On PDX

I've had a request to write a bit about Portland, so here are a bunch of impressions in no particular order. First I should say that we don't have a car, and my schedule revolves, except when our nanny is on duty, around M's naps. This leaves me basically a two hour window to get out and do things. Even when Katie is here, I haven't been very good about pumping breast milk (most boring activity ever), so I can't stray too far in case Moses wants milk! All of this is to say that I basically inhabit the half a mile or so radius in SE Portland in which it is possible to walk without being gone for more than about an hour. The few times I've ventured beyond this little world, I've realized how little of this city I really know. It's also made me realize what a different impression of geography and time drivers have. Public transportation here is excellent (buses and trolley cars) and I use it frequently, but the wait times make me miss the New York City subway more than I ever imagined I would. But on to my impressions! Portland seems to have more odd bumper stickers than anyplace I've been. A sampling: "Rochester: it's an acquired taste" (I never even saw that one in New York); "My other car is a chicken wing;" and "I love Mormon Pussy" (for real folks - saw that one on a pickup truck parked near our house). One of my favorite things to do is to walk to the rose gardens in Ladd's Addition, a quirky little neighborhood just south of mine that was actually built by my Putney School friend Mike Ladd's great great grandpa. Hmmm, what else? The weather is actually quite beautiful, and October was especially so. It's a subtle kind of climate that is quite fascinating to me coming from the very in-your-face kind of weather that typifies the Northeast coast. The most beautiful days are when it moves from pale grey and misty to breaks of blue sky and sun, all the while staying in between, say, 45 and 60 degrees. It's mild. And the autumn foliage here definitely rivals that of New England. We've had some strings of rainy days, which aren't my favorite, but I'll take a week of rain in Portland over an hour of 100 degree heat and humidity in New York City anytime! I look forward to exploring more of Portland, and to getting out to the Oregon coast and to the much-mentioned gorge, which everyone says is a must-see. As for more immediate adventures, tomorrow, if all goes well with coordinating nap schedules, Moses and I are going to the Japanese garden with Moses's neighborhood pal George (who is three days older) and his mom Jessica. So look for a report tomorrow, or soon, on that! And stay tuned for a post from guest blogger Daddy coming this weekend!

Yogurt Container Joy

My apologies for the lapse in posting. The Daily MoMo really *is* meant to be daily, though given the realities of life that's probably ambitious. I'm also a perfectionist about writing, which is a deterrent since I rarely have more than a few minutes at a time to post. But as with many things I'd like to take my sweet time and be meticulous with, I just can't do it anymore. So I'm going to prioritize posting over perfection and see what happens! In this post I wanted to write about how babies at Moses's age really prefer ordinary household objects to toys. I read this the other night in a baby book I have, and have observed it to be completely true. What excites Moses -- he's eight months old now -- is plastic containers, cell phones, cups, mugs, tubes of baby cream, bathtub fixtures, the plastic rain cover on his stroller, and other like objects. As an example, the bathtub in the house we're renting in Portland has one of those European-style shower fixtures where you can sit down in the tub and take a shower. It's very shiny, and the shower head, which looks like a telephone receiver, has a long cord that coils up around a metal "hook." (These things are hard to describe!) Anyway, when Moses has his evening bath, he can hardly wait to stand in the tub in front of what his Daddy calls the "controls" and manipulate them in various ways, which mostly means pulling the shower head off its holder. Josh thinks Moses can see his own reflection in the fixtures, and that that's why he's so fascinated with them. Who knows. He looks like a tiny captain navigating an old-fashioned ship at sea.