Ahoy MatiesThis past week was full of Fall Festivals and Halloween Parties galore. We kicked off the celebration last Saturday by attending a Halloween party for the children in my mom's group. Since last year, the mom's group has broken off into two branches-one for stay at home moms and one for working moms. This was the first time the whole group has gotten together since last year's Valentine's Day party. It was amazing to see how big the "babies" have gotten. They are their own little people. Edmund wasn't quite as amazed with the development of his buddies as he was with a plate of Halloween shaped mini PB&J sandwiches. None of the other children seeme
d to notice they were at perfect toddler height. After Edmund's sixth little sandwich we had to ask for the plate to be put out of toddler reach. Edmund was bummed to be sure. Edmund also immediately made a miniature stroller discovery. He is entranced by all push toys, especially mini strollers. Unfortunately for him all the other kids were just as enamored with the stroller, and sharing is hard work when you're only 16 months old. Thus, after the requisite photo-op with the other children, (Edmund's pirate costume was hands-down the cutest), we bid our old baby friends adieu.Wednesday was Edmund's preschool's Fall Festival. Because we were dealing with kids under 3, the activities were incredibly simple, but the kids wore themselves out anyway. Edmund also wore his mommy out, as he followed me around saying "mama," in just about every inflection you can imagine. Edmund colored a paper pumpkin outside, but thought it much more fun to color on the fence, so the activity was short lived. He spent most of his time at the sticker station, sticking Halloween stickers to a large piece of paper with his buddies. He has finally figured out how to get the sticker off his hand to stick it to paper, but I think we've got quite a way to go before he gets the hang of peeling. Believe me, he tries his hardest. The Fall Festival concluded with a lunch of pumpkin penne (a recipe I found in one of my magazines). Edmund loved, loved, loved the pumpkin penne. He came very close to turning into a pumpkin, as he was covered head to toe in it by the end of lunch.
Friday evening we headed to Chapel Hill Bible Church's Fall Festival. Again Edmund won the contest for cutest costume. Too bad there wasn't an actual contest! We began our night with a delicious meal of hot dogs. Edmund was in heaven when he saw there was mac and cheese. Steven and I have decided if Edmund had to choose just one food to eat for the rest of his life, it would be mac and cheese. After dinner we headed to the preschool games. Edmund was still a little young for them, but had fun anyway. In the first game he was supposed to find two toy animals buried
in deer corn. Edmund found the animals, but didn't care. He was more interested in sifting his hands through the deer corn. He was having quite a blast with this until we had to abruptly lead him away from the activity. He thought it was hilarious to throw the corn on the floor. He couldn't understand why mommy and daddy insisted on stopping this fun. We took him to claim his prize--his very first piece of candy. Fortunately for mommy, he chose her favorite, 3 Musketeers. Edmund tried his hand at a few more games with assistance of course. We ended the evening with a family picture taken on a haystack. The perfect end to the evening.What's that you say? Wasn't Edmund partied out before the actual day? Of course not! On Halloween we took our pumpkins to Grandma and Grandpa's to carve. If you'll recall last year Edmund was very willing to touch pumpkin guts. This year he made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with the stuff by shaking his head and saying a very definitive "unh unh." We had done a pumpkin sensory activity at school the previous week and Edmund had also refused to get involved with the gooey stuff then. However, I thought it was just him giving me a hard time at school as usual. Turns out he really does not like guts. I can't blame him. He loves painting, getting messy in sand, and even shoving pumpkin penne in his mouth, but pumpkin guts--too much. When the sun started to set we got Edmund dressed in his pirate costume yet again. Edmund was pumped about his first trick-or-treating experience, or was that his mom and dad? We took him out Grandma and Grandpa's back door around to the front so he could get the bizarre idea of trick-or-treating with familiar people first. He was more interested in their stairs than the candy, so we decided to move onto the next house. Edmund refused to carry his little pumpkin, making mommy and daddy do the heavy lifting. We trick-or-treated at a total of five houses. With each house Edmund got better at choosing candy and dropping the pieces in his pumpkin. However, I would say his candy choices this evening were debatable. He didn't pick many of mommy's favorites. Edmund loved the final house. Before I even spotted it Edmund was saying "watoo, watoo," his word for water. Edmund was mesmerized by a cauldron of bubbling water. Let me say here that he gave us quite a fit when we left that house. You could hear calls of "watoo, watoo" for miles. This Halloween also gave me insight into why I was never as big a fan of Halloween as my friends were. For someone who can be extremely shy in social situations, ringing a stranger's doorbell is about the last thing you want to do. This year I made Edmund do the ringing!
