–We moved to Sacramento from San Francisco in February. No regrets whatsoever.

–Sacha quit her job in the summer. Again, no regrets.

–I enjoyed reasonable success this year as a political consultant working for myself and thus have been able to put off getting a real job.

–Hugo will welcome a little sister (Beatriz) in about 11 days, if all goes as planned (will we have to rename this blog?)

Hugo turned three in Kauai this year. He is brilliant and exhausting. Current obsessions include sharks and other sea creatures and the gods, heroes, and (especially) monsters of the Greek and Egyptian myths.

Happy New Year! (and if you’re really getting your information about us from this blog you should just give me a call sometime…).

Juan

Here Hugo tries to walk Tamarindo, his Tio Lalo’s dog. At this point, Hugo lacks a bit of natural leadership.

Tamarindo and Hugo are actually good buddies and love to chase each other around the backyard (hmmm… well, Hugo loves to chase Tamarindo anyways)

Juan, a sucker for indulging Hugo’s love of water, purchased a crazy contraption called a Waterpillar the other day to help us through the hot Sacramento summers.

As of the end of this month, Hugo and I are full time playmates. No work, no school.

We discovered a fantastic pool this weekend, which we plan to make a habit of.

We met Alexandra and Mina for a trip to Train Town in Sonoma on our way to Ukiah. The perfect recipe for a car nap!

In Mid-December we attended his school’s annual Christmas party. I missed this last year, as it coincided with my dad’s birthday, and had to make do with descriptions from Juan. So glad I was able to go this year! I loved seeing Hugo’s little world.

Below he uses his friend E’s new “makeup”:

Taking a seat next to another friend A:

Lately, when I ask him who he played with today at school, he says, with a somewhat exasperated tone, “My friends!”

Hugo also has two good buddies outside of school. Mina, daughter of our friends Ali and Alexandra, is 5 months younger, but worldly beyond her years. One thing Hugo really likes to do with Mina is jump in the crib, and whenever she comes over, thta is on the agenda. Here they are at the Oakland Zoo:

And, uh, not being quiet (sorry monkeys!):

Last, but not least, our neighbor and friend, Polly. Polly is a 7 months older than Hugo, but they have been hanging out together since Hugo was born. Those two get up to some serious antics. Tonight, following Korean food in the Avenues, they ate their cookies tailgate style, holed up in the trunk of the car. Here they do some serious puzzling:

Here’s a little video of our boy being crazy this fall.

Hugo is talking like a little man these days.  Current obsessions include Hot Wheels, crayons, and “siwee” [silly] books.  He’s excited about Christmas and thinks there’s a jaguar in our bedroom. (If there seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to his current interests, there isn’t).

Lately, Hugo has fixated on:

• His toy cars. His box of cars, a medley of Hot Wheels, Lego cars, and some other Things That Go, brings him more comfort and joy than any other thing right now. It’s the first thing he wants to do when he wakes up in the morning.
• Necklaces. Usually mine, but he also has some fetching mardi gras beads that he digs.
• London. I think this came from his Paddington Bear book, along with fragments of conversations between Juan and I discussing a possible vacation in the Spring.
• His pet snake Rick. He loved this snake hard and fast, and after a week of needing it with him at all times, it is dead to him now.
• Tea. He loves to drink fruit tea, after which he always smacks his lips and say “How refreshing!”

 I can see that these things offer him comfort, even if  I don’t understand the genesis of the passion. Last night we were at a party where he didn’t know many people, the music was loud, and his attempts at socializing with the other kids his age were tragically unsuccesful. I was walking around with him for a bit, and he looked up at me forlornly and said, “I want my cars.” (Actually, he said, “I want my tars,” but I don’t want to mock his speech afflictions. Whoops, I just did.)

Hugo was a dragon. A purple dragon. I bought his costume at a thrift store ages ago (July? August?), and was a little worried that he wouldn’t agree to wear it. His first two Halloweens, Hugo was fairly pliable and we had no problem putting him in whatever costume we chose. He now is in possession of many, many opinions and I wasn’t sure it would be so easy.

I turns out I needn’t have worried. Hugo loved his costume and loved asking everybody he met, “What you be for Halloween?”

For the past few years we have gone with friends to a local street that shuts down to cars and celebrates with haunted houses, music and a general carnivalesque atmosphere, but this was the first year that we actually took Hugo trick or treating. It was only on our block, with neighbors that we mostly knew, but it revealed something equally charming and disconcerting about our son. We coached him on trick or treat protocol in advance, hinted at the reward in his future, and let him knock away. As soon as anyone opened a door, Hugo dashed past them and straight through their house. Mind you, we really don’t know these folks that well. Everyone was understanding, but we definitely need to encourage a little bit of stranger wariness in Hugo.

The rest of the evening was spent doling out the candy he had collected. Hugo has had very little experience in the ways of candy and I could see the sugar rush hit him: all of a sudden he started jumping up and down and saying, “wow, wow, wow…” We managed to make it home in one piece, despite it all.

I’m wondering how many Halloweens we have left in which we get to pick his costume. I’m hoping at least one more!

Part of the afternoon was occupied with a tea party, complete with muffins and scones. I don’t think he would even know the first thing about a tea party were it not for his beloved Max and Ruby. Ruby loves herself a tea party and so does Hugo: