The Tale of Halloween

It's almost 9pm and the kids are tucked in bed (one may or may not be sleeping yet) and the boys' first "real" Halloween is over. Whew! What a day!

It started with a Halloween Birthday party for Ashen's best friend from school. The boys happily ate their cupcakes on the trunk of our car. Can we call that "trunk or treat?" We left a bit early and took the cupcakes "to go" which to the boys meant "as soon as possible--like right now on the trunk."

Grandma Jean came over to join us on their first trick or treating adventure and kindly bought some pumpkin buckets which were promptly used as internal megaphones.

I know everyone has been dying to know how the costume saga ended...drumroll please...with another DRAGON! Yes, this one finally fit (size 4-6x!). I was not on a quest for another dragon, but I guess the dragons are on a quest for me. And a pumpkin--with a kid who refuses to wear anything abnormal, a romper was pushing it. I know, a green hat would have topped off the outfit, but hats are a no go.

We headed out around 6pm for our first annual trick or treating around the neighborhood. Gosh, I admit all of the excitement of Halloweens of my youth revisited me this evening. The rush of the candy, the race against the night to see how much candy we could obtain, the anticipation of who might open the door at haunted looking houses, and the fun of being outside after dark. It was all that and more because I got to see it through the eyes of my boys too. Let me preface by saying that we're not health nuts, but my boys don't see candy. Almost ever. So to taste candy (which they did at dinner when I was prepping them for the evening's activity and what would happen when they said "trick or treat") and to experience the realization that every door they knocked on would provide them with more of these delicious nuggets was thrilling. I was proud of their confidence as they said "trick or treat" and charmed many a'lady with their "thank you" and "bye-bye" which you have to experience to understand. Torin and Mark knocked off after a block and a half, and Ashen, my mom and I continued for another block and a half. Ashen was sure he could fill his bucket and even took some extra candy at a few houses "for Torin." What a nice big brother. He couldn't wait to show his dad how much candy he had in his bucket and dumped it on the floor to count it (Grandma's idea) which was reminiscent of years gone by. I am so excited for the birthday and holiday season ahead because Ashenafi is old enough to "get it" now and the wonder of it all is so contagious.

Dad posing with the boys because they were acting too crazy to stand close to each other!

The loot--we have generous neighbors...look at those full size bars! I think I got just one of those as a kid--and I still remember which house it was. The folks with the big bars were begging us (adults) to take some for ourselves (so they weren't left with all the leftovers, I'm sure!). I'm shocked to say that the boys only had two pieces of candy and wanted more but didn't cry when we said we'd have more tomorrow--whew! I'm sure next year will be a different story. Candy Innocence was officially lost tonight.

Mmmmm...good

First hot chocolates of the season...the cups did not leave their mouths for minutes.

YouTube Trains

My boys, especially Ashenafi, have become passionate about watching train videos on YouTube. Diesels, Steam, Electric, you name it, he loves it. I never knew that people actually videotaped regular old trains doing their business, for the pleasure of others--never even thought about it. I have no idea who you are, videographers, but thank you from my almost-3-year-old son who is over the moon with trains. I, on the other hand, am kinda fed up with having to find new videos every 2-5 minutes and wish there was a continuous feed of good (there are a lot of bad ones) train videos...say a 30 minute ongoing segment :)

Fall-ing

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.
~George Eliot

The Costume that Fit Nobody

I'm having trouble with Halloween costumes. First, I purchased this dragon costume below. Size was 2-4 years. Should fit at least one of my boys, right? Nope. Too small for either. Notice it crushing Ashen's eye below, it's so tight.



It was like capris on both boys. Ashen insisted on trying it on every day until I returned it.

Costumes take two: Purchased another dragon costume as well as a monkey costume. Ashen willingly tried on the dragon, but after getting sweaty hot in the fleece, I took it off and as I took it off, the velcro (used instead of a zipper) caught on his hair. It was a reject after that. Anything that snags his hair is no longer a friend. Torin simply refused to try on his costume--bad memories of the first dragon, I think. Back to the store they went.

I really wanted to make or buy a Max (Wild Things) costume for Ashen, but don't want to pay $150 on Etsy, and haven't found the inspiration to try to make one (yet). I would love Torin to be a Wild Thing--that would be so fitting for him, but I have no idea how I'd make the head/mask to look anything like the book.

We'll see. This will be our first year with costumes, if I'm successful at making or buying some that the boys will wear. Ashen loves costumes, I just need to find something that's not painful.

Memory Lane

Was this really just over a year ago?
Note to self: Need to savor "smallness" while it lasts

Spread the Love

He's smiling at you--are you having a good day?
(that's for you, Cathy!)

Three under 3

I love my nephew. He's just about the sweetest thing ever. He's almost 3: three weeks younger than Ashenafi. My sister and I were fortunate to start our motherhood journies around the same time--Isaac born in December '06, Ashen home in July '07, Torin born February '08 and Dahlia born July '09. That's a lot of kids in 2.5 years! We're also hoping and expecting Little Sister to come home in '10...so five kids four years. Needless to say, my sister and I have both been busy with our new roles--both having worked for 8-10 years and then abruptly home full-time (I say abrupt because we didn't ease into our new SAHM status'). She and her husband lived minutes from us, but moved about 45 minutes away the day Isaac was born (that's a whole other story). Sadly, this distance keeps us from seeing each other as much as we'd like--not to mention that we keep rotating whose baby takes a morning nap, thus limiting our available time together. I wish we weren't so anal about our kids' naps, but we are--it works for us. No nap=bad day.

I've mentioned before that I'm extremely blessed with mid-week help from Mark's parents. They're retired, willing, tireless and over the top awesome. It's a respite for me and something that I now really depend on. My sister doesn't have a mid-week respite (though she does have my mom a couple minutes away for emergencies and weekend help). Her son doesn't nap anymore. She has a newborn. I truly feel for her. This week, we arranged for Isaac to come to our house for a whole day--hoping to give my sis a little break. He arrived cheery at 6:30am (!!) and stayed until 3:30. We had a blast--played with playdough, stamps, colored, went outside to shoot off the rocket a bazillion times, spent an hour at the park, and napped. I was a little leery (scared) about how it would be to have three boys under 3, but I figured that with Little Sister arriving next year, I might as well try out how three feels. Easy peasy ;) No really, Isaac was wonderful and he even napped (first time in a month!!) for over two hours. I know, kids often behave 'better' when they're out of their comfort zone of home, but I was thrilled with our time together. My boys love their cousin and none of them wanted to leave each others' company at the end of the day. Success.

Love

How is it that these little people expand our ability to love so abruptly and completely? Their love is so contagious.

Pucker Up!

Why he keeps this up, I wish I knew. A sucker for sourness, I suppose!

As much as I want to say 'no' to lemons because of the self-induced torture--I'm choosing my battles very carefully lately, in an effort to be more positive and less squashing of his little uniquenesses. The "almost 3s' are hard for mamas--I'm on a huge learning curve and have been humbled a few dozen times in the last week. I'm thankful for what I'm learning though, and hope to share more when I can gather my thoughts.

We're off to get our fingerprints done at Homeland Security soon--and we're bringing the boys due to some poor pre-planning on our part. Hopefully there won't be stories to tell about that lovely visit. I remember last time all too well, and have been lotioning up like crazy today.

On another wonderful note, I spent yesterday alone at our house due to a series of fortunate events. Mark took the boys off to a nearby island to spend the day with his folks, leaving me home to restore my soul (well, almost, but I got closer). I'm trying to make a concerted effort to make more time for me. It's hard! It was the first time I can remember since before Ashen that I've spent a day alone at home. It was wonderful. I didn't 'relax' in the way one might think--but I cleaned the floors, dusted, walked to the farmers market, did laundry and watched a movie, made 3 pans of lasagna and rummaged through the boys clothes and toys to get rid of ones they've outgrown. I dreamed of a weekend alone where one day I would do things like that, and the second day I would take a bubble bath, read a book, nap and eat pastries. I could see it becoming a regular occurance around here. Mark even said last night after he came home and saw how refreshed and appreciative I was, "Maybe we'll have to make every other Sunday your day." I don't know what to think. Elated?