Boo!

Happy Halloween, 2009! This year we had a superhero named Super Why! and a buzzing bumble bee in our house. We bought costumes pretty early in October. Matt had mentioned Spiderman one day and Linc immediately decided that that's who he wanted to be for Halloween. We went to the costume store to try a Spiderman costume on, complete with the puffy muscles, and Linc's first question: "Does it shoot webs, mom?" I about died from the cuteness but was sad to tell him that the costume did not shoot webs. Rats. He still liked the costume well enough but as we looked at other options he spotted a Super Why costume. For those who don't know (if you don't have a preschooler, I wouldn't expect you to), Super Why is a show on PBS that is actually quite cute. It's about 4 friends who solve everyday problems by transforming themselves into superheros and entering classic fairy tales. It's all about reading, the alphabet, etc. Totally nerdy and cute. The costume even has a book on the front - perfect. After spotting the Super Why costume, Linc was sold. Here's a pic of the character as well a couple of Linc.





Note that since we brought the Super Why costume, Linc has mentioned numerous times that he wanted to be Snow White for Halloween. I'm not sure that this would've gone over well with Matt. But I have to say that the kid loves dresses for some reason and since Snow White wears a yellow dress (yellow being his favorite color), Linc seems particularly drawn to her.


Since Cassie is too young to choose her own costume, I settled on a bumble bee for her. Thinking practically, it was a warm costume and was something that she could crawl in without being too uncomfortable. Unfortunately, Cass has a fever today so she won't be trick-or-treating. We did get her into her costume for a bit today though and she got to wear it at her Halloween party at daycare. See our little queen bee below.





Halloween morning was spent carving pumpkins. Here are dad and Linc pulling the guts out of one of the pumpkins. Linc is kind of a neat freak (yes, I am working hard to pass this this trait onto my kids) so we were curious to see if he'd help de-gut the pumpkins. He actually did a pretty good job of it. While he didn't exactly have pumpkin guts up to his elbows, he did help to get a few handfuls out.




And here is the end result. On the left is Linc's. He requested a scary face. On the right is Cassie's. She was napping while we did the carving, so Matt made an executive decision to make a face that had boogers coming out of the nose and its tongue sticking out.



Linc did a good job trick-or-treating this year. He was shy at first but got better and better at shouting "Trick or Treat" at each house. We did keep having to remind him about his thank you's though. I don't know how many times we said, "What do you say?" and Linc would shyly respond, "thank you". Here he is showing off his loot at the end of the night.



And finally, here is Super Why waiting patiently at the door for kids to come and say "Trick or Treat" so that he could hand out some candy.

it's the Great Pumpkin.

This year I thought it would be fun to go on a hayride and let Linc choose his own pumpkin. Below is the one he chose...

Just kidding...he didn't have enough money in his piggy bank to pay for that one!

Instead, we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. Of course we were there in freezing cold weather. Brrrr. Here are dad and Cassidy on the hayride.

And here is the pumpkin that Linc really did choose. He was looking for a tall one and he sure found a great one. Can't wait to see him try to clean that sucker out.

After we got our pumpkins, we enjoyed some hot cider and donuts. Yum. And then Linc checked out all of the cool kid stuff outside.

First, he rode the cool John Deere tricycles.

And then he tested out a big tractor!

And he played on the wooden train. Not sure what he's thinking about here, but I like the pondering look on his face.

Finally, here are Dad and son making their way back to the car. Time to warm up! Brrrr...

new tricks.

Like any parent, I am proud of the new things Cassie is learning. Here are just a few:

Pulling herself to stand. Up next: walking.


Playing peekaboo in the curtains.


Doing the babble babble thing with her lips.


Sticking her tongue out. She thinks this is hilarious.

And last but not least, eating table food. Spaghetti is always a fun one for mom and dad to clean up!

Our baby girl is growing so fast. Sob, sob.

downward dog.

Apparently Cassie is into yoga. See the pics below. On top is a demonstration of the "downward dog" pose, on bottom is Cassie doing it quite successfully. Her positioning needs a bit of refinement, but I think she's on her way to a successful union of the mind, body, and spirit. Go Cass!

thumbs and pillows.

Lincoln has been a thumbsucker since he was about 6-weeks old. Personally, I don't mind that he does this. His thumb is always with him when he needs comfort (unlike Cassie, who uses a paci - yep, that rhymed). I don't expect that Linc will still be sucking his thumb when he's 20 so I'm not worried about him quitting. He'll grow out of it. I, too, was a thumbsucker. I remember doing it so I must've been at least 5 or 6 before I quit because with my crappy memory I don't recall much before the age of 5.

Anyway, I snapped some pics of Linc in his comfy state: thumb in mouth, hand on pillow corner.

He must have a pillow with a pillow case. Couch pillows are no good. The corners are not appropriate for rubbing.

mobility.

We knew the day would come...mobility for Cassie. She had been crawling backward for about a month and the day she turned 9 months old she crawled forward. I had the video camera out on 9/15 to record a short clip of her as I do each month. I talk about what new things she's doing each month for her first year. It's as if she knew....while I was recording she started crawling forward! Woohoo! There is no going back now. She loves that she can move around. Check her out below.




We have bins of nice, safe, clean baby toys throughout the house. Her two favorite things: the remote control and the speaker wires that are tucked under the step from our kitchen to the family room. Neither fits into the "nice, safe, clean baby toys" category. We have even given her her own real remote control (an old one that we don't use). She will play with this one for about 30 seconds and then wants the "real" remote. There's no fooling her. And, yes, somehow she managed to find the speaker wires that are taped up under the step. See her below "playing" with them. Ugh. We are doing all we can to deter her and to conceal those wires.


And below, you can see her sporting Lincoln's old "Cars" jammies. Just thought she looked kinda cute in them. Matt prefers putting her in Linc's old camoflauge pj's. She does look kind of funny in those. We call her G.I. Doodles when she has them on.


FYI: For those who don't know, we've all been calling Cassidy "Doodles" since she was very little. I had been calling her Cassadoodle (don't know why...just one of those things) and it was shorted to Doodles. There are now many variations of Doodles that crack us all up. Nicknames are good, no? I grew up being called "Fred". Don't really know why. Again, just one of those things. I always knew, though, that the people who called me that were the ones who sort of loved me the most and knew me the best. I hope Doodles doesn't mind that we call her this silly name when she's 30!

mowing.

One of Linc's favorite activites is helping dad mow the lawn. He sees Matt get his "mowing shoes" on and gets all excited. I finally snapped a picture of him with his mower. We got the mower for $3 at a garage sale last year and it's easily the most used toy in our house. Linc loves it. Note that he mows the sidewalk as it's much easier to push the mower on the sidewalk than on the grass.

I will surely bring this picture out when Lincoln is old enough to use the real mower to ensure that his love of mowing stays alive. I can see it now...Matt sitting on the patio with a beer and a smile while he watches Linc mow the lawn.