New Years Eve 2012

During December, we purchased a membership to a localChildren’s museum.  Due to the holidays,we hadn’t had a chance to return since our original visit.

On New Year’s Eve, I decided to take Carder by myself.  I could lie and say that I knew about the activitiesthe museum had planned, but I will be honest and say that I was happilysurprised to see that the museum had a morning packed with New Years relatedactivities – complete with a countdown to a ball drop at noon.

We made a noise maker from a film container and somepopcorn.  We made some decorations tostick on the ball that was dropping.  Weattempted to make a hat to wear but Carder was *SO DONE* with the arts andcrafts by this point in time.  (Perhapsthis is because he got distracted by the huge ball and could think of nothingelse than swinging it around and he was mad that I wouldn’t let him).

We played on the water table and the indoor slide and withpuppets and all of the other things exhibits they have while waiting for noon toroll around so he could see the ball drop. And get a balloon because -balloons rock. 

 

See that kid on the left side of the picture???  TOTAL WATER TABLE HOG.  And a runner.  He almost knocked Carder over 3 times while we were there.

Carder was saying "BALL!!!" because he could see the ball hanging from the ceiling in the phone screen.  Nothing like confusing a kid with the reverse camera option on an Apple Device.  And OH MY GOD I look like crap.

During the Count Down to Noon

A Boy and His Balloon.  Totally worth being late for lunch and naptime.  Unless it pops...

All in all, it was quite fun – especially since it was anunexpected activity.  And Carder and Iplayed with his balloon for most of the afternoon.

I spent Carder's afternoon nap writing blog posts in an effort to try to get my blog up to date. 

We had dinner together and did our normal, nightly routine.  After Carder went to bed, Derek and I spent the eveninghaving a couple of glasses of wine and watching the latest Batman movie (although “watch” is a relative term because Ifell asleep in the middle).  And then hewoke me up to watch the ball drop with Anderson and Cathy.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Robin Hood

 

Derek was at a Christmas Party that was delayed due to inclement weather. Carder and I spent an evening just the 2 of us. His coat and hat were on the couch from an afternoon outing. He was playing with his hat.  This was what I saw when I turned around.


My little Robin Hood.  I guess that makes me part of the band of merry men???

Christmas 2012

Derek had to work on Christmas Eve, but I was lucky enough to be off. 

Carder and I spent our morning playing and getting dressed.  We headed out to catch a 10am 25 cent showing of Polar Express at a theatre downtown.  This was Carder's first movie and I wasn't sure how well it would go.  He had a great time.  There were some carolers before the movie started (and he kept asking for more when they finished a song).  When the pre-movie stuff came on the screen, he got really excited.  And then the movie started.  When the little boy came on the screen in the bed, Carder said "Night Night" and the lady beside me giggled.  The train came on the screen and Carder said "Choo Choo" and he pointed and babbled throughout the movie.  Thank goodness it was a theatre filled with other kids chatting. 

You may remember Carder's first visit with Santa didn't go very well (you can see pictures of him here).  We kept reading books about Christmas and talking about Santa.  By Christmas Eve, he seemed to be quite a fan of Santa and was requesting Santa books at bedtime and pointing at every Santa he saw and saying "Ho Ho".  I think it might possibly be the cutest thing ever.  But not cute enough to attempt to go see Santa again, just in case.

Anyway, back to the movie.  When Santa came on the screen, all of the kids got very quite (it was the quitest the theatre was the entire movie).  Carder yells out "Ho Ho" very excitedly.  Adults all around me cracked up.  And just moments later, Carder fell fast asleep and missed the last 10 minutes of the movie.  It was definitely worth the 50 cents we paid.

After lunch and a nap, we spent our afternoone getting the groceries we would need for our Christmas Dinner and playing.  That evening, we had a quick dinner and loaded Carder into the car.  We slowly drove through several streets and let Carder look at all of the sparkling Christmas lights.  He really loved looking at the lights and babbled on and on about what he could see from the window of the car.  "Ho Ho" was repeated multiple times.  Looking at the lights was a big hit.

When we got home, we read the Christmas staple of "T'was the Night Before Christmas" and did our normal bedtime routine.

Carder gave us a wonderful Christmas gift - he slept until 9 am on Christmas morning.  We got up and gave Carder breakfast.  I started baking some Cinnamin Rolls for Derek and I.  And then we took Carder over to open his presents.  He was very interested in unwrapping the presents - as long as you let him play with whatever he opened until he was ready to move on.  He really didn't enjoy the "assembly required" portion of the presents, but he had a great time playing with his new gifts.

My family called mid-morning on FaceTime and watched Carder open his presents from them.

During his nap, Derek and I sorted through the toys and boxed up some that he no longer plays with.  We also set up his basketball goal in his play area downstairs. 

We spent the day doing things I had always dreamed about doing on Christmas Day - playing with our child and his Christmas loot - building towers with the cardboard blocks and knocking them down, driving cars over the floor, and playing basketball.

It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas as a family.  The only thing that I think I would change is that I would get dressed first.  I love spending Christmas morning lounging in my pajamas, but the look wasn't the greatest for the pictures.  :)

Christmas with the In Laws

Late Saturday morning, Carder seemed to be feeling quite a bit better.  We loaded up the car and headed down state to my in-laws house for our Christmas celebration with them.

Carder ended up taking about a 20 minute nap on the way to their house and that was it.  He spent the afternoon playing with his Papaw (Great Grandpa), Grandparents, and Aunt Sarah.  He also spent quite a bit of time talking about and enjoying the ornaments on my MILs tree.*

Even though I anticipated a very cranky child, he did great with very few meltdowns.  By early evening, he was exhausted.  He ended up going to bed quite early.

On Sunday morning, we fed him breakfast and then everyone was excited to see him opening their gifts.  He got a push/ride toy from Papaw.  His gift from Aunt Sarah was some cars in a carrier, a Litt.le People Farm Stand, and a book.  Grandad and Grandma got him a Yo Gab.ba Gab.ba backpack on wheels, a smaller backpack, a sit-n-spin, and some other small toys.**

 

 

We had a wonderful time visiting with Derek's family.  After Christmas dinner on Sunday evening, we took a few family pictures and then loaded up the car and headed home.

* Since we weren't sure how Carder would handle the tree, we only put our shatterproof balls on the tree this year.  He loved looking at all of the miscellaneous ornaments that she hung on her tree.  He also did very well with not pulling them off and trying to play with them - so much so that I completely regretted my decision to only hang the shatterproof ornaments.  Next year we will include the miscellaneous ornaments on our tree as well.

**  I have to admit - I had a bit of trouble with the gifts from the grandparents. There were some unwrapped gifts in a stocking and one of the gifts was listed as "From Santa". I didn't say anything to them because he is too young to read and it wasn't explained to him that these things were "From Santa" so it really wasn't worth starting an argument - this year.  I grew up that Santa visited our house on Christmas Eve - Santa didn't come to my grandparents homes to leave gifts for me there.  And if we don't put a stop to this before he is old enough to understand, we will later have to explain why Santa brings him gifts at one set of Grandparents and not the other.  And - let's be honest here, damn it - I am a greedy bitch.  We waited all of these years to become parents and "be" Santa, they already had their chance and shouldn't take away our fun...***  Derek and I had a discussion in the car that it was his responsibility to tell this to his parents.

***And if my MIL reads this - Derek was supposed to tell you and sorry you heard it here first.  But, please - no more gifts from Santa.  And that goes for the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.  You want to be responsible for leaving Lucky Charms from a Leprechaun on St. Patty's Day, fine by me.  But leave the biggies to us.

All I Want For Christmas Is a Healthy Child

Carder was sick at Christmas last year.  He was refusing fluids and we ended up having to take him to the ER for an IV of fluids.  Christmas plans had to be changed last minute.  It was a very stressful holiday.

Although I wasn't happy when we woke up on Monday morning (12/17/12) with a fever of 99.9, I wasn't overly concerned about it ruining Christmas.  After all, we had over a week until the big day.

Although he played happily that morning, by the afternoon his fever had shot up to 104 and I had a feeling it was going to be ugly.

My MIL came up to take care of him so I could go to work.  The next thing you know, it is Thursday.  He is still running a fever of 104.  A visit to the doctor yesterday ruled out Strep and he does not currently have an ear infection.  However, we were given a prescription for antibiotics to start just in case the fever had not broken by Saturday.

We were supposed to be leaving this morning to head down to the In-Laws for Christmas festivities there.  But, a winter storm yesterday and today has made the roads a bit tricky (my MIL left last night to go home only to turn around and come back because the roads were too bad).  Plus, Carder still had a fever.  Even though the Doctor said to start the antibiotic on Saturday, we moved it up to today as he wasn't better and we wanted to see if he would respond to the antibiotics before exposing Derek's 93 year old grandfather to whatever germs Carder was sharing.

Whether it is coincidence or whether it was actually the antibiotics, his fever is finally lower tonight.  I hope our sweet boy is feeling better by tomorrow and that he will be 100% himself by Christmas.  I would really hate for both his 1st and 2nd Christmases to be spent sick and miserable.

Christmas Photo Shoot 2012

In my mind's eye, I have a vision of what I want our Christmas Card picture to look like.  But I am too cheap to hire a photographer and for some reason I have the idea that I can do it myself with results that are just as amazing.

Since I wanted the picture to include the Christmas tree, I had to wait until it was up to take any pictures.  I usually have the tree up on Thanksgiving Day.  I originally thought I would put the tree up during his nap one day and letting him wake up to a sparkly surprise but I gave up and let him help decorate the tree.  It was much more challenging that way, but also much more fun.

So the tree decorating already had me behind schedule for picture taking.  Then, I tried to wait until Carder was in a great mood to schedule our Christmas Photo Shoot in the hopes that he would be cooperative.

The first day he was more interested in running around and taking the ornaments off of the tree.  I wasn't happy with the results I was getting, so I scrapped that attempt and decided to wait until later.  Then we were running out of time if I wanted to get the cards mailed before New Years.

So I tried again after naptime one day.

I thought perhaps a great picture of him hanging an ornament on the tree...He was so intent on hanging the ornaments on the tree (or setting them on the branches or taking them off the tree or throwing them down or banging them together) that I never quite got the shot I was looking for.

So then I thought I could get him to sit in front of the tree and hold an ornament.  I placed a padded cube in front of the tree.  The resulting picture was OK and more likey to not include the TV that is right beside the tree, but he had no interest in sitting still Surprised?  Yeah, me neither. 

So I thought "I know, I will bribe him with fruit and yogurt bites".  And then I moved on to chocolate advent candy from my parents.  In my mind, this worked out better than in actuality.  Most pictures his hand was going to his face.  Or he was trying to get off of the cube to get another piece of the bribery.  Or he was signing or saying "MORE".

Then I thought "perhaps we will get a great picture with Santa" and you KNOW how that worked out.  And then "DING", time was up.

This was the picture we settled on.  You can see the chocolatey bribe in his hand.  And I think he looks pretty cute.

I did end up getting on of the shots I was looking for during the Christmas festivities.  It just didn't make it on the card.  But now I think I know how to make it happen for next year.

Christmas Sugar Cookies

Carder and I made some salt dough ornaments of his hand print for family members for Christmas.  (Thank you Pinterest).  With the leftover dough, we used a cookie cutter to cut out stars.

When I showed him the baked and hardened result the next day, he tried to eat it.  So, I thought perhaps we should try to make some Christmas Sugar Cookies. 

This was going to be Carder's first time making cookies and I wanted to make it special.  At first, I was all "I am going to make the dough from scratch and be super mom".  And then we were in the grocery store and buying a couple more cookie cutters and I was all "I am super tired and store bought dough would be so much easier and tastes just as good as home made anyway" so I bought a couple of rolls of dough.  And then bought some extra sprinkles to make up for it.

To my surprise and delight, Derek even decided to get in on the act (which would be why there are any pictures of the event..because everyone knows that dough and sprinkles and toddlers on counter tops and cameras don't mix).

Carder loved to shake on the sprinkles but didn't quite understand the concept of shaking it with the holes pointed down., so he covered the counter with green, red, and blue sugar. 

The finished product turned out great and we all enjoyed some freshly baked sugar cookies and a glass of milk.  I hope to make baking cookies as a family a part of Christmas traditions for years to come.

First Visit with Santa

Last year, Carder was too young to understand Santa.  He spent a good bit of time in December very sick (including Christmas Day).  Plus, it was our first Christmas in our new city and I completely dropped the ball on getting him to see Santa.

I knew I wanted to have him see Santa this year.   He still has quite a bit of stranger anxiety.  Perhaps it would have been a better idea to try a "breakfast" with Santa type of deal to give him plenty of time to see him from afar (and stare him down while he accessed the situation).  I didn't know how to approach it the best to be able to get him to sit on Santa's lap and get a good picture.

Our first attempt to see Santa was at the Christmas tree lighting downtown on 12/7/12.   Even though we got there early, it was super crowded.  (And people are A-holes.  If you want to see Santa up close and personal, get there early to reserve a spot.  Don't push your way up front and shove in front of other people with kids who got there earlier and then proceed to put your 6 year old on your shoulders blocking the view of my 18 month old.  But I digress...)  The line to see Santa was super long and it was already pushing bedtime as it was.  We skipped on Santa for that night.

 

Before I knew it, it was the middle of December.  While there were several options still available, we decided that we would try the local Santa Shack to see how it went.  Unfortunately, Carder decided to boycott his nap today and was quite cranky* as we made our way downtown.  I wasn't sure to expect. 

 

Thankfully, there was no line to wait in.  Santa was a very nice (but very young) man with an obviously fake beard that probably looked pretty scary to a toddler with stranger anxiety.  He clung to me for dear life.

 

After the inital screams of "NOOOOO" as he got closer to Santa, he finally calmed down a little bit.  I decided to squat down to get a picture of Carder in my arms where Santa would actually be in the picture (because that Santa shack is REALLY small).

As you can clearly see, Carder was not happy with that, either.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with getting any closer to that strange man in the red suit with the fake beard.

 

In the end, Carder accepted his Candy Cane and gave Santa "5".  Sometimes you take the best you can get.  We determined that we would forgo any other attempts to see Santa this year as this seemed to be enough torture for one holiday season.

 

*  He had also begun coughing a little bit.  It turned out that he was at the beginning of a very nasty cold/virus and probably wasn't feeling too well today.

It's Like Riding a Bicycle

At least that is my opinion, anyway…

Although I am a mother, I didn’t achieve a pregnancy without medical intervention and without the genetic assistance of others.  And even though I had the honor of carrying my child and experiencing a pregnancy, I am still infertile.

Infertility is like riding a bicycle.  Even though you have taken months off of actively trying to conceive a child, it seems like the muscle memory of your brain just remembers how to fall back into the pitfalls of being an infertile.

Some people speculate that once you have had a baby, your body somehow “learns” how to get pregnant.  This is why you hear of all of the stories – you know the ones…“I know someone who did 8 IVF cycles and finally had a baby and when their baby was 10 months old, they miraculously got pregnant on their own.  Maybe that will happen to you too!?!”  I know this happens.  I know people in the online ALI community who have had this miracle occur and I am truly happy for them.

Do I think I will be one of them?  Nope.  But apparently my unconscious thoughts somewhere in the depths of my mind are hoping this will happen.  I get a reminder of this every month. 

Here are the Facts:

• We are not preventing.  We are not “actively trying”.  Intercourse in our house is timed – but rather than to my cycle it is to when we have the most time and energy for each other – the weekends.

• After Carder was born, I have noticed some changes in my body.  My cycle is still as short as ever (24-25 days) and my periods are still very painful.  But I now experience the tell-tell signs of ovulation every month.  For instance, Egg white cervical mucus is now a monthly occurrence for me – in abundance.  I no longer have to look closely to determine if it is there.  Now, I can easily tell when I wipe and there is no need to get my fingers involved in the process.
• We did achieve one known documented pregnancy that didn’t involve a petri dish and an embryologist.  The documented beta level was only at 45 and I lost the pregnancy by 5 ½ weeks.

The Conclusion:

I am a lunatic infertile whom apparently thinks she is having a miracle baby.  Needing to have intercourse more than once (or at all) in fertile window of 3 days be damned.

Case in Point: 

Last month my cycle was 24 days long.  On day 22 or 23 of this cycle, I had some cramps that I would have sworn AF was coming any minute.  She never showed.  By day 25 when AF hadn’t arrived, I was mentally tallying up every possible pregnancy symptom that I was experiencing. 

I have cramps but no spotting.  I am soooo tired I can barely stay awake after 4pm.  I am absolutely starving but at the same time I think I am going to throw up.  I think my nipples look darker…I must be pregnant.

Derek and I have a conversation about “what if” I really am pregnant and we ponder cute baby names (it’s totally a girl by the way).

I calculate a due date.  I ponder whether I will higher risk due to the preterm labor with my previous pregnancy and will be put on bed rest.  I calculate how much extra this will cost us at daycare.   I think about all of the cute ways we can announce the pregnancy to our families and friends.  I wonder what kind of big brother Carder will be.

I practically had my hands perched on the keyboard to Google “Early Pregnancy Symptoms” and was contemplating run to the drugstore to buy a stick to pee on.

And then the rational side of me took hold of the optimistic side and shook the hell out of it. 

"GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF!!!  YOU ARE INFERTILE.  THE CHILD YOU BORE ISN’T EVEN GENETICALLY RELATED TO YOU!  THE ODDS AREN’T GOOD.  HAVE A GLASS OF WINE AND CHILL THE FUCK OUT."

So I drank some wine (while thinking to myself that I may be pickling my possible child and wondering if it will be my last glass of wine).

And the next day the bitch showed up.

Thank God I didn't go out and waste my money on another damned stick to pee on.

You would think that one of these days I would abandon all hope...At least I no longer sit on the toilet and cry about it, right?

Phrases

Not too long ago, I got an email from a parenting website with a quiz about toddler vocabulary skills.  I don’t remember how long ago that was and time really does fly by, but it seems like it was just a couple of weeks ago.  A month ago at most.

The choices were similar to this:

·         Less than 5 Words

·         20 Words with at least 5 words being spoken clearly

·         50 Words

·         Using 2 + word phrases

While Carder had quite a few words, I remember thinking to myself that we were FAR from him using phrases.  I was actually quite shocked that some children his age were using phrases.  While I didn’t have a list of the words he can say written down, I knew it was quite a few and answered with 20 words.  The responses showed that Carder was with the majority of his peers in his verbal skills.

A few short weeks later (at most) and Carder has begun using phrases.

I don’t remember the exact date, but I don’t think I will ever forget his first phrase.  Derek had been feeding him crackers.  Carder was standing (jumping) on the couch.  He looked at Derek and said “Da Cracker”.  It was either a request for Daddy to give him another cracker or he was saying Derek was the whitest guy he had ever seen.  (And either of these is entirely possible as my husband sings the most grammatically correct rap songs you have ever heard…I will have to tell the story of “My Humps” some day…)

A couple of days later, Carder was playing with his dump truck in the floor and rammed his truck into the leg of the dining room chair.  He looked at me and said what sounded exactly like “I crash it”.

Wow.  Just WOW.

Snowballs

We took a walk around the neighborhood in the snow today.  Carder insisted on walking a good bit of the way.  He must have walked a mile.

When we got back, he wanted to play in the snow so badly.  I let him make snowballs and throw them at the garage.  He had so much fun.

Thanksgiving 2012

We went to the In-Laws for Thanksgiving 2012. 

We drove to their house on the night before Thanksgiving because Derek was working the day after Thanksgiving and we knew that it was best for Carder not to try to do the round trip in one day.

 As per what we should have expected (although I had hoped for the contrary), Carder fell asleep in the car and woke up when we arrived at their house.  After saying hello to the Grandparents and Papaw, he was then super-charged with energy and ran around like a wild child for a couple of hours before he went back to sleep.  (This had me panicked that my normally happy child would be in meltdown mode for Thanksgiving Day).

As you also would expect, Carder got up his normal time on Thanksgiving morning as children apparently have no concept of sleeping in when they were up late the night before.   After breakfast, Derek, Carder, Granddad, Papaw and I took a walk on the Golf Course.  We pulled Carder in a wagon that the Grandparents bought for him.

Although Carder had dropped morning naps, walking on the course apparently wore him out and he fell asleep in the wagon as we were heading back.  He also woke up as soon as the wagon stopped moving and didn’t finish his nap.  (This had me panicked that my normally happy child would be in meltdown mode).

Aunt Sarah arrived around 10:30 and brought with her a foster child that was placed with her just a couple of days beforehand.  She was 6 months older than Carder and they had a wonderful time playing together.  Dinner was scheduled for around 1.  Derek’s Aunt Vicky, her friend Mike, and Derek’s cousin Helen also joined us for Thanksgiving dinner and got to the house around 12.  Thank goodness that Helen and Vicky were there to help prepare the meal!

We fed the kids a late snack and tried our best to push their naptimes back so that we could all enjoy the meal together.  It became obvious that the meal wouldn’t be at 1 (and I was panicked that my normally happy child would be in meltdown mode – noticing a trend here???).   Sarah and I decided to take the kids for a walk on the Golf Course to keep them occupied while we waited for dinner.

The kids had an absolute BLAST playing on the Golf Course and it was a wonderful way to pass the time.  Although a bit chilly, it was a gorgeous & sunny day.  We ran all over the grass (fairway?  green?) and ended up returning to the house with wet pants and smiling but exhausted kids.

 

Carder picked at his dinner at best and ended up going down for a nap during the middle of dinner.  I guess you can’t have it all.  At least my normally happy child wasn’t in meltdown mode as I had feared he would be.

After he woke up from his nap, we loaded up the car and headed home.

An Unseasonably Warm November Day

Sunday morning, we went to Church and then to Brunch at one of our favorite local restaurants.

We were expecting a nice day, but it turned out to be so much warmer than the Weather Channel App had predicted.  I am not sure of the high we reached, but as evening approached, the temperature was 69 degrees.

We spent the afternoon outside in the yard (without coats!!!) raking up leaves (again!!!), playing with Carder's cars, and taking a nice long walk around the neighborhood.  It never ceases to amaze me how the whole street neighborhood city is out and about on a beautiful warm Michigan day.

That's Right.  He has a Power Wheel.  It was a gift before he could even walk and is mainly a stationary climbing object.

Why are you putting this in a pile?  It looks so much better spread out over the entire yard!

This Bouncy Chair is QUITE fun...Next summer I will rule this chair.

First Haircut

Carder's hair has been long and messy for quite some time now.  There have been so many times that we have considered cutting it but we have decided against it for whatever reason.  I can say that for me it was mostly because of the adoroable curls he had when he woke up from a nap or just after his nightly bath.

 

Just look at these curls sticking out from under his hat...

 

 

But lately, the knots have been really bad. And his "bangs" were so long that they were routinely tickling his nose.  And he has been called a girl more times than I care to admit.

So after much debate, we decided it was time for his first haircut.  We debated on whether to take him to a place that specialized in kid's haircuts or to a known stylist.  Since I had a haircut scheduled for Friday and Carder was coming with me, Derek told me to get my stylist to cut it if she had time.  As it turned out, she did have some extra time.  She didn't have a special chair to sit in, so I had to hold him.  It didn't go too bad - although there is a slight gap in one spot where he wiggled while she snipped. *

At the Salon, just after his trim...

You cut my hair?  Are you serious?

He looks soooo freaking adorable with his little boy haircut that I can hardly stand it.  However, he also looks so grown up that I can hardly stand that either...

*  In the end, I wish I would have waited for the specialty shop.  Since I was holding him for the actual cutting, I handed my camera over and asked someone else to take a few pictures.  I don't know HOW in this digital age that someone who is relatively young can not know how to operate a digital camera, but somehow she didn't know what she was doing because I ended up with NO PICTURES of this event even though she clicked away.  And I am sure you probably heard me curse like a sailor sigh all the way to your own homes when I realized this fact...

Happy Halloween!

I thought that Carder was cute last Halloween when he dressed as a cow...that pales in comparison to this year.

I found a costume idea on Pin.terest for an Oompa-Loompa (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and decided months ago that this would be his costume...but then I couldn't find white pants ANYWHERE to make the costume happen.  On Friday (10/26/12 - as in just a mere 5 days before Halloween), I finally gave up the search and bought a stock costume...

As I purchased the orange and black striped tiger costume, my heart was saddened at my perceived failure as a mother to conjure up an adorable home-made costume even if it wasn't an original idea.  (But more on my feelings of Mommy Failure in a future post.)

I had failed to realize the value in letting my 16 month old dress as something he would actually recognize rather than something that he had no concept of.

And I had totally underestimated how cute he would be with his little tail wagging as he walks...('Cause - you know - Oompa-Loompa's don't have tails)

Or how cute he looks when he has his butt stuck up in the air after a spill (which is perhaps aided by the impared visibility from the hood...)

But the best part of this year and the costume?  When he actually roars like a tiger...

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

Pumkin Carving

Tonight, we carved our pumpkin for Halloween.  I really thought that Carder would enjoy dipping his hands into the pumpkin guts and pulling out a handful of seeds and pulp.

Derek ran to the store for some newspapers to spread on the floor to contain the mess and I did my best to convince Carder that the big orange sphere on the counter was NOT A BALL while I sketched our design on the front.

We sat in the floor and got started.  He was a bit skeptical of the orange gooiness and preferred to sit on my lap and watch as we cleaned the pumpkin out.

He was much happier stirring the seed/pulp mixture with the scoop than he was with getting his hands dirty.

After the carving was finished, we turned out the lights and lit up the Jack-O-Lantern so that he could see the masterpiece we had just created as a family and was prepared for him to stare at it in awe.

He still thinks it's a ball...  Oh well.  Maybe next year he will understand the difference...