Fall Starts and Halloween

After an awesome summer, we have continued into a lovely fall.  The weather has continued to be really nice for the Northwest.

This year the Seattle Children's Theater hasn't had many offerings that would suit Zane, but in early October we went to see Pippi!  I loved  Pippi stories as a girl.  I was way more excited to go than Zane was, but he loves a live performance so it was a lot of fun.  The SCT really does an awesome job with everything.

The next day we headed out to Remlinger Farm for some harvesty fun.  We met up with Zane's friend Evelyn and her family for most of it, and also Anneke and her family a bit at the end.  The day turned out to be sunny and downright hot, so I bought Zane a t-shirt in the gift store to make the temperature bearable.  Last year we were alone and the weather was drizzly, so this year was extra fun!  Zane rode a huge ear of corn, a small train, and ran around in the hay maze with Evelyn.  Together we rode a mini-roller coaster, spun in a pumpkin, drove an antique car, and took a ride on the little steam train that circles the farm.  We met farm animals, Zane rode a pony named Peaches, ate ice cream with the gang, and picked a pumpkin after crawling over all of them ten times.  All-in-all a fabulous time.

With pumpkins in hand it was time to get ready for Halloween!  It was fun to get out the first set of decorations for the end of the year, and Zane was way more into it than last year.  We strung pumpkin lights and spider garland along the entryway to our house.  A trip to the store and we were back with spider webs and many spiders, including a battery operated one with flashing red eyes that jumped down at you on a string. The cherry tree in our front yard became a Spiders' Den of Doom.  One weekend when I was at work Zane and Michael went to a neighborhood fall festival and made a scarecrow from old clothes and hay.  We put that up by the front of the house.

Fall brought us some really lovely vegetables this year.  Zane got on a squash kick and we roasted many butternut and acorn squashes and ate them up, yum!  Pickled beets have been a big hit, too.  With kale chips thrown into the mix, I feel pretty good about our nutrition these days!

A week or so before Halloween we finally carved our pumpkin with a standard big toothy mouth, and Zane had the idea to add two little white ones inside that looked like they were being eaten.  On Halloween night I lucked out and was able to come home early to help get Zane and the house ready.  We added a horror mask to the scarecrow, turned on the spiders, and filled a big bowl with candy.

Earlier in the month Zane had decided to be a vampire.  Then we saw some pretty cool pirate accessories, so we agreed a Vampirate would be just the thing to be on Halloween.  He wore his costume to school sans teeth and weapons, but on Halloween evening we suited the whole deal up!  And for extra fun, I spiked his hair and sprayed it red.  For some reason he only wanted the top half done, and it looked pretty cool that way.  The teeth only stayed in for the picture, and by the time we were done trick or treating, the sword and hook were off, too.

Two years ago Zane went just on our neighborhood block and just about passed out from exhaustion when we got home.  Last year the one block was just right.  This year I told him he could do two blocks.  I did the first block with him and Michael did the second.  Zane had a blast going door to door and seeing all of his neighbors and friends in costume.  He was careful to assure people that his hook was fake and he really had a hand inside.  He got a great haul and still has candy 6 weeks later, mostly because his mom won't let him eat more than a piece a day.  What a Halloween scrooge I am!

 We left the decorations up for about a week, but then it was back to regular fall business.  Like raking leaves!  This year Zane was an actual help, and he really got into jumping in the leaf pile.  I thought we didn't have space for a good jumping pile, but Zane figured out a good spot and dove in!

In non-seasonal news, Zane is behaving like a regular four year old.  He is aggressive and attacks people that he loves.  He is regular budding lawyer when it comes to challenging rules.  He can't sit still at the table.  He has a mysterious chip out of his front tooth that we all have no idea how it got there.  He has ceased to nap.  That's a big one for me.  I've finally come to terms with it and embraced it.  Days are easier to plan and night-time sleeping is longer.

Zane of course also has many delightful four year old qualities.  He has gotten into telling jokes, only he really doesn't know how to do it.  He helps me out with his jokes by saying, "Mama, when I say something crazy, you laugh."  Zane has started to be able to play by himself for awhile, especially with his Legos. He's really into robots, too, which we make out of Legos.  I try to make sure he has "girly" things to choose, too, but he just used his jewelry as chains to subdue the bad T-rexes  Zane is an articulate, polite, and almost always happy boy.

We sure are lucky!