Carving Pumpkins

Tonight, Heather came over to help us carve pumpkins with Cal. Can you believe that tonight was Cal's third time carving pumpkins? He was certainly much more involved this time around. We started by cutting a hole in the top of the pumpkin:

Cal immediately saw the danger in the situation and took appropriate precautions:

Next, we removed the guts...

Finally, Meg and Heather cut out the face.

"Sup?"

Heather's dog Winnie was very cooperative throughout the entire photo shoot. Cal...not so much.

We warned Cal not to touch the pumpkin because it was hot. Fortunately, he had a solution: blow on the pumpkins until it cooled down again.

Trunk-or-Treating

This past Saturday, our ward had its trunk-or-treat activity. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, "trunk or treating" is an event held at my church where you park your car, decorate the back, and pass out candy as the kids trick-or-treat from trunk to trunk. I'll be honest, when I was little, I thought trunk-or-treating was a tad lame. I mean, I totally went and had a good attitude (those of you who knew me as a teenager are probably surprised to hear that), and even have awesome memories with friends--particularly Kerry. But I don't know, it never felt like REAL trick-or-treating.

Years later, on THIS side of the activity, I am so relieved that trunk-or-treating is not like real trick-or-treating. So much safer, more controlled, and actually MORE fun--it's like trick-or-treating with 100 people I know! I don't know if Cal felt the same, however...

We made the mistake of putting Cal down for a nap just before the activity. As you can see, he was pretty resentful about being woken up and shoved in the car:

"I'm going as a surly teenager this year."

Also, I know his costume isn't a prize-winner, but darn it, I thought he looked cute as a little punk skeleton. His hair was spiked (thought it's kind of fine, so maybe you can't see it), and he wore his new black sneakers. I thought he looked pretty cool.

The grumpiness, unfortunately, lasted beyond the car trip. Here are pictures of both Reed and me trying to cheer him up before the festivities began:

Not happening.

All the kids did a little costume parade. Cal participated, walking around with me and Daddy, but with a scowl on his face the whole time. It was only when the first candy was plopped into his little "Happy Halloween" pail that his mood instantly improved.

"Wait, you just gave me candy...I see how this works!"

The rest of the activity looked like this:

I call this next one "Nerds Shot":

I also like that you can see my favorite part of his t-shirt: all the junk in his belly! (Nerds shot aside, he was not allowed to eat very much of his candy, a fact that tormented him.)

As the festivities were winding down, Cal ran into his friend Caleb, who was dressed as a pirate parrot, and the two passed a good 20 minutes running after an eyeball bouncy ball:

This next one better captures the sheer momentum of the activity:

I love that Cal has a little group of buddies to play with :)

Halloween Activities!

I'm trying to turn little things into activities Cal and I can do together. This week, with Halloween so close, it feels like there is a lot of ways to have Mommy-and-Cal fun.

Here are some of the ways we changed the house to make it special for Halloween:

Cal definitely dipped the spider (above) in his carnation instant breakfast shake this morning.

Cal's new best friend, Bat.

My wonderful mom sent me home from Redlands with all these fun decorations.

Thank you, Mom!

The Jack-o-lantern has a little battery-operated light inside. Cal is VERY interested.

We've been celebrating Halloween in other ways, too, namely, funfetti Halloween cupcakes!

Cal gets really focused when mixing. I love it!

Cal was really interested in arranging the cupcake liners, and I was happy to let him work on it for about 10 minutes:

Then he took a few out and rearranged them. Very thorough, Cal:

Today, we frosted them. (I highly recommend turning cupcakes into two separate activities. One day, mix and bake, and the next day, frost and decorate. Two stones, one bird.)

Here's Cal with his little baby knife.

At first, I just shook some sprinkles on his plate and let him sprinkle them onto the cupcakes a pinch at a time:

Then he got a taste of one (they don't even taste that great!):

And the activity was pretty much halted in its tracks:

Here is our plate of [heavily-sprinkled] Halloween cupcakes:

A while back, our friend Megan (yes, another Megan) told us about how they let their two-year-old son make a "special" tiny pancake for his Daddy on father's day. Reed thought it was the sweetest, coolest thing and talked about it a lot. So ever since then, I've made an effort to encourage Cal to make "special" things for Daddy. Here is a picture of the cupcake Cal made for Reed, and it is extremely special:

Happy Halloween, Cal! Good job decorating those cupcakes!

Boy Stuff

My baby is turning into a little boy! *sniff* It all started about two weeks ago when I was brushing my teeth. Reed came into the bathroom and said, "Did you put him up there?" I looked, and Cal was sitting diaper-less on the potty. (Went out and got a training seat the next day--I'm sure I'll have another post about this soon.) Since then, it seems like every day finds Cal doing something more grown-up. I knew he was going to grow up someday, I just didn't think it would get here so fast!

"Put on your helmet, Mommy!"

One of the ways Cal is growing up: he is very interested in letters. While he can't identify any letters yet, he recognizes letters from other shapes. When he sees them in books or on signs, he'll point to each one and say something like, "Ooh....Pay....Tree...Mah....TOO!" There's always a big emphasis on the last letter, like he's letting me know, "I did it! I read you the whole group of letters!"

Here's Cal riding in a wagon with Cara's baby, Luke.

Hooray for a new friend (Luke, not Cara)!

Cal has also been counting up to three. He counts down to an action, like jumping, or falling backwards onto our bed, but he also counts things by touching items one by one, like Mommy and Daddy have shown him. Whenever we get to the page in Goodnight Moon that says "There were three little bears sitting in chairs", Cal counts them, "One...Two... THREE!" Just now, I heard him walking aroung going "One...two...fee.........uh....tay....pee...NIGH!" I think he knows that it's possible to count beyond three, he's just not sure what to say exactly. :)

He loves following me around and doing what Mommy is doing. I'm trying hard to incorporate him into my activities, even though it is so tempting to do things without him (so much more efficient to clean the house without the help of a toddler!).

Here in Southern California, I've spent 24/7 with him. Maybe that's what has made me notice that even his play activities are more grown up. He is a curious, mischievous little bud. Take a look at some of the following pictures.

My parents' house has a water spigot right outside the laundry room door. They use it to fill up Sammy's water bowl, which has proven a painless situation for 7 years. Enter: Cal. He will not leave the dog, or her things, alone. He has probably filled and emptied her water dish 100 times since we've been here.

As you can see, he is SOAKED.

The interest in the water spigot and dog bowl has led naturally into an interest in the garden hose. As I watered a dry spot on the lawn (you're welcome, Dad), Cal kept running right into the stream.

Perfect October activity, right?

Can you say "Indian Summer"?

Then, he found a stick. What is it with boys and sticks???

At some point, he wrestled the hose from my grasp and took charge:

After watering the lawn for 20 minutes, he got curious, and started watering other things:

Then, Sammy decided she wanted a drink, and thought she might get close enough...

...which turned into a new favorite game: squirt Sammy:

Here she is hiding, after too many close calls.

When Cal realized the dog wasn't playing anymore, he turned to his next victim:

A little too close!

(If you notice the two different shirts, we've done this multiple times this week!)

Last night, I gave Cal a flashlight and we went exploring.

Cal exploring the ice dispenser

Sammy had to follow along, of course:

"I found you, Mommy!"

Reed always teases me because I LOVE snuggling Cal when he's asleep. It's hard to explain that, after all the craziness Cal offers me all day long, it makes it even sweeter when he's a sleeping little angel. Just look at this boy:

Better rest up, my growing boy. You have another busy day tomorrow!