Halloween: Why Me Likey and Why Me Don't

I can say, quite honestly, that I'm not a big Halloween person. The prevalence of demons, goblins, and witches during this season are a constant reminder of the demonic undertones of the "holiday" that pumpkin patches, delicious candy, and adorable kids in adorable costumes attempt to overshadow.

That being said, there are some parts of Halloween that I enjoy.

Like candy.

Livers is doing her first trick-or-treat this year, and you better believe that Mama is going to tear into some Reese cups when she's asleep. (Don't worry, she'll get some, too. A 22-month-old can't eat a Snickers safely yet anyway.)

It's also fun to dress up. I myself will not be participating, but I will enjoy putting Livers in her cutie little costume. I had great plans of being frugal and creative by making her costume. She was going to be....a box of Mac-N-Cheese. I had everything planned and had gotten her arm and leg holes cut out last night. She even enjoyed walking around in her cute blue box. However, the idea went to pot when I put the last coat of spray paint on the box before detail painting and it bubbled really bad. Since sending my child out in a crappily constructed costume would look very badly upon her (and me), I sucked it up and found the CUTEST costume on discount today. Pictures will be forthcoming.

Also fun at Halloween: pumpkin carving.

I've had grand aspirations the past few years to carve a pumpkin for Halloween. The first year J and I were married, I'm sure I had an excuse (like being tired from work), but I don't remember it. The second Halloween in our marriage I was seven months pregnant, so I was A) tired, and B) had dinner plans and didn't get the chance to do it. The third year I waited until the day before Halloween to find a pumpkin and was out of luck.

This year I finally got it done.

I'm not one to just slap a simple face on a pumpkin and call it a night. I prefer something fancy, because it gives me a chance to let my creative hair down. The first pumpkin I ever carved was when I was in college. I was working a residence hall desk on Halloween, and the Resident Director didn't mind me carving the pumpkin that was there for decoration. Since I had to sit work for three hours straight, I decided to up the ante on myself and make a scared cat. I had the worst knife in the world, but it actually turned out recognizable. This year I was going to find a pretty pumpkin face on Google to emulate. That is until I found the world's cutest pumpkin design:


I just had to try it, and after about an hour's work with actual decent knives, this is what I created:


Not half bad, considering the amount of experience I have in pumpkin carving. I'd love to learn to carve pumpkins where you use a relief effect, but that might be something for next year.

Oh, also fun with pumpkin carving: roasting pumpkin seeds. I forgot how yummy they can be!

**********************

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Week of Absence Update

It's been awhile (almost a week...yikes!) since I last posted, so I figured it was time to do something about it. I'm a fairly introverted person except with friends and family, so I got a little overwhelmed by the out-of-the ordinary attention my blog received last week, thanks to the lovely gals over at SITS, and I felt the need to step back and breathe a bit. I'm slowly getting around to visiting everyone who was kind enough to stop by and say hello, but between taking care of my little one, spending time with J, friends, and family, and carving out a little "me" time in there when I can, it's going to take me until Christmas.

I'll make my updating short and sweet, much like the past week. Bring on the bullets!

• I started getting ideas for Christmas shopping. I know that it is a bit early for this, but I want to get it over with early AND not charge a single thing, so I'm going to try and space it out as much as possible. That way I won't be stressed about having to pay bills and will be able to sit back and enjoy the holiday with friends and family and hopefully devote more time than I have in years past to really meditating on what Christmas means.
• Watched the same four YouTube videos approximate 25,000 times. Not by choice, but by 21-month-old force. Livers is OBSESSED with a few videos, and she knows how to work an iPhone enough to turn it on, go to the home screen, find the correct icon for watching videos, select the video, and then stop it to go back and pick a new one. At first it was adorable to see this tiny-fingered little girl manipulate a complicated big-girl device, and I was proud of her intellectual and technological prowress. Now it's just getting annoying. (Really, how many times can one person watch "C is for Cookie" or that guy singing "Numa Numa"?) Is it sad that I'm going to have to cut back a 21-MONTH-OLD'S iPHONE AND YOUTUBE TIME? I think so...
• Cooked up some new and yummy recipes. I hadn't found a Crock Pot recipe I liked yet...until we made a beef stew one Saturday that made me warm and fuzzy all over. We also did some yummy crescent roll recipes (thanks Growing Up Mo' and Jenny!). And I made butternut squash bread. It's just like pumpkin bread, only more time consuming because you have to roast your own squash rather than pick up a can.
• Watched The Strangers. I do NOT like horror movies. AT ALL. I'm pretty sensitive to violence, and I only agreed to watch it because I thought it was just suspenseful. Note to self, dumb@ass: look up info about the movie before you watch it, because there was gore I was NOT suspecting, and I haven't been able to shake it since I watched it last night. Seriously. Woke up to pee at 5 AM and it took all of my willpower to think of kittens and moonbeams to go back to sleep.
• FINALLY got a pumpkin for the family. Actually, I got two: one for me to carve later this week and one for Livers. She is in LOVE with her pumpkin. She's liked them ever since she first saw one, and if she could carry it with her all over the house she would. She was pushing it in her doll stroller at one point. It's currently missing its stem, as she dropped it on the floor, but luckily for both it is the only casualty so far. I'm thinking of helping her carve it, but I don't know if that would be a good thing or traumatizing to her.
  

Here's the two of us with her beloved pumpkin. I'm not so much a fan of myself in pictures, but this one actually turned out OK (minus the "I look 15 thing").


This weekend was a huge "Daddy" weekend for Livers, particularly Sunday. She is not a child to ever really sit still, and this weekend she was all about some cuddle time with her Daddy. It just warmed my heart to see it :) Below is a picture from after church yesterday. As we were walking out of Mass an elderly lady stopped us and wanted to give Livers the hat she had made. She had extras from a craft fair she was in (I assume), and she wanted to give one to her. I knew she'd love it, because it was a pumpkin hat! She isn't gloomy in the picture, just tired.


Here she is earlier in the day cuddled up to Daddy watching TV and getting back rubs. What a great life!


Here she is later in the day snuggled up again with her Daddy and his (her) beloved iPhone.

Other than the aforementioned things, not a whole lot of note has been going on lately. It's a fairly quiet week for us. I do need to get crackin' on her Halloween costume. Soon. I'm not a huge Halloween person, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money, which means I'm going to make an impromptu one if I can hurry up. If it turns out OK, pictures will be forthcoming.

I hope everyone has a had a great week and has a great one ahead!

WordFUL Wednesday - It's Finally Happened...

*****************************************

I've always been one of those "it'll never happen to me" Moms. You know:

Toy Store Meltdown? "It'll never happen to me."

A lunch of peanut butter and jelly. Everyday. "It'll never happen to me."

Sweet baby cries her brains out when you put her to bed. And you cave and go back in to rock her to sleep. "It'll never happen to me."

Well, I was fo' sure not gonna have a baby that takes off her diaper and tries to run around the house naked. At MY house, we have certain levels of decorum that must be maintained. And bare-assedness is certainly NOT one of them. (Quick jaunts from shower to bedroom for clothes aside.)

Well sports fans, it happened to me.

While sitting at my computer this evening, catching up on the comment love from all the wonderful SITStas that stopped by today (Holla!), I heard Livers conversating with herself. Usually I just pass it off as the cute little ramblings of a 21-month-old's mind, but this was different.

She was talking about Elmo. This usually isn't a problem, because my baby LOVES her some Elmo (and Cookie Monster and Big Bird and Ernie and the whole cast of Sesame Street...she can identify them all by name). But she wasn't watching Sesame Street. Heck, I think Lawrence Welk or some old people TV was on. (I hadn't changed the channel from SS this morning.)

Then it hit me. She wears Pampers Cruisers, which to her delight have Sesame Street characters on them.

I get up from my comfy perch in front of my computer, and to my horror (but giggles, too) is Livers, next to the baby gate, butt @ss naked talking to the Elmo on her diaper.

I yell for J to come in here and look, to which he says, "I TOLD you she could take off her outfit!"

She had tried to take off her diaper earlier in the day while we were changing her clothes, but I thought I'd nipped it then. Jeremy and I put her diaper and clothes back on, sternly tell her that we don't take off our diapers or undiewears in the house, and send her on her merry way.

I sit back at my computer to continue checking out blogs and reading comments, and I settle back down for a few minutes. Then my Mommy-dar picked up on an unsettling quiet from the den. Something was definitely up. I get up from my perch AGAIN, and this is what I found:


I immediately yelled for J AGAIN to come in, and got my camera out before she got down. Priorities, right? She looked at me and smiled her goofy grin and started saying "cream", because her hiney was itching and she needed relief.


However, when Jeremy came in to fetch Little Miss Booty Baby, we found that her table dancing endeavors were not quite so innocent. Livers had had one of the world's largest pee fests ALL.OVER.THE.TABLE. And the floor. And her toy box. And half of the toys that it contained.

After taking the obligatory photos because, I mean, who WOULDN'T, I picked her up and threw her in the bath tub for a quick disinfection while Jeremy dealt with the mess.


After putting her in a onesie I KNEW she couldn't take off I went to disinfecting her pee-soaked toys in a hot Clorox bath. Some moms would just wipe that crap off and give it right back to baby, but I draw the line at that.

We had a fairly uneventful, pizza-filled evening after that. Until she pooped and decided her butt itched AGAIN and got poop on her hands, which she proceeded to wipe on a Little People toy and then stick her fingers in her mouth.

Sweetie, if you want a chocolate lollipop, I'll go buy you some brown cows. You don't need to sample the leftovers. For all that is good and holy, please keep your hands out of your trousers!

So for those moms in the "My kid takes off their diapers, runs around the house naked, AND plays with their poop like a common jungle monkey" club, scoot over on the bench. You've got a new member.

Welcome, SITStas!!!

Good morning (or afternoon, or evening) to everyone stopping by! I'm sorry I couldn't come up with a jazzier welcome than this, but it is pushing 11:30PM, which means that my quarter cup of creative juices is about tapped. I hope that everyone enjoys their visit to my bright and sunny little corner of the bloggiverse!

We have no groceries in our house right now, unless you count a couple of packs of Ramen, a half a bag of Oreos (carefully hidden from the 21-month-old), and some leftover beers from this week's tailgate (not for me, thankyouverymuch). Since none of these things will healthily (and lawfully) sustain a toddler, let alone a family of three, I have to take care of some major grocery shopping today. That and likely vacuum up another three pounds of dog hair. Between this and keeping Livers out of the DVDs, off of the entertainment center, and from ripping stuffing out of the pillows, I might be a wee bit slow visiting your blogs today, but I promise I'll make soon!

I hope you leave happy, entertained, and itching to come back for more! I look forward to visiting and making some new friends!

~Lindsay.

J was not available for this photo op. He was looking for chili.

Dear Self

Dear Self,

You need to be reminded of something very important. You are 27, not 19. That means that if you decide to treat going to a football game as a big huge (frat) party you will not be able to or have the ability to recover like you used to.

You will not be considered cute if you are yelling (stupid made up) cheers at the top of your lungs whilst wearing an excessive amount of orange. (Unless, of course, you are the naive and impressionable 11-year-old sitting behind you repeating them with a smile at every chance.)

You do not indulge in adult beverages with any frequency anymore, and as a result are not able to consume them like you used to when you do.

As a result of these things:

You will not be able to lounge around all day in your jammies chugging Pepto and popping Advil.

You will (more than likely) not be able to sleep in until noon.

You will, however:

Still need to fix your child meals,

Play with your child,

Remove yourself from the couch, at some point, even if it's just to eat.

Keep these important lessons in mind the next time you think it is a spectacular idea to start tailgating at 9:30 in the morning when you are used to finishing breakfast with your daughter and watching another episode of Sesame Street.

Remember them again when you think it is a wonderful idea to leave at halftime because your team sucks today and go to your husband's local haunt with his buddies and have another round of Car Bombs.

And don't forget it when you are forced to go to bed at 9:30, a mere 15 minutes after your own child went to bed, because you stomach can't handle sitting in bed watching reruns of LOST.

Remember these things, or we're REALLY going to make you pay next time.

Sincerely but without much love,
Your head, stomach, and ever-aching 27-year-old body.

P.S. Thank your lucky stars that your child was RIDICULOUSLY cooperative with your childish stupidity by doing the following:

• Allowing you to lounge on the sofa watching Flip That House and Moving Up so your stomach could recover
• Accepting two fewer bedtime stories and three fewer songs than normal because rocking her before bed was making you sick
• Not yelling and whining a whole lot
• Sleeping in until 10 AM until her father actually had to wake her up

You are an angel of a child with a sweet perception of what your stupid Mama needs. It won't be happening again. We'll make sure of it.

Photostory Friday - Garden Girl

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

***************************************************

Yesterday was a beautiful, albeit hot (85 degree) fall day. Livers and I had just eaten our very healthy lunch of Spaghetti O's (her), pot pie (me), snuck Oreos (me, hiding in the pantry so she wouldn't see them and want them herself), and fruit (apples and nectarines; at least I redeemed myself). I wanted to do something different for her to wear her outchange up the monotony of the day, so I took her to our local botanical gardens.

I think she's going to be a nature girl just like I was when I was a kid. (I still am, but I get really squeamish about bugs, bees, spiders, and other nature nasties.) She loved to pick up and observe leaves and rocks.

The highlight of our day was a pair of migrating hawks. We were "deep" in the woods and I could hear one overhead calling loudly. We were looking at a squirrel at the time, who happened to be giving us a piece of his mind, so I told him he'd better get a move on, because he was looking like lunch for the hawk. Livers and I kept looking up trying to find the hawk, and she kept trying to take my glasses so she could see him better without the sun in her eyes. When I finally spotted him flying high overhead I heard another one calling in the distance. It was really neat to listen to these huge birds having their own little afternoon coffee talk high above the tree tops. It obviously made an impression on her, too, because she kept saying, "hawk," all day, and whenever you asked her what she saw or did at the gardens that day she would always say, "hawk."

I hope to start taking her more often, because she's fairly cooperative without being in a stroller (a first for her), loves the outdoors, and the leaves will really start to turn soon, meaning great pictures for me.

She was very proud of the large leaf I had torn off of a tree to give her.

She wanted to throw the stick at the goose, but I managed to change her mind.

Handling some of the rocks she found.

We were inside of this really interesting "mud hut" that was made, likely by the university's architecture department, for the park. There's an opening at the top designed to let smoke out (if a fire was actually inside of the hut), and Livers was looking at the tree canopy through it.


Searching for a leaf she dropped. I promise I was sitting right next her. She wouldn't have fallen. (So don't worry, sweetie.)

This has to be one of my new favorite pictures of Livers. I don't remember what she was looking at (probably trying to find the hawk again), but something had her attention.

WordFUL Wednesday

HELP!

Missing are Mr. "Tatey" Head's right ear, nose, and moustache.

Victim: Mr. "Tatey" Head

They were last seen somewhere around the afternoon of October 4th. They are definitely not anywhere around, inside, or behind the sofa (the usual suspect) or toy-related receptacles.

They were last seen in the possession of the following anatomically challenged Rasta-baby.

Suspect in Question: Rasta-baby, AKA "Livers"

Please direct any information concerning there whereabouts or where replacements can be found to this blog. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Thank you for your cooperation and have a great WordFUL Wednesday.

****************************