ride-on toy:


In case you were wondering, Maggie had a good time at the party too.

My dad and my sister's mother-in-law were both at the party, of course, which was anxiety-making but ultimately fine. My dad showered the birthday boy and his cousin with gifts, which is the role of the absent (grand)father, I suppose. Sam got an enormous stuffed Pooh -- he loooves Pooh -- and Jo got a Piglet, with a particularly tasty ear.


In other Jo news, he's continuing to practice standing on his own, and will take a few steps while we hold his hands (his interest in that is new). The pediatrician okayed finger foods at his 9 month appointment, so even without teeth, he's eating Ger.ber puffs (meltier in the mouth than Cheer.ios) and American cheese. He loooooves yogurt, and is even starting to eat some veggies willingly (albeit the sweet ones: squash, sweet potato, and carrots thus far). We can't believe he's ten months old!!