October was…quiet. Surprise, surprise. We were mostly close to home, mostly in our home, mostly living this pandemic life of one Groundhog Day after another. Thankfully, Juliette and the neighborhood kids have become very adept at finding new ways to spice things up.
And while the total lack of separation between work and home continues to be a challenge, I love my office mate a whole awful lot.
Jules would give anything to be back in the classroom, but still, seeing her teacher and friends on-screen each morning is enough to make her face light up like a Christmas tree. The teacher lets all the kids shout out their good morning’s to each other for a couple of minutes of un-muted mayhem before class starts and Juliette lets anyone and everyone know that she’s so happy to see them.
I could start a whole series of “reading with Jules” photos – always lounging in a different position, always accessorized, always so stinking sweet.
We try to break out of the confines of our home at least once every weekend to ride our bikes or tramp through a park. Seahurst was a lovely place to skip rocks in early October…
And Lincoln Park is our new family favorite. Partly because it’s only a 5-minute drive from our house, but also because the late afternoon sunlight there is pretty magical.
We celebrated Shane’s Birthday on the 19th without much fanfare, but with a whole lotta love. We breakfasted on donuts from 9th and Hennepin, the new (to us) neighborhood shop that bakes seasonal goodies like quince fritters and butternut squash cake.
And then ate dinner at…home! But there was fried chicken and cheesecake with candles and a rousing mother-daughter rendition of Happy Birthday to You.
WE LOVE YOU, SHANE.
We’ve had a handful of spectacular sunsets, like this one that put my dinner prep on pause so that Juliette and I could dart down to the water and take it all in.
Bellevue Botanical Gardens is a fall fave and while there was still more green than gold there when we visited, it was a welcome change of scenery.
Juliette likes a walk in the woods, but loves a game of tag on a wide-open lawn.
We spent a Sunday dusting off Shane’s and Jason’s discs for a round of frisbee golf down in SeaTac.
And Schmitz! Another West Seattle gem… Shane runs through this park several times a week and one day found his path blocked by a giant tree that had fallen during the previous weekend’s wind storm. Seattle Parks had cleared the trail by the time Juliette and I made it down there to check out the damage, but the trunk still made for an excellent climbing feature. Shane attempted to count the tree’s rings but lost count somewhere near 150.
We met up with La Verne and Nico one morning for a spectacular walk through the arboretum, and it was PEAK.
Juliette is completely smitten with Astro the pup and Shane is suddenly wondering aloud if maybe we should get a dog?
Kids in the time of COVID…
A lawn! She’s off!
And then…Halloween! I wasn’t sure what to make of Halloween this year – we skipped the pumpkin patch and didn’t know what trick-or-treating would look like, but we grabbed a few pumpkins from the grocery store and ordered a costume from Amazon just in case we were feeling festive. Turns out, except for Juliette’s extreme aversion to the feel of pumpkin guts between her fingers, we were feeling very festive.
The gross work behind her, look how happy she is, spit-shining that thing clean! She’s my kid, through and through.
Juliette’s teacher told the kids they were welcome to wear costumes to school on the Friday before Halloween, so at 8 am I was painting on a fox nose and fluffing fox ears.
My office held a virtual Halloween party at noon and at 11:30 I decided I should really make an effort to be part of the fun. I popped the lenses out of a pair of sunglasses, dug a scrap of lace out of my fabric stash, and payed tribute to the Notorious RGB, God rest her soul.
Juliette eventually commandeered my RGB glasses and spent the rest of the afternoon wearing them. This girl looks so good in specs!
Juliette rocked her costume the whole day, wanting to leave it on even for a backyard game of catch with Dad.
The Rusts came over that evening for pumpkin-carving and hot cider.
Well-done, Juliette…
And then, on Saturday, the main event! We’d heard that several neighbors were finding ways to offer safe, socially-distanced trick-or-treating, so Juliette popped her fox ears back on and we set out to see what kind of loot she could find.
This guy sent candy down to the kids from his upstairs balcony via a bucket on a zip line…
I loved this! So simple, so creative.
A lot of people left bowls of candy on their front porches and waved from their windows as the kids helped themselves.
Rice Krispie Treat garlands!
I saw so much effort, so much creativity and generosity on display in our neighborhood that evening. Corona can’t keep us down.
We set up our own help-yourself station before heading out to hit just a few more houses.
We called it a night once Juliette’s bucket was full and headed home for candy-sorting and a family viewing of E.T. October ended with the three of us packed together on the sofa, pounding mini-Snickers while tensely hoping that E.T. would somehow find a way to phone home. This October was different than any other, a little too quiet at times, but in scrolling back through these photos I’m comforted by the beauty found close to home and Juliette’s ever-generous joy. We’re keepin’ on.
