I have been planning Halloween since early September, gathering costumes and making plans. It was on a Friday this year, the weather was GORGEOUS (68 balmy degrees), daddy didn’t have to travel for work, things were looking perfect…until 3 days before when all of my kids woke up with nasty, snotty noses, and the attitudes to go with them. I hoped for a Halloween miracle, and didn’t get one. The Great Pumpkin let me down. Friday they went down for naps and chatted for a long time, as usual. Shortly after I think at least 2 are asleep, I hear Kimball screaming like he’s been hurt, and indeed he was. He had busted his lip open on the crib. I’m guessing he was trying to climb and slipped. Add to that a cut cheek from a velcro burn, and a black eye from falling in to the ottoman, and he was looking ROUGH. This also meant no one got a nap on this important day. Howling ensued the rest of the afternoon. No one wanted to put on a costume or eat a snack or get in the car. Mommy was ready to cancel Halloween!
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/We headed out at 4:00 to meet the Guinn girls at the fairground for a Halloween festival. Kimball and Sawyer fell asleep 10 minutes before we got there. I’m not sure if the 20-minute nap helped or hurt. The festival was ok, more geared toward kids a little older, and more adult supervision (like 2 adults per kid instead of the opposite). It was also in a rodeo arena, so there was a lot of dust kicked up. The kids stayed in the wagon. The whole time we were there, the kids were all stoned and just lifeless from no sleep and being sick. Weird people were asking to take our picture. Overall, the festival was a bust for us. I wanted to win the costume contest. As The Wizard of Oz ensemble, I was sure we’d win. We were robbed by this Goldilocks who had NO BEARS. Come on. If they were judging on individuals, we still had a great shot, but any of the Guinn girls should have taken it. They were wearing gorgeous, genuine saris – way better than Goldilocks. There was this other cute little girl who was some kind of princess and she just strutted across the stage (in the 3 and under category). That was funny. She was cuter than Goldilocks too, for her sassiness if no other reason.
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/After some gross corndogs and excellent funnel cake, we headed over to our church trunk or treat/slow cooker cook-off. That’s when the evening improved. The kids perked up and started running around the gym playing with basketballs. People we know and love were pouring in the door. Delicious food was lined up on tables. We had fun socializing. We ate and had fun. Then came another costume contest, and we won with 4 or 5 other super cute families. They were going to narrow it down to one family, but none of us wanted that. No need. Everyone was so cute. My favorite was Princess Leia, the storm trooper and their baby Chewbacca. There were also some cute baby dragons. It wasn’t winning that made me happy (I mean, there were 20 of us up there, that’s not really winning). It was acknowledgment of my hard work to get these costumes together and coordinated. That’s all. People thought we were cute, and that made me happy. At the end we did the trunk or treat, and the boys said, “Tickatee!!” once they realized what it got them. Brinlee was too tired and cold to be bothered with saying trick or treat. Or walking, for that matter. We loaded up and went home. They went to bed at 10:00. And didn’t sleep in at all.
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/Their speech is just exploding. They are getting the biggest kick out of stringing words. “Moe. nanas. peez.” Oh, yes, they have learned the power of peez. They are communicating more about what is making them unhappy. This morning Kimball was squirming as I was trying to dress him. “Cold!” my hands were cold on his bare belly. At least I can try to resolve the problem if they can tell me what it is. If they fall, “nose! nose!” Ok, you hit your nose. Let’s work with that. At meals, Sawyer shouts out foods he knows we aren’t having. I think he just wants to make conversation, and hasn’t figured out how to say, “How was your day?” or What do you think of the NSDAQ’s performance today?” So instead he asks for spaghetti or bananas or anything else.
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/Brinlee, Kimball and Sawyer got shopping carts for their birthday, and the first thing Brinlee did was go shoe shopping. She went around the house gathering all the shoes and putting them in her (pink) basket. Ah, that’s my girl. They also have a new table and chairs where they like to sit and do their uzzo (puzzles). They also like to dance on the table, which is a time-out offense.
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/Caisen is doing pushups these days in preparation for crawling. He gets up on his toes and rocks. Sometimes when he’s on his belly he’ll try to pull himself to what he’s looking at.
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/Sawyer loves his Caisen. He likes to play with him
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/Brinlee, Kimball and Sawyer are using big kid booster seats now. We have them arranged so each one is sitting by an adult. When I sit next to Kimball, I have to put him on my left side because he likes to hold my hand while we eat. It’s pretty cute.
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/I grilled corn on the cob. The first time I didn’t think they would like it, so I just made 2 cobbs, one for me and one for Adam. I figured they might have a nibble. They ate it all and begged for more. I made it again the next night, and they LOVED it. I cut off 1.5 inch rounds for them, and they nibbled away. With the first one, Brinlee and Sawyer both tried to eat the cobb too, but once we showed them it’s not for eating, they were pros. At the end of dinner, Brinlee had a stack of 12 mini cobs, which made up 1.5 full cobbs of corn. Veggies for the day? Check.
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/Cuddled up with my posse watching Signing Time.
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/Kimball giving Caisen a hug.
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/It was a rough night.
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/Check out that hair! You can also see his black eye.
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/Asleep on the way to the Halloween festival.
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/Caisen is the cutest little scarecrow!
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/Come here Tin Man!
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/Our lion was anything but cowardly.
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/Oh no Dorothy! The Wicked Witch has you!
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/At the fair, stoned out of our minds.
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/In the dusty arena.
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/The wicked witch, the good witch (no, I’m not the prom queen), and the Wizard join the party.
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/Three beautiful Indian princesses in their exquisite saris. Isabelle, Alyssa and MaKenna
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/Mmmmmmmm. Candy.
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/Corndogs and funnel cake. What more does a prom queen good witch need?
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/Not our best family picture ever.
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/This is why it takes sooooo long to vacuum, and why I don’t do it as often as I should. I get lots of enthusiastic “help”.
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/Caisen gets his first baby food. He was so excited, more because he got to do what we were doing and less because Gerber butternut squash is soooo delicious.
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/This is so fun! He’s been eyeballing our food for months. Now that the trio have vacated their high chairs (I refused to buy a fourth high chair), he gets to sit in his own chair at the table with us, and he just loves it!
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