Wonderful World

It is officially, unequivocally, one hundred percent fall in Boston. Everywhere I look the trees absolutely blaze with color, and the crunch of leaves beneath our feet is constant and satisfying. We can fight it or we can accept it, and I've chosen to accept it. It makes it easier when you live in a beautiful place like Brookline and you have a fireplace. Roaring fires make winter seem pretty okay.

This is our first fall in Brookline. Last year at this time I was in the sick-as-a-dog part of my pregnancy and we had just found a beautiful little condo on the hill above Washington Square. We were considering a move but in no way ready to make a commitment. A few weeks later, when Jim was in California, the real estate agent called to say that they were pretty sure they'd have an offer by the end of the week. Trying to find Jim in the canyons of California wasn't easy and there was definitely moments of panic. But we did it. We bought our dream house in Brookline and finally, after seven years of weak, barren, grey autumns, we moved to Brookline and got this.

Wow. How lucky are we to live here? I think that exact thing almost every single day.

It took me three times longer than usual to walk Beckett to daycare yesterday because I kept stopping to take pictures. He looked especially cute in the new coat Grams bought him, and the hat that we love but that keeps disappearing and reappearing on the sidewalk, in the backyard, car, and most strangely, the bathroom. It is currently missing and I have a sad feeling that it's gone for good.

We're all bundled up here and preparing to hibernate, but that doesn't mean that things are calm in the Day house. We are so completely busy that it's hard to stay on top of even the most basic things. If I could add another five or six hours to each day, I honestly would. I thought yesterday that if I could just stay up later than 10:00 pm, I could update this blog, or maybe read one of my six back issues of the New Yorker. I really wish that were a monthly magazine. Every time I blink, there's a new one sitting in my mailbox.


But the big news this week is that we started Beckett on solid food. Hooray! I have been anticipating and dreading this moment since Beckett was born. I have always been a neat eater, so I get a little grossed out by the messy, food-in-the-hair, chewed-up-bits-of-meat-mixed-with-saliva eating that is inevitable with small children. I also have to admit that I'm not really psyched about the changes that will come in the diaper arena either. And although Jim and I would never consider ourselves food people, we do like to eat good food in the company of our friends and family. It is an important part of our family philosophy, and I am eager to make Beckett a part of this. So on Sunday night, we pulled out the new highchair, plopped Beckett in it, mixed up some organic brown rice cereal with a little milk and fed it to him.

After a seriously confused face and a little bit of practice, we finally got it down. He started rocking back and forth with his mouth hanging open, grunting and cooing. More, mama. More!

That night he slept like somebody with a belly full of goodness, for nearly 12 hours. We plan to stick with the rice cereal for the next couple of weeks, and start introducing veggies just in time for Thanksgiving.

Ah..................

As you can imagine, we have about 2345 pictures of the first solid food experience (and at least one video). I still haven't figured out the Flickr thing, but I swear that it's on my (long) list of things to do. We have a big weekend coming up, with thirtieth birthdays to celebrate, first Halloweens to enjoy, a baptism, and the first real party at our home. More on that next week!