Turning Five...Dedicated To Nicki

Humboldt had his party this year at the judo hut in Arcata. The kids (here are his four-year-old friends plus a younger sibling) tumbled around with gymnastics instructors for a couple hours. We also played Pin The Earring On Captain Feathersword and ate cupcakes. It was a very exciting birthday week! Thank you for all the cards, video chats, and well wishes. It's certainly a wonderful and magical age. And he starts the year already over four feet tall.

This year we harvested over 100 pounds of fujis from our two organic apple trees. Humboldt helped us process some apples for canning sauce. It's still the only way he'll eat apples. Some day he's going to bite into a delicious, juicy, crunchy ripe apple and not believe me when I tell him he'd only eat them cooked and mushed when he was a little kid. Below is a photo from a walk at the Arcata Marsh with Cora. The kids collected wooly bear caterpillars, which were everywhere, and watched brown pelicans dive into Klopp Lake for their lunch. 

Captain Feathersword, also known as the Fifth Wiggle, is a friendly pirate character who sings and dances with a very popular Australian kids band. Humboldt wanted to look just like him, so at least we knew what we were aiming for with Bo's costume. He wore the earrings for hours and enjoyed lots of pirate dancing and singing. Mostly Halloween is fodder for a lot of conversation about monsters and such. This year he was fascinated by Frankenstein. When he was putting together a map of the country, he decided to call Florida the "mean witch's boot."

Currently, Humboldt is getting a taste of  competitive sports at junior sports camp. This was the first time I'd seen kids play broom ball in the gym. Bo's a large-motor lefty and loves sports camp.

Five years ago, I went to Hawaii with a couple friends from high school. Tess is a yogi mama in Southland, and we celebrated her birthday on Kauai by jumping into a waterfall and swimming in the ocean. The next day, on Nicki's birthday, we got a phone call from Fred...our son's bio mom was about to be induced - more than five weeks early. Fortunately, Fred was able to be at the hospital all night while the NICU dealt with the baby and I flew back to California. Now, Humboldt's birthday buddy, Nicki, mother of three, is about to have an important medical procdure (Nov. 21 in Australia), so I'm dedicating this post to Nicki and invite you to ask the universe to see her through it safely.