First up was pumpkin carving. Last year we didn't carve a pumpkin as life with a new baby left little time for such things and he was too young to care either way. Our pumpkin sat on our porch through Thanksgiving in it's un-carved glory. This year Becker wanted to bring home a pumpkin as soon as Trader Joe's busted out their display in September. Becker chose a nice big "fairytale pumpkin" for the front porch early in the month along with a gourd for the table. On a subsequent TJ's trip (we are there at least 3 times a week it seems), he chose his carving pumpkin. When the night came to carve the pumpkin I remembered my childhood days of carving in our underwear with a newspaper covered table because it was always such a mess. I covered the table, stripped Becks down to his diaper and we set to work. For being the boy who loves mud and dirt of all kinds, he surprised me by not wanting to touch the "goop" on the inside! This kid will bend over and take a mouthful of gravel if the opportunity strikes, but orange stringy stuff inside a pumpkin? No way. He was very interested in watching the whole process, but touching it was just not going to happen. He did briefly put a spoon inside the hole, but then quickly changed his mind and said "Mama help." He sat content on my lap watching as I picked out all of the pumpkin seeds from the goop for us to bake. Maybe next year he will surprise me and paint himself orange in the stringy goo?
The following night was pumpkin shaped cookie baking. Becker helped me make the dough the day before and we let it chill in the refrigerator. Daddy is our expert roller for cookies and pizza dough so we definitely needed him to be home for this project. Becker helped roll the dough and snagged a bite for himself with a little grin. His normal "cookie" would be a graham cracker so I am sure the realness of this cookie dough was a bit of a shock. He was focused on the tasks and thrilled with the end result. He even got to share a finished cookie with Mommy & Daddy. He always surprises me with how willing he is to share, never afraid that there isn't enough or won't be more, even when in this case, there won't.
And the finale of the week was Halloween. Becker has been making animal sounds since well before he could talk and his pig snort is our favorite. When his costume arrived in the mail we tried it on and he wasn't too happy with the head piece, but loved the idea of "being a pig." I did not expect him to wear the hood and was thinking of using some bronzer on his face to make it look dirty like a little piggy. By the time Halloween sprung upon us, Becker was more than excited to wear the whole costume, headpiece and all. He loved his tail and his little hooves. I bought him a small metal pail to round out the outfit and Daddy and I dressed as farmers. We talked about wearing the costume throughout the day and Becker would ask, "pig costume on?" at various points. We talked about how we would go knock on doors and show neighbors his costume and that they would give him food you don't eat. He said "trick-or-treat food!" all day. When Daddy came home we got everyone dressed in costumes and set out down the street. Some very thoughtful people handed out mini bags of pretzels meaning Becker could have one of the "treats" when he got home. He was a trooper and walked all the way up the street checking out the other kids and decorations. A couple of people commented on his tiny pail because it filled up pretty quick. I laughed as they didn't realize that was completely intentional and I told them they didn't actually have to give him anything, we were just doing it for fun. We headed home by 6pm and Becker was in bed just a tad past his normal bedtime. He really enjoyed dressing up getting all of the attention in his costume.
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| Practicing Trick-or-Treat at home And my favorite photo of him with his pumpkin. |
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| Little Buddy and his Pumpkin before Trick-or-Treating |
