It’s been a busy month or so since our last post. The kids wrapped up their soccer seasons; Julia started doing Girl Scouts again in earnest; William discovered the joys of emptying cabinets and drawers; Joe was accepted into advanced band and then kicked out; and, of course, Halloween came and went. We’ll get to much of that in due course, but first there is the matter of William’s first birthday to attend to.

We’ve uploaded a boatload of pictures covering his birthday celebration, which ended up happening the day after his birthday due to his tendency to fall asleep at 6:30 in the evening. He had a delicious dinner of grown–up food—he’s largely grown out of baby food at this point—topped off by chocolate cake, which he attacked voraciously. He then had a great time opening presents, and his older siblings had an equally great time helping him.

Since he started walking, William has been romping around the house enthusiastically, much to the cats’ dismay. He’s a bit more adventurous than Julia and Joe were, and he likes to climb into and onto things, as you can see in some of the pictures. In fact, as I was writing this, he climbed up onto the Ottoman in our bedroom and promptly pitched over the side, bonking his head on the floor. Hopefully this is a phase that will pass quickly.

You’ll also note that William has decided that the best thing to do with his soft toddler blocks is to stick his arms through them and wear them like bracers. I honestly have no idea where that came from.

For Halloween, we returned to a favorite haunt to pick up our pumpkins: Giordano Farms here in San José. The last couple years, we’d gone to pop–up pumpkin “patches” set up in parking lots, where Julia and Joe could jump around in bounce houses and slide on inflatable slides. This year, for William’s first real Halloween, we decided (or, rather, I insisted, over the older kids’ objections) to do something that felt a little more real, so we went back to the place we used to take Julia and Joe when they were younger; you may remember this as the pumpkin patch with the model volcano / geyser that scared the pants off of Joe back in 2009.

Lingering fears aside, everyone had fun at the pumpkin patch, especially William, who just loves being outside: when we’re in the garage, he’ll climb into the stroller on his own and demand to be taken for a walk. You can clearly read the excitement and joy on his face in the pictures from the pumpkin patch and the afternoon Julie set up the Halloween decorations outside.

As I mentioned earlier, Joe auditioned for and was accepted into advanced band this fall. We were very proud of him, as he was one of only two third graders to make the cut, and he had only started playing the clarinet this summer. He’s worked very hard practicing at home, and really seems to have a measure of talent for it. Unfortunately, however, his temper and difficulties dealing with frustration got in his way once again, this time with real consequences. Last week, as the band was working on Christmas songs in preparation for their upcoming winter concert, Joe had a epic meltdown because he was having trouble keeping up with the tempo: he stalked off to sulk away from the other kids (and cry); he threw his clarinet in frustration; and he hit his sister when she—according to her—went over to make sure he was OK.

This was too much for Mr. Reed, the band director, to take, and he let Julie know via email that he couldn’t deal with that kind of disruption while he was trying to teach the band all–new material in the few weeks remaining before the concert. He let Joe down relatively easy, telling him he could be in “intermediate band,” a construct that doesn‘t really exist, and re–audition after the holidays. We’re sure he can pass the audition, as he’s technically proficient enough to play the songs, but we’re on the fence about whether he’ll be up to it emotionally. The one advantage of trying again in the spring is that there will be a little more time before the next performance, so there might be less pressure to pick up the new songs quickly. We’ll have to see how things go.

Gallery: William Turns One (and Halloween).