Our Month with Pickle

We had a lot of fun with Pickle this month.  Becker enjoyed finding him every day and telling him "good morning" and "good night."  One afternoon in the car Becker said, "Pickle go back with Santa, Becker open presents." and I knew he understood the concept as explained in the book.  We told Becker that Santa said he could give Pickle and good-bye hug and kiss and this was the one time it was alright to touch him.  On Christmas Eve we said our good-byes to Pickle before Becker went to bed.  In the week after Christmas Becker has mentioned that Pickle is at the North Pole with Santa and will be back next year.  Here is a collage of our month with Pickle. 

Pickle on the Shelf

This is our first year with the Elf.  If you are not familiar with this tradition, check it out here.  I heard about the tradition a few years before Becker was on our radar and instantly wanted to add it to our holiday fun.  Our elf came to us via my sister and just thinking about starting the tradition got me so excited I couldn't sleep the week after Thanksgiving. Creative hiding places swirled in my head after scouring Pinterest and Instagram for ideas.  This year will be our easiest year so I can't throw out all of the punches quite yet.  I do realize that I have just set myself up for many, many years of coming up with creative hiding places and fresh ideas, but it's also pretty fun as parents and we are enjoying the game as well.  The good thing about this year being our first is that Becker won't mind if the elf forgets to find a new hiding place and we don't have to explain the nuances too much.  Keeping him out of reach is pretty easy with a two-and-a-half foot kiddo, and keeping him in plain sight for us is still a bit of a hunting game for Becker.

Before Thanksgiving we told Becker an elf would be coming to visit us when we got our Christmas tree.  We read the book and Becker picked the name "Pickle" for his elf.  We have no idea where he got the name, but it stuck and each time we read the book leading up to the arrival of the elf, Becker reaffirmed his name choice.

Can you find Pickle?

Mark decided Pickle would arrive somewhere in or on the tree.  I bought Becker some new holiday jammies for Pickle to bring him as the first Christmas present.  On December 1st we set out to choose our Christmas tree so Pickle could come that night.  We got Becker all excited again and read the book and talked about how the elf would becoming that night.  He was into it!  The morning was another story though.

Sometimes Becker wakes up like me and pops out of bed ready to take on the day, and sometimes he lags and takes a while to really wake up, more like Daddy.  He certainly has both of our traits!  On the slow days he can't decide if he wants to get up or not and rolls around in his crib whining about how he wants to stay in the crib.  It's just harder for him to get going on those days and he doesn't want me to leave once I've entered the room.  Sometimes reading a few books gets him ready to greet the day, other times it's the prospect of his banana waiting downstairs.  This one day when I was hoping he would fly out of bed and run downstairs was one of those slow days.  He did not want to come out, he did not care that the elf had come.  He did not want to look for him.  He did not want Bodi in his room.  So I waited.  It seemed like a long time, but finally he was ready to greet the day and find the elf.  He walked down the stairs peering below at the lit up tree.  "Christmas lights!" he exclaimed.  I loved watching him discover the decorations we had put up while he slept.  Once he got downstairs he forgot about the elf and was way more interested in the sheep from the nativity scene.  "Baa baa black sheep" he called out pointing to them.  I gave him all four sheep and he sat in front of the tree playing with them.

Soon enough he was ready to look for the elf in the tree.  This first time required lots of hints, but once I held him up high, he found Pickle at the top.


His big, proud smile as he pointed to the top was priceless.  Pickle was holding a note and had brought Christmas books, an ornament and a present for Becker.  The jammies were a real hit because they had penguins on them.  He wanted to put them on right away.

On the morning of day 2 I told Becker that Pickle was hiding in a new spot.  He was catching on to this game and ready to go look for him.  I asked him where he thought Pickle might be today and he said "tree."  When he came downstairs and started looking.  He does a very exaggerated, full body "look" when he is searching for Pickle.  It's priceless and did not take long for him to find him on top of the tv, smiling down at us.  Becker said he was on top of the "picture."  I love that he has no idea what a tv is.

On day 3 Pickle had made muffins for playgroup and Becker saw them on the table as he walked down the stairs.  He said, "Cupcakes! Thank you Pickle!"  I'd say he's having fun with it.

I'll post a collage of all of Pickle's hiding places after Christmas. 

Halloween Fun

The week of Halloween was upon us faster than I could imagine and we were busy doing a festive activity each night in celebration.

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.

Practicing Trick-or-Treat at home

And my favorite photo of him with his pumpkin.

Little Buddy and his Pumpkin before Trick-or-Treating