How Mommy Killed Halloween

Background: Christopher took a little pumpkin to daycare to carve for Halloween last month. He got to bring it home. It sat at the front door with our two big (un-carved) pumpkins. There had also been a baby pumpkin, but he took it into his bedroom so he could have it for himself. Every time we'd walk into the house he'd say "Hi Pumpkin!", every time we'd leave the house "Bye Bye Pumpkin" each with a full on wave. Background complete.

So, on to my story, I like to cook. I like to try new things and I hate for things to go to waste. I still had the two big pumpkins, still un-carved, at the front door. So I had just made Butternut Squash Soup using fresh Squash so I thought, I'll do the same with the pumpkin. Sounds yummy, I know!

So Monday night, I get Christopher all situated with dinner. He's at the table and he can see what I'm doing in the kitchen. As I've said before he's been very interested in what I'm doing so I moved him so he can see me.

So I grab one of the pumpkins and clean it up. I start cutting it up, first take the top off, then i cut down the sides like it was an apple. Then I pulled those off, cleaned out the insides then started carving off the skin/peel.

First, it was hard. It was MUCH harder than with the two little Butternut Squashs I had done before.

Second, Christopher was watching me. And watching me. And not eating. And the conversation begins...

"Momma, pumpkin?" with this look of concern on his face

Oblivious mommy - "Yes baby, I'm making soup, like we did last week with the Butternut Squash" (because he's 10 and can understand all of that... which he might have... )

Christopher, now twisted in his booster (with straps) so he is facing me "Mama, pumpkin!"

Still slightly oblivious mommy "yes! pumpkin! Dinner for tomorrow! Yeahhh!!!"

Christopher with obvious concern in his voice "Mama, no! Hurt!"

Momma, now understanding what is becoming painfully obvious. I, Momma, have chopped up the precious pumpkin. It wasn't his pumpkin he carved, that one had long ago molded and gone out with the trash (without him noticing), however, he appears to have developed an attachment to the big pumpkins in the meantime. Oops... perhaps him watching me cook isn't always a good thing.

I tried to distract him with the fact that it was going to be Yummy!!! But it didn't help. He wouldn't eat after that so I got him out of the chair and let him over to see what I was doing...

He helped me drizzle the olive oil, put the salt on and the cinnamon and then we (translation=ME) put it in the over (while he stood back and watched). He seemed much better after that.

I cleaned up the aftermath of the pumpkin murder

and we went on to play for a bit.

I did lean my lesson with the second pumpkin and did it while he was in the other room. I also ended up just cutting it in half, cleaning out the insides. then I laid the both sides on a cooking tray. Drizzled and rubbed in olive oil, then salt and cinnamon, then baked in the oven. After they had cooled, I scooped out the pumpkin. MUCH easier than the cutting.

I also learned my lesson with Christopher, let's just say he'll be somewhere else when we are chopping the Christmas tree into pieces come January!!!!

No longer a baby

So after Christopher had dinner the other night, I put on Sprout for him while he played for a bit before bedtime. I was cleaning up when I looked over and saw this...


Out little boy had climbed up on the sofa so he could watch and just relax.

And then it was teeth brushing, bath and bed...

Birthday Parties!

Sunday we drove up to Redwood City for a friend's daughter's 5th birthday party. Christopher had so much fun. So many of our friends from the Bay Area now have kids it's such a different experience.

Of the kids that were participating in the activities, Christopher was the youngest (this is besides the babies under one). So it was interesting to see him interacting with the other older kids.

Story time:

The birthday girl

He loved playing with the trains (duh!)

And the helicopter

Participating with the other kids...

So then they decided it would be fun to play a game of hot potato with the pink dolphin (they said it's a dolphin). They would play music, and the kids would pass the dolphin around the circle. Whoever was holding it when the music stopped, was out. But they HAD to pass it...

Christopher really liked the dolphin

But he did as he was asked and sat in the circle with Aiden right next to him

And waited patiently... (look at his fingers)

And they started

So obviously, the two youngest didn't quite get it. Aiden wanted to hold on to it, so Asha tried to go around him by tossing it to Christopher. However, how Christopher thought you had to "throw" it to the next person, which he kept doing right into their head. Lovely.... But you can tell my his smile, he loved it.

And then back to the trains

They had a bell that they'd let the birthday girl ring to bring the kids together. Christopher would go running from where ever he was. Then... he found the bell...

Then he found this little toy to play on...

He loved it

Then they blew up a jumpy house for the kids to play in. Christopher got in...

But he was too small to get up on the slide by himself...

So he cheered on the other kids instead :)

He was so good, just as happy cheering them on, wasn't upset at all that he didn't get to go down it.

He'd stand there and yell "go go" as they went down.

We headed home at nap time which was a perfect ending to such a fun day.

Dinner

Saturday night, Christopher had mac and cheese shells for dinner. I hung out with him and we played around while he ate. We had some fun and I got some fun shots.



Mmmmmm, pasta...


Then I played with the camera and shots of him through the glass table.


Then my son decided that it was MUCH easier to eat shells with your finger than with the spoon he had been using...


And gone...


Any anything can be a choo choo at anytime!

Saturdays

Saturday was a nice relaxing day. After the morning activities, Christopher played with some of his toys. And he was a little more camera shy than usual this time around.

He's telling me no to the camera.

I obviously didn't listen to him

He got over it fairly quickly

(And yes, that's a potty next to him. We have a few and they end up everywhere, empty and clean of course!)

And proceeded to play with more toys. He especially is loving this puzzle pull toy right now.

Later that day, we ended up going over to our neighbors for a quick visit. He had been bbqing all day. We didn't eat over there, but we grabbed some watermelon for Christopher on the way out which he loved!

(yes, that's another potty in the background!)

He devoured that thing!

And then he colored for a while.

Only because he told me to!

Christopher found my camera sitting on the side table...

"Mama, Camera! Picture"

"Do you want me to take your picture?"

"Yes Mama"

"Okay"

"Here, right here"

"That's where you want me to take your picture?"

"Yes Mama, here"

"Okay"

"ok done"

"No more pictures baby?"

"All done"

"Ok, bye"

"Bye bye"

Gymnastics

So last Saturday morning started out well enough.

Christopher played while Spartan guarded:

Christopher saw the camera and asked me to take a photo of him...

Yeah, bad photo, but I thought it was so cute he was so right up in the camera...

Smiles...

More smiles...

He loves the camera!

He definitely has mommy's blue eyes

I know this photo is of only a portion of my child, but I like it, you can still see the happiness in his face...

And that's what matters right?

And then Christopher decided it was time for some gymnastics...

Oye child...

And he's down (no he wasn't hurt)

See?

I love his smile... all those tiny little teeth and the big grin.

Singing for his supper (Part 2)

So I realized later that some of the best videos I had from that day didn't load. So I had to do some work since they were too large, but I think I have them working now.

Here is a better video of him singing (and me)

and this one

Another one of him over the monitor

And here is me going into his room when he woke up

Singing for his supper

One thing that has been fairly new with Christopher is his singing. He's always "kinda" sung but lately, as his vocabulary is getting better and better his singing is getting better , clearer and clearer :) I love it. This past weekend Christopher and I had some time together and we (he) did a little singing.

Also, he's been VERY into what I'm doing when I'm cooking in the kitchen. The other day, I was cutting up a zucchini for his dinner and he ran out to the playroom, grabbed a plastic green onion (? weird) and a play knife and came back into the kitchen, sat at my feet and pretended to cut it like me. No I just need to teach him to pour mommy a nice glass of Chardonnay. (I kid!)

So while I was chopping up butternut squash to roast for a soup for that night, Christopher wanted to watch. So I pulled a chair up so that he could.

Yeah, bad pictures, but you get the idea. And yes, the knife is out of his reach. He loved this :)

Then he starting singing for his dinner... with a little coaching from mommy :)

And then he took a nap and this is how I found out he'd woken up

So I went in a got my little Sinatra

I love this kid!

Warrior Dash 2010

So David and Chris (my cousin) did the Warrior Dash 2010 in Hollister this past weekend. Crazy! It's a 3.5 mile run including obstacles that they had to go under, over and through including jumping over fire (twice) and going through a barbwire covered mud pit. Yeah, sounds like fun. It was suppose to rain, but only sprinkled for a few minutes which was nice. Kerri and Anthony were there as well, so we hung out for a quite a bit while we waited for the guys.

Before the race

Both guys did a "fear the beard" (Giants) costume for the race.

At the start getting ready...

And they are off!

Christopher was very excited to see Daddy run.

(Yes, I was holding him while taking all of the pictures)

The race starting:

There goes Chris into the mud pit!

Here comes David, jumping over the fire!

There goes David into the mud, you can see his orange shirt!

The boys after the race... lovely!

So while they waited in the line to be hosed off, then changed, Kerri, Anthony, Christopher and I hung out, ate and danced. Well the boys danced :)

Then the guys showed up to eat a turkey leg (mmmmm!)

Then we hung out for a bit watching other racers...

Christopher was starting to doze here... he was asleep before we got out of the parking lot :)

We all had a good time.

I think we may need a babysitter next year since momma might be joining in the race... we'll see!