Happy Halloween!

Cute as a bug!

We've been talking this Halloween thing up for weeks. Watching scary movies on t.v. (like Beetlejuice), drawing ghosts, goblins and mummies, and practicing trick-or-treating. You have been pumped - and then you came down with a nasty cold yesterday. One that kept us all up half the night because you were "having trouble breathing, Mama." Poor kid. So dad stayed home from work with you today and you guys took it easy; you were in fairly good spirits when I came home from work.

Spooky window to greet out little trick-or-treaters.

The goofy alien pumpkin. We even got a compliment on it from a five-year-old ninja.

After supper you cooperated while we got your costume on. When we put it on over your winter coat from last year, you pointed at your tummy and said, "fat." Just you and I went trick-or-treating. Your shyness got the best of you everytime someone would ask you something or tell you how adorable you were. And after every house you said, "Yaya's house now?" and I would tell you just a few more. We did the little circle of houses around us and your little jack-o-lantern bucket was full. When we got home, you proceeded to open as many different kinds of candy and chips as you could before I put it away to your great dismay. "Yaya can't see candy anywhere now." Well, another Halloween over, but we'll have chocolate for weeks to remember it...

Candy!

Lots and lots of candy!

Yaya know dat!

We just got home from a walk on what was a lovely evening followed by an unseasonable 25º day. You rode with a bowl of snacks and sippy cup of warm milk. The moon was bright, almost full. While we were making our way around a street with a park in the middle, a bright light flashed in the sky then shot down, down, down flickering red and white and brighter before disappearing completely. I said, "oooh, a falling star, or a meteor. Did you see that?" "Yaya saw the falling star. Bright. Up in the sky. Daddy see it, too? Way up high. Meteor. Mommy see dat?" Very impressive. Not something you see everyday.

As we carried on, you were sure to look out for me. "Mommy. Car coming. Careful. Okay, Mommy?" And sure to point out all the "fookey" stuff on the lawns. Spooky skeltons, punkins, ghosts. And right when we were passing the school, we saw a huge spider dangling from the lighted sign. As we talked about his web, you exclaimed, "Yaya know that!" Yaya know that!" The same thing you say when you hear a familiar song or hear a story you've heard before. It's nice that you amaze yourself as much as you do us with everything you know.

Moody

It's as if you decided you like to scream and you would do it as much as you could in a little space of time.

It was a weekend of intense ups and downs. While with Dad on Friday, you first displayed your fondness for the van by screaming to not go home whenever you neared the house. And did that again Saturday and Sunday. You were vehement that we not go home; the kicking and screeching made that obvious. But you were quite pleasant when we went out for supper after I got home from work. And still lovely for the 1.5 hours at the grocery store afterwards.

Then the nighttime hit and you were vicious. Demon-like is an appropriate description if only to describe your low, rumbly and loud screaming. And I can't forget the hair-pulling and hitting... It was a long night, unlike any for...weeks, anyway.

Saturday we stuck close to home, venturing out only to the much-hated movie store and for a walk before you made it clear that your fingers were freezing so we headed back home. You were in bed by 7:15 that night. Thankfully.

Brrrr. Way colder out than it looked. Poor little ladybug you were holding wasn't moving too quickly.

Sunday was good - except that you did not want to come home from the art gallery. Fortunately bribes work for a reason. They are awesome and with so much Halloween candy floating around, we will be in good shape with bribes for a long time.

Ta da!

Quite the performer you are, after you jump from the back of the couch down or exhibit other extraordinary skills you exclaim, "Ta da!" Obviously an extention of taking a bow. And another mystery as to where you learned that.

You even look like a performer, especially in this dramatic attire.

Creeson came over on Saturday night with a bunch of other people for supper. The two of you didn't really eat because, come on, there were toys to be played with, stools to run around, stairs to go up and down and popcorn to share. But you had so much fun, leading him around by the hand. The two of you get along pretty well. He frustrates you at times because everything he touches is "mine" but you'll readily give up a toy if it stops him from freaking out.

Here are the two of you during one of your few quieter moments.

Today was a beautiful fall day so after you napped for a mere twenty minutes, we went to the park - after we played with a moth in the front window. It was just gorgeous out there. I think we're both having mixed feelings about the nice weather ending and the cold taking over. This year you'll be a darling snow princess in a white jacket and boots. Until then we'll just enjoy it not taking twenty minutes to prepare ourselves for the outdoors.

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

And I really have to mention how proud I am of you for peeing on the potty. You haven't had an 'accident' in over a week, you pee sometimes without even telling us (we'll just find a pee-filled potty) and the other night at Wal-Mart you said you had to pee and you held it while Dad trekked all the way across the store with you to the bathroom. It's funny though. You take your shirt off before you take off your pants to pee so you always end up naked. Good luck getting those back on again. And for the first time ever, your diaper was dry the other morning. I suppose naptimes and nighttimes are the next frontier. At least you're saving us money on diapers!

Here you are perched on the bathroom counter. It's a rare time when you didn't immediately whip off your diaper before crawling out of bed after a nap or in the morning. You must have been delirious from lack of sleep...

Progress

You know, I never want to say anything when you seem to be leaving your old habits behind in favour of new, more pleasant ones. Because with our track record, talking about things makes them revert back, making me into a liar.

The most amazing thing over the last five or six weeks is your brand new interest in a little thing called FOOD. You like it. Enough to eat it in quantities that could sustain life. Last weekend for breakfast, we had bacon and tomato sandwiches. I gave you tomatoes, bits of crunchy bacon and toast with margarine which you picked at. But you wanted my sandwich, so I gave you the corner and you ate the entire thing. Maybe it was a fluke, must have been the mayo I thought, but on a whim a couple days later I made you your very own toasted tomato (sans skin) sandwich with mayo. Your reaction when I told you what it was? "Ohhhhhh, yummy!" You were thrilled. And after you swallowed each bite, you said, "Yaya have some more?" So, I know you're two and most kids have been eating all their lives, but this? This made Mommy so, so happy. When I called later, Nana said you ate every bite. It almost made me cry.

Tonight at supper it was more of the same. You ate Italian Wedding soup, some alfredo noodles, a Little Chefs pizza, a small slice of my pizza and a whole bunch of little bites of Jungle Buddies chicken nuggets. And then went on to butterscotch chips and some cookie dough.

I wonder if it has to do with being able to communicate with you better. The more you understand, the calmer and more mature you seem to become. I've been telling you that if you want to grow big like mommy you have to eat lots. And you say that all the time when you eat. "Yaya grow big Mommy." I also wonder if it helped that we discovered that your favourite food is white cheddar popcorn - the first thing you've ever eaten more than one day in a row with any consistency. That, my dear, was a breakthrough.

And sleeping. While you don't sleep through the night (never have - and until a couple months ago you didn't sleep more than two hours in a row except that one time about a year ago when you slept for six hours), you didn't come into our room until after three the other night and after two last night. That is big progress from waking ever hour or two. And if you do wake up or are crying, it seems like you've had a bad dream. Or just need a cuddle. And if I tell you to go back to sleep until the sun comes out, you do. Kinda. You wake up at 6 and while it's pretty dark still, you declare that, "it's morningtime! Get up, mommy."

I'm going to have to be a bit more on the ball now. Since I haven't been used to feeding you meals or offering you food on a regular basis, this is a skill I'll have to learn quickly. But I'm more than happy to do it.

Role model

We were in the kitchen tonight making cookies. You had gotten the can opener out of the drawer and after turning the handle a few times, put it on the floor. "Jump on?" you asked, when you really meant jump over. So you jumped over the can opener and proceeded to say, "sank su, sank su," while bending over, your arm bent at your waist and taking a bow with each thank you.

You must have learned that on t.v. because your dad and I sure don't do good enough stunts to warrant taking a bow.

One Thanksgiving, two turkeys

In the yard on what is probably one of the last lovely days of the year.

So much to give thanks for - mostly the constant amusement of living with a moody two-year-old. In no particular order, here some of the bizarre things you did in the last couple days:

• Ate one ice cube before and four ice cubes after supper - then refused your last two bites of ice cream in favour of ice.
• As we were driving away from the cabin, you got sun in your eyes. I told you to just shut them and go to sleep - AND YOU DID! Of course, the payoff was that you only slept for fifty minutes and were miserable the rest of the day.
  
• Had to "hurry, hurry, go pee" during supper. Two minutes after your dad took you pee, you said "pee again, Mommy" but when we got downstairs you just tried to lure me into your tent to play.
  
• Sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star like a metal singer.
• Eat. And ask for more. You even got really excited about the tomato sandwich I made you for breakfast.
  
• Love to talk about when you were a "tiny baby in Mommy's tummy" and how you'll grow "big like Mommy."
  

It was a turkey-filled weekend. We had Nana, Nigel and Jessica over on Saturday and spent Sunday and Monday with Grandma, Grandpa, Ryan, Leslie and Jared. Oh, and Mojo and Gimli. You had been talking up going to the cabin for a week. "McDonald's farm there. Gimli - walking, walking kitty there. Toys there!" I think it lived up to your expectations. We even walked along the lake in the sand where we saw what must have been raccoon footprints and beaver-chewed sticks.

On guard, kitkey.

It's a short week, just three work days for me. When I told you tonight that I was going to stay home with you on Friday you said, "Mommy stay home with Yaya. Daddy go work. Nana go work, too." You've got the world figured out, don't you?


Metal Queen from Really Silly Lily and her mama on Vimeo.