A few of his favorite things: Food, Fauna and Fire

Its amazing how much a place defines you.  Not that you can't be utterly not of a place, more how much it informs your ideas and options.  And the kid, seriously, has some different options now.  Its going to be fascinating how they inform his opinions...

The changes are already apparent.  He is relishing a freedom that just didn't feel safe to him in NYC.  The neighbor boys invite him to their house and off he zips, without me.   The larger, more friendly grocer has him feeling fine flitting off to find fruit, without me.  And skipping solo down the sidewalk, without oodles of (often grumpy) pedestrians blocking his sight of us, has become a favorite past-time.  And during our last venture to the food carts, he went off with money, ordered his food by himself and brought it back, all triumph, to our picnic table.

But the tip of the top is the yard. Before breakfast, during lunch, while I'm washing or anytime in between, he's in the yard, busy.  Yes, he pops back in with frequency.  Yes, he requests I join him with regularity.  BUT, he happily hops out the back door, multiple times a day, by himself, with complete comfort.  The independence he's been leaning towards, flirting with, for the last few months now has the happy space to flourish.

Which brings us to a new favorite: pill bugs.  He has a bug collecting kit, has built a habitat, and scours the yard for rollie pollies, regularly.  

Fire is another fave (though not a new one:) that is now an option.  Within days of moving here, E and P purchased a fire pit, to satiate the child's burning desires.

Grandpapa gets wafted with smoke...  The kid is slowly learning how to build a nice, non-smoky blaze...

Of course, fire (when blessed with a yard!) comes in so many forms.   My mother (perhaps in a desperate attempt to help us settle a titch more permanently, somewhere??) gave us the most spectacular housewarming present: a grill (hint: don't go back to Brookyn;).  The child had his first grilled steak while staying in Colorado and declared it food for the gods.  She listened, attentively :)  Ethan, though a long time fan of the food, was slightly less enamored with the fire building experience than the child (who, literally, danced and hopped around the poor husband as he tried to figure the thing out:).  I think being darn close to 40 and completely clueless about grilling is a ego-destroying moment for a man (at least one who hales from the wide plains, filled with grilling men).  But, armed with good, grass fed steaks, a book of directions and a book from the library (I wanted to cover our basics;) the guy went from grumpy to grinning when he put the food on the table.  After one bite, he declared weekly grill nights a must :)  This, something not possible with a fire escape, is also a current fave of the child: the grass fed grilled cow dinner.

And, lest smaller fires be left from the list of faves, the magnifying glass that came with the bug box has done much more than merely morph bugs.  The child cooed with happiness, while curled on the couch in the sunny window, when he realized he could burn said couch with his new little looking glass.  The complete innocence of six cracked me up. There I am, cracking eggs, when the child whoops with joy, "Mama!  I can burn a spot on the couch with this magnifying glass and the sun!"  Erm, child, can you please use a piece of FREAKING PAPER instead???  Oh, sure, sure, he says, you can't really see the dark spot...  (Um, yah, Mom, this is why we went with another thrift store find ;)  Yeesh...

Said paper, with bigger holes ;)  We spent hours outside burning stuff....

But its not all just fire for favorites here.  Fauna figure in too.  Flowers, specifically.  The child brings in bouquets regularly.  And we don't leave home without a collecting bag.   Like I said, the yards here (at least so far in the spring) are unbelievable.  This tree, is P's current favorite spot.

But even the flowers at the grocer wow him.  The options are far beyond those we're used to.  These "beehive" flowers really tickled him.

And then, of course, there is food.  Though he's still wild about tomatoes, he's found a few new faves here.  And he absolutely luuuuuuvs his snacks served in a "snack tray."  Hand him one of these and he acts like you've just carried him across the Sahara on your nose.

The obvious, tomatoes.  Finally seasonal peaches and strawberries (duh) and a local cheese from the factory we visited last summer (Tillamook).  He's also fallen in love with these local jalopeno stuffed olives (!) and fermented pickles.

But his (and our) reeeeeal new love is: Portland Food Carts.  They, quite simply, rock.  In a city truly devoted to indie businesses and low start-up costs, food carts pop up in "pods" everywhere.  There is one a few blocks from us.  Organic or vegan, local beef, handmade candies, locally brewed beer, wood fired pizza or the best line caught salmon burger we've ever had, the stuff is pretty yummy.  And cheap.  And each of us can get whatever the heck we want.  Then come together under a white tent, lit with strings of lights and chill at a totally relaxed picnic table.  It seems the vendors are really aware of how much trash their product produces, so there's no styrofoam carry-out containers or any of that bullshit.  We brought our Klean Kanteens and had a ball.  The kids all kind of flit about the space (one "pod" even had a tiny merry-go-round ride) and eat with their fingers.  This weekend, when I asked the boys what they wanted for breakfast, P skipped his usual request of saucy eggs and chanted "Food Carts!"

I'm sure the handmade, local passion fruit sorbet had nothing to do with that ;)

 Another favorite new to Oregon: Sunsets.  The sky here (though this may not be true in the winter;) is glorious in the Spring.  The cloud formations are stunning and the sun shining through them thrills us.  We were playing in the backyard tonight around 8:30 when we noticed the sun glinting off the side of the house and the clouds.  P was pumped.  I thought it might be nice to be a bit higher.... so why don't we pop up to Mount Tabor and watch the sunset?  A few minutes later, we stood, overlooking the city and the sun sending out colors.

  The drive home was peppered with the chatter of his last new favorite thing:  imagining what to name his sister :)  He loves thinking up names.  Fortunately, he's decided he will have a separate name from ours (phew), his very own special name.  The current fave for that: Lulabelle Rose :)