All Hallows Eve

Happy Halloween Ghouls and Goblins!

It wasn’t Jeremy’s first Halloween, but it was his first one that he could take part in all the festivities of the night. We began the evening by videochatting with his cousins on the east coast. It was the end of their night and the beginning of ours.

Cousins showing off their costumes

Hollyn is a witch, and Weston is a skeleton.

 Then he got all dressed up and practiced his trick-or-treating skills.

Notice the fire loot bag. 

He was really excited to walk up to all of the houses. We walked around the neighborhood for 1.5 hours. Our neighborhood is really into Halloween, so we spent a lot of time seeing all the decorations and chatting with our neighbors. Ms. Sharon, the children’s librarian and storyteller, was a fun surprise to meet at one of the houses.

Jeremy was very brave to walk up to the doors.

All night, Jeremy chose candy based on color.

As he knocked, he said, "Knock, Knock, Treat!"

Lots of kids out for Halloween.

"Jeremy's Fire Engine"

Jeremy was a very conscientious fireman, so he checked out all the fires.

We weren’t sure how Jeremy would respond to all the scary decorations. But when we saw these ghosts, he said, “Ghosts, neat! Ghosts, touch it!” He also pointed out a “monster on bicycle!” that was maybe just someone commuting home from work.

“Ghosts, neat! Ghosts, touch it!”

We returned home to count Jeremy’s loot and to complete a post trick-or-treating interview.

Counting--19 pieces of candy! 

He pulled out a lollipop and called it "broccoli."
And pulled out a different one called it "salami!"

Making trains out of his candy. (We did let him eat a piece!)

Halloween Morning

Pictures from the farm will appear soon!

Pumpkin Carving

Dedicated blog readers will know that we purchased pumpkins from Uesugi Farms a couple weeks ago. Now it is time to carve that pumpkin!

Our favorite quotes from the night:

"Messy!"

"See that pumpkin!"

You don’t want to scoop? What do you want to do? "Dump it!"

"It’s heavy!"

"Secrets in there!"

Helping scoop out the pumpkin guts. 

Consulting pumpkins to decide what to carve.
He made the two on the right with stickers.

He used the stickers to design the face. 

And then stickered the pumpkin he picked out.

Supervising Dada's carving technique.

The finished products.

We lit the candle to show Jeremy what the Jack-O-Lantern looked like, but it was hard to see with the porch light on. When we turned the light off and the pumpkin glowed, Jeremy burst into tears. Whoops.  Hope he likes Jack-O-Lanterns tomorrow.

More Rockets!

On Sunday morning, we went to a friend's birthday party--it was a dress-up event, so Jeremy got to be a fireman again!

"Dada, hat, wear it!"

 After naps, Jana and Aaron came over to play and eat pizza. Everyone eats pizza, so it is such an easy dinner choice! First they played outside for awhile, then we all came inside, ate, and sang songs! Watch the boys sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat!

Playing with the stomp rocket again.

Aaron takes a turn!

Rockets!

On Friday night, we had a really nice dinner out at a local brewpub. It's a great place to go with a toddler, because it is noisy and full of families. Now, sometimes when we go out to dinner we eat hurriedly and then stare down the waiter for the check. Fortunately, those meals are few and far between at this point. On Friday, Jeremy colored, he ate, then he was cute. So it was a great family night out.
On Saturday, we watched some college football during the day. Then in the afternoon, Christian's family came over for a picnic. It was a beautiful day and didn't feel like fall even a little bit. We spent our time at the park and then playing in the backyard. Jeremy showed off his new bicycle and refused to remove his helmet (which is a better problem then him refusing to wear it). MiMi and Pops brought Jeremy a stomp rocket and a couple of books about rockets. So much fun!
(I will make them youtube clips after everyone else is finished uploading their Sandy stuff.)

Playing with Pops

Sliding with MiMI

Stomp Rockets! 

Uncle Drew tries out the bike

Jeremy playing with Brody in our yard.

 Jeremy "playing" with Brody in our yard.

Chalk!

Halloween Cont.

Just in case you haven't seen enough fireman pictures! We went to my Mom's Club Halloween party! When Jeremy woke up from his nap, we whisked him to the party...maybe not the best plan, since he was not his normal, happy self. Basically, he was clingy until about 5:10. But the party was over at 5:00. As we were helping to clean up, he joined some older kids and started running around and giggling. Oh well. The pictures are still cute.

Some of Jeremy's friends: Smith, Vivienne, and Callan

Trying to get a group picture...

...is like herding cats.

Jeremy and Mae (Thomas!!)

Dominique with Vivienne and Adriel

Doing crafts. But upset that he couldn't manage to do the craft with his hat on.

His Spooky Scene Masterpiece

                      Last year!!

Hungry Caterpillar, Baseball Player, Ladybug, M&M, Penguin

                                                                                   
                        The 2011 group this year!

Koala, Bumble bee, Traditional Indian, Monkey, Fireman

Dada got to come too! He was one of only a few dads--Jeremy was glad to have him there.

Pirate Adriel just hanging out.

 When we got home, there was a Halloween Treat from GA and GU (Great Aunt Janet and Great Uncle Ray). Fireman books! Jeremy is thrilled. One is about fire trucks and firefighters...the other is called "Even Fireman go to the Potty," it is absolutely hilarious.

This week in pictures

We spend most afternoons playing in the backyard. Our house is just too small to play inside all day! But we have lots of fun outdoor toys. Some of Jeremy's favorites are bubbles, chalk, the sandbox, trucks, and balls! He was so proud of his pile. "Wow-ho-how! Balls in pile, Momma! Show me!" His sentences are growing, but they aren't perfect :)

"Draw pink, Momma." --What do you want me to draw?

"Jeremy!" 

--Ok, lay down and I will trace you.

(This took some convincing, but then he thought it was hilarious.)

He kept saying, "I lay down!" and wanting me to draw him again.

Our backyard looked like a crime scene.

Jeremy and his friends making a Halloween bat!

Facts: I was drying my hair, and we are not a naked-type family. Jeremy doesn't ever run around in just a diaper.
Having said all that, he took off his pants and made a giant pile on top of them--this is all of the toys from the shelves. He was so proud. Maybe he will be a master of pile-making?

I wrote about this on Facebook, but I wanted to post it here as well...just so we will remember it someday. 

Jeremy and Christian are building with duplos. I hear "What I want to build is" Guess who said this? Hint: it is the boy having the most fun with duplos. It gets better: then he said "He was mad, but I was right." Christian's response was "You left out the part where Jeremy loves the Thomas we made."

Jeremy also rediscovered Sophie the Giraffe out of the box of baby toys. (Can you believe he now has "big boy" toys?) So, he built this house out of legos for Sophie, "Sophie house!" He did most of this on his own!