Halloween Scrooge No More

I admit it.  When it comes to Halloween, I am pretty Scrooge-like.  I can't remember the last time I've dressed up.  I don't decorate the house.  WE DIDN'T EVEN CARVE A PUMPKIN THIS YEAR.  And we have an almost-three-year old.  Shame on us!

For Jack's first Halloween, I bought a dinosaur (dragon?) costume off the clearance rack at Babies R' Us.  Last year, my mom made him a spider costume  (that he was too afraid to wear).  This year?  He wore the spider costume and I shelled out a whopping .99 on a second-hand ladybug costume for Claire at Kid 2 Kid. I didn't even try the darn costume on her until this afternoon, about 2 hours before we went Trick-or-Treating (it fit).

For the most part, I just think Halloween is kind of a pain.  It requires work.  It ends in obscene amounts of candy for the people who need it the least (kids, and me) AND we have to keep the dog in the backyard so she doesn't tear down the door every time someone knocks or worse, rings the doorbell.  And in Texas, it's kind of hard to prepare for...because you don't know if it's going to be too hot for the costume you picked out, or too cold for the costume you picked out (for the record, it was a perfect 70 degrees tonight).

But I remember how fun it was when I was little.

I remember the giant ghost decoration my mom put out every year.  I remember the fabulous costumes my mom made (like a magnificent paper mache' My Little Pony).  I remember dumping out a giant pillow case of candy and sorting through it all (and putting it into little piles...chocolate here, bubble gum there, lollipops here, and raisins in the trash) and letting my dad  eat some to "check and make sure it's not poisoned" (ha!).   I remember tearing through our neighborhood, which was kind of rural and had lots of space between the houses and almost no other children, and watching our candy bags fill with full-size candy bars because it was cheaper for the neighbors to buy a few giant candy bars than a big bag full of little ones.  Then we would load up in the Buick station wagon and my Dad would drive us to my Gramma's house so we could Trick-or-Treat in her neighborhood (lots of houses close together) and we'd hear Thriller, The Monster Mash, Purple People Eater etc. on the radio as we drove.

And most importantly?

Halloween was the GATEWAY TO CHRISTMAS!!

So, I loved Halloween as a kid.

And then, somewhere between childhood and parenthood, I turned into a Halloween Scrooge.

This year, I had good intentions.  Inspired by other houses in the neighborhood (Fake graves and skeletons in the yards! Spooky wreaths!) I asked my mom to show me how to recreate the ghost we used to have hanging up as a kid.  But I was somehow never able to actually get the pieces together necessary to make it.  I picked out little candy bags and lots of ghoulish treats and removable tattoos and pumpkin bubbles from the Oriental Trading company catalog (I wanted Trick-or-Treaters to get cool treats at our house).  But, I never wanted to actually spend the money to buy the stuff when it came time to order (this is why I was at Target this afternoon, picking through what candy was left as the employees were setting up Christmas displays next to me).

While I was at Target today though, I had a bit of an epiphany.  Rather than wallowing in my own lameness (what mom of a young child doesn't even carve a pumpkin??), I decided to let myself off the hook because I kind of have a newborn (I say "kind of" because she's 14.5 weeks old now, I am not sure if that counts as a newborn) and a new house that is still not entirely unpacked.  No time for Halloween nonsense!

But...it doesn't have to be like this next year.  I realized, as I was looking at the creepy Halloween wreath I kind of loved and wanted to buy but couldn't justify spending $30 on, that tomorrow ALL OF THIS IS GOING TO BE ON SALE.  For, like, cheap.  And I can come and buy it and not feel like I'm wasting my money on junk for a holiday I don't really care about because A) it will be cheap, and B) it's not about me, it's about my kids and Jack loved Halloween!

That's right...having Jack helped put some of the magic back in this holiday for me.  In our old house, Trick-or-Treating was not an option so we went to a function at a local church.  This was Jack's first time Trick-or-Treating (Claire's too, for that matter, but she slept through most of it and just woke up for the neighborhood block party at the end of the night).  Jack and the neighbor girls had great fun running from door to door (until Jack got tired and asked to ride in the wagon, at which point I asked him if he wanted to  stop getting candy and he told me "no, the girls can bring it to me" - HA.).  He loved seeing the costumes, playing at the neighbor's party, and when we got home, passing out candy to the big kids who were still out making the rounds.

I figure next year Jack will be big enough to really get into it and he will appreciate my efforts at decorating the house.  I will be a Halloween Scrooge no more.

And speaking of Scrooge, Christmas is coming up.  And Christmas is another story indeed.  There's a good chance that when I'm at Target tomorrow scooping up the leftover Halloween decorations, I may have to throw Christmas wreath (or two)...or a giant light-up reindeer...in the basket.

Here are my precious little Love Bugs in all their Halloween Glory.

The 21st of October

Guess what?  Claire is THREE MONTHS OLD today!  Wow.  I've said it before, I will say it again, and I'll say it here now...time is absolutely flying by.  I swear it's going by faster with Baby #2.

On the 21st of every month I dress Claire in the same cute pink diaper and we do a little photo shoot.  Last month, I was inspired by Jill at Baby Rabies to take pictures throughout the day to document what a normal "day in the life" is like.  Well, I liked it so much that I have decided to do it every month on the 21st (because I hopefully won't forget on those days as we start the day off taking pictures!).

This month, I admit I was a little bored with my day.  I was hoping the 21st of October would coincide with some super fabulous trip to the pumpkin patch or an exciting trip to, I don't know, Target or something (if it's me, by myself, with both kids...I can guarantee you those are pictures you would want to see, HA!).  But, truth be told, today was pretty darn boring.  I didn't have anything exciting to document (and even if I did, I only had my phone with me today...not even the little digital camera, let alone the Big Camera Beast I am a little bit afraid of but that makes everything look way cooler than it really is).  I am putting this together thanks to my iPhone (with a little help from Instagram).

Boring or not, though...it was a day filled with healthy and happy kids and for that, I am grateful.  So, let the fun begin!

9:00 AM

The picture is blurry but it still says a thousand words.  In a nutshell, this is what I get to wake up to each morning!  Claire sleeps the first part of the night in her bed, and I bring her to bed once she wakes up.  Then I see this smiling face in the morning.  And even better...this morning she slept in until 9:00 and even better than that...so did Jack.

10:00 AM

Breakfast of champions.  Pancakes (Jack calls them "pan-a-cakes") and hash browns from McDonald's. But the juice is organic!  From Central Market! That makes it ok, right??  Hehe...

11:00 AM

This is my third attempt to convince Claire she really wanted to take a snooze in the swing.  She really didn't think she wanted a nap at all, thankyouverymuch.  Charles finally talked her into taking a quick snooze.  While he did that, I enjoyed another very large glass of tea.

12:00 PM

Claire's nap is over (she did sleep for 40 whole minutes though, so I am not one to complain!) and we all know Jack isn't going to nap (sigh) so we are watching "Up" on the couch.  If you have not seen "Up" before...please see it.  I am confident in this recommendation (unlike the time I recommended Kill Bill to someone who weeks later told me she went to see Kill Bill because someone had recommended it and she hated it so much she walked out of the theater...and no joke, she didn't remember I was the one who recommended it so I didn't say anything...HA!).  Seriously...this movie is amazing.  It makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me grateful for what I have and it inspires me...and Jack loves it, too.  This particular part of the movie is extra great.  Dug, the dog, had just said to grumpy old Mr. Frederickson, "I have just met you and I love you."  LOVE this.

1:00 PM

The first picture?  A few cloth diapers I just hung outside (the sun removes stains better than any stain remover could).  The second picture?  Nursing baby in my lap.  This picture is kind of tripping me out...the hand next to Claire's side and leg is *my* hand...it kind of looks like she has a giant hand or something...!

2:00 PM

I am going crazy being inside the house, so while Charles tries to convince Jack to take a snooze on the couch (HAHAHAHA) I take Claire for a stroll.  There were more turtles on that log, but I was too loud walking around the corner and a bunch jumped off before I could take their picture.  And the squirrel...well, he is clearly challenging me to mess with him and make him move!

3:00 PM

Playing on the floor with both kiddos.  Well, mostly protecting Claire from projectile tow trucks.  But guess what else happened during floor time?  Claire ROLLED OVER.  From her back to her tummy.  Twice.  By herself.  Jack was four and a half months old before he even attempted this.  Claire has been working on it for about three weeks now, and today she succeeded.  And as soon as she gets on her tummy, what does she do?  Starts kicking her little legs and moving her little arms around...this kid wants to move.  Jack didn't crawl until he was ten months old.  I am thinking this is going to be a whole different ballgame!

4:00 PM

Ummm...anyone want to help me put some laundry away?  There's plenty to go around...

5:00 PM

We go for another walk, and this time Jack, Charles and Janga come with us.  And this time, I make sure everyone is quiet so I can sneak up on the turtles and get this picture.

6:00 PM

We are going to the neighbor's house for dinner so I make Jack lay on the floor so I can change his diaper.  The diaper has been changed and he is pushing the limits here by putting his feet on the baby.  Over and over and over again...I just gave him my "serious" voice and he's debating about how serious I really am (for what it's worth, it worked...foot was removed!).

8:00 PM

Claire is ready for bed at 8:00, so I bring her home and give her a bath (she sure doesn't look very tired in this picture, does she?).  

It's now 1:00 AM and I guess all that tea is taking it's toll, because I'm not tired.  However...the baby monitor is blinking and I imagine Claire will be waking up sooner rather than later.  

And with that...it's off to bed I go.

Country Roads...Take Me Home...

I talk a lot about the walks I go on and I realized these last few days that it's very possible my walks down these country roads might come to an end sooner than I had thought. 

For one thing, it's getting hot ("hot" means 85 degrees to this perpetually overheated pregnant lady).  I don't know how much longer the decent weather will hold out, and I can tell you for sure that I won't be traipsing around in 95 degree weather down a hot stinky road (yeah, the parts of the road that are actually paved reek of melted asphalt when it gets hot) dodging grasshoppers and snakes when I am nine months pregnant.  It's possible that we might sell our house soon and by the time I am ready to start walking again, we will no longer be here and I'll instead be walking down sidewalks and under streetlamps rather than down dirt roads and under oak trees. 

This past week has been especially beautiful.  75 degrees, breezy, blue skies.  The kind of weather that reminds me of California.  So I decided to take my camera and capture my walk (camera = iPhone that crashes constantly and had a dirty lense which resulted in much frustration on my part and blurry pictures, to boot).  I had planned on editing the pictures in my favorite iPhone app - Instagram - and making them all pretty and bright so my walk would look *extra* exciting, but that was not meant to be.  My phone is two years old and apparently the bug that Apple implants in all phones to self-destruct when they turn two years old so their owners will be required to buy a new one has been activated.  So, no fancy Instagram pictures to make my walk look better than it really is.  Just the real deal.

Here it is, from start to finish (minus my panting and wheezing self, of course). 

This is my driveway (well, actually I was about a 1/4 of the way down it already).  It bears noting that it takes me like ten minutes to walk down the driveway and get the mail.  Much, much longer if I take Jack.  The little brown head in this picture is Janga, my trusty walking buddy (mostly trusty...I enjoy her company until we see a rabbit or something else of that nature and she tries to pull me off my feet to get it - amazing how much torque a 55-pound pitbull with a bunny or squirrel in her sights can produce!).

This is a part of the road we walk down.  Most of it looks a lot like this.  This is all very nice when it's shady and cool.  Not so nice when the sun is directly overhead.  The little black blob in this picture (and probably a few more to come) is Cricket.  Cricket was a "dump dog" - when we first moved out here someone dumped an emaciated mother dog and her ten mange-ridden, hairless puppies (TEN!!!) and we rescued them.  Hundreds of dollars later the dogs were well and we found them all homes.  We kept Cricket, but a couple of years ago she deserted us to go live with the neighbors who let her sleep on the couch and feed her sandwiches.  So I really don't consider her "our" dog anymore, but she does occasionally join us on our walks.

I kind of feel like I might see a leprechaun running through this pasture when I pass it.  That would be neat.

Another potential leprechaun hiding place.  If leprechauns lived in Texas, that is.

I love this pasture.  I walk past a ton of trees and there is suddenly this little opening in the trees and I get to see this pretty picture.  There are some really nice horses who live here and enjoy it as well.  The other day they were down by the fence so I picked my way through the brambles to go over and visit with them.  They are actually pretty fancy and nice to look at, and within seconds all seven of them were pushing up against the fence to get scratches.  This was all fine and dandy until one particularly pretty palomino mare decided to start kicking the tar out of everyone around her (as in, making some serious contact) and they all started tripping over each other and trampling each other trying to get away from Evil Mare.  A few of them of course went into the fence (barbed wire) and I thought, "Oh, shit, this is what I get for trying to visit with the pretty horsies!" and I pulled Janga away from the fence.  As I looked down I realized I was standing in a bunch of suspicious-looking green plants that immediately brought to mind the trailriders/hikers mantra, "Leaves of Three, Let it Be" and again thought, "Oh, shit, am I stepping in Poison Ivy?????"  It all turned out ok.  Horses returned to grazing peacefully and I, as of today, do not have any weird/itchy rashes on my legs.  Yay.

Lots of sky and pretty clouds blowing in the breeze this particular day.  As Jack noted, "Clouds are movin', Mama!"

This lovely landmark tells me I am about 1/4 of the way done with my walk.  And also reminds me that I do, indeed, live in rural Texas.  This has been there for about 6 months now.  I was hoping to see how long it would take to biodegrade.  In case you can't make it out, it's an empty case of Coors Light on a reflector.  Nice, right??

This fellow poked his head out of the bushes and surprised me about halfway through my walk.  He had a harem of lovely ladies laying at his feet, actually.  They were enjoying the nice day as well.

I think the lense was foggy (hence the weird blue streaks) but I wanted to include this one anyway because this road (which I never take, too creepy and isolated to walk by myself) has great memories for me.  I used to ride down it (feels much safer on a horse) and one day when I was pregnant with Jack (in the late summer), Charles and I walked down it and saw, literally, hundreds of fireflies flashing all around us.  I have never seen anything like it since.

Thistle!!  You know, like Eeyore eats!  I don't think I had ever touched thistle before.  I expected it to be...prickly, I guess?  It wasn't.  It was soft and I was tempted to bring some back to see if the donkeys would eat it.  But then I would have had to carry it for 30 minutes and that did not appeal to me (I have, on occasion, brought "treasures" back to Jack - a golf ball once, and an actual heavy metal hook another time...hmmm...maybe I need a fanny pack.  Ha!).

Sorry, snake-phobes.  But this is a daily part of my walks.  Today, the little bugger was dead.  The previous day?  Not so much.  It is kind of sad, these are harmless snakes, but I really, really, REALLY don't like putting my foot down and noticing a half-second too late that I am about to step on a snake...harmless or not. 

Trotting along, on high alert for squirrel sightings.

This is our driveway again, from the other end.  The homestretch!  Cricket is patiently waiting for us.  I am reluctant to leave the shade (seriously...it was 75 degrees out but my pregnant-self feels about 10 degrees warmer and I was sweating at this point). 

So there you have it, my friends.  I am sorry to not have more wildlife pictures for you (one of the reasons I wanted to take the camera that day was because I had come across armadillos, a skunk, several snakes and a pasture full of llamas in the last week and thought surely I would run into more of the same on this beautiful day, but I guess they were all in hiding). 

It is a beautiful place, most of the time, and I will miss it.  Please remind me I said that in about, oh, two weeks when it's 90 degrees outside and I can't even make it down the driveway!

Cutie Patootie and Something Creepy, Too

Cousins! Max gets to "hold" Jack. This was the last day they were here but I think it's the first time Max took any real interest in Jack. Well, aside from when he wanted to get into the little baby bath with him. Hehe.

I broke out the Baby Einstein Jungle Gym toy today. As you can see, he was pretty into that red bird. And I just noticed that Janga is sniffing his toes.

Smiles! This is my new favorite onesie. I am pretty sure it came from Jess and Ed. It is so cute. He is one stylin' baby in this!

That red bird is pretty funny!!

Last night, smiling for Daddy in his monkey onesie and brown cargo pants.

And the "Something Creepy." Charles models the Storm Trooper hoodie that Polly gave him for Christmas. Very, very creepy.

And that's pretty much all that's new around here. We had a really fun visit with Richie, Jeanette, Max and Polly. Today Jack and I are taking it easy. I'm going back to work in a few weeks so I'm busy spending as much time as possible with Jack. I know, I'll only be working part-time AND I'll be working from home but it won't be the same. I will be glad to talk to some adults now and then, though! :)

Also, Valerie and Sara are coming out next week so I am really looking forward to that. They can finally meet Jack, who will be almost THREE MONTHS OLD. I can't believe how fast he is growing.

OH - and Ziggy is living the fabulous life. I'll try to remember to post some pics from his new dog daddy soon.

Just Some More Jack Pictures