Happy Halloween everybody! This evening, John and I are taking Evelyn to her very first Halloween party with some moms and babies from my mom's group. I wasn't sure about going because of a big work deadline I have today, but it's looking like I'll be able to make it. Unfortunately, this means that we are pulling together a very last minute costume for Evelyn and I can't even hope that I will have a costume for myself in time for the party. John, naturally, doesn't care about having a costume for himself.
As I was trying to get the old creative juices flowing, I racked my brain for inspired costumes past and remembered this classic number from 2005. Our dear Mike (now so far away pursuing an MFA in Germany... boo hoo...) hosted a Halloweeen party in his apartment above the mortuary. And I mean really, how could you NOT have a Halloween party if you live above a mortuary? Anyway, I went as a Swedish meatball (get it?) -- meatball entirely constructed by Mike and me out of chicken wire, lots of masking tape, and a sloppy paint job -- and Mike went as Kim Jong Il, the North Korean dictator with suprisingly good rhythm. Good times.
This past Sunday, three family trios (me/John/Evelyn, Paula/Bert/Rhea, and Naomi/Ken/Milo) descended upon the Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay for their amazing "Halloween on the farm" pumpkin patch. We hopped in the Pralinsky/Sawicki minivan and met Ken, Naomi, and Milo on the way.
Lemos Farm was awesome. I had no idea such places existed! They had ponies, goats, ducks, more ponies, a "spooky" train ride, and so much more.
Evelyn was all decked out in her Halloween gear (thanks to Grammy!). She liked looking at the ponies from a distance, thought the goats got too close for comfort, enjoyed watching the kids run around, and generally tested my tolerance for all things not-completely-sanitary by grabbing fistfuls of hay, wood chips, rocks, you name it. It took an ever vigilant eye to keep her from grabbing the goat droppings and offering it to strangers in her usual way.
When she got her fill of the "good bacteria" all around, Evelyn tried to sit on a choice selection of pumpkins. Sitting on things is one of her favorite activities of the past month, and she has a couple of different methods. Sometimes she'll approach the object (pumpkin, floor pillow, fireplace hearth, for example), turn around before she gets there, and then slowly lower herself in the hopes that she lands in the right spot. I think 75% of the time she does. Or, she'll climb over the object so that her butt is hovering over her target and she only needs to swing her leg around to complete the action. Once she's in place, she often likes to bounce, which works well with pillows but not so well with fireplace hearths and pumpkins (ouch!).
I mentioned the goats... Evelyn and Rhea definitely took to them in different ways. I watched as Paula and Rhea attracted the goats with their feed, Rhea squealing with delight. I turned at that moment to see John and Evelyn suddenly surrounded by goats themselves... Evelyn might say swarmed, or inundated, and she had a look on her face that said "Beat it, goats. Seriously."
After an eventful day, including a train ride (see the somewhat uneventful video at the end of this entry that only true Evelyn fans will appreciate) and lots of playing and going down slides, we called it a day. It felt like we'd been there all day, but we were back in the car by noon and heading out as the traffic heading in was backed up and slow going. The girls fell asleep within minutes (and so did I!). All in all a perfect way to celebrate Autumn and Halloween.
Here's a video of Evelyn getting acquainted with the pumpkins:
It's Tuesday! That means I get to leave work early to take Evelyn to her Cuttlefish swim class! Every Tuesday until the end of the year, I will work at home (as usual), stop my work day at 2pm to hang out with Evelyn, take her to swim class at 3:45pm, and play with her until bedtime. I am so happy to be able to do this, even if it means I have to work a couple of evenings a week to make up for it.
Last Tuesday was her first class, and of course the camera I took was on its last legs, so I managed to take only a couple of pre-swim shots before it died.
Not only do I get to spend more precious time with my girl, I get to introduce her to the world of swimming. I swam regularly until I was about 8 months pregnant, but now it's time for Evelyn to experience it outside of my uterus.
I learned to swim relatively late in life, and though I've come to love swimming over these last few years (and miss it quite a lot now that I can't go as easily), I am still not completely at ease in the water. Lap swimming in a pool (i.e. controlled) setting is great, and ocean swimming and snorkeling is exhilarating after I get over my initial fears.
So my wish for Evelyn is for her to be as comfortable in water as she is out, and to never have to hesitate before jumping into a lake or diving underneath some waves. She took her first class cautiously, and I'm looking forward to seeing her comfort level rise as we progress with these classes.
The teething monster has returned. Actually, considering that she is working on her molars this time, it's not as bad as I expected. Her first molar (lower left) appeared before we even realized she was teething. It's so weird to see such a big tooth in her mouth. When she's smiling really big (or crying), it looks like she's got a wad of chewing gum in there.
All of her other teeth so far have come in symmetrical pairs, and this time is no exception. These past few days we've been able to see molar #2 (lower right) rearing its big, irregularly shaped ugly head. This morning, she woke up exceptionally early - a sure sign of teething troubles. Instead of the usual 6:45/7am wakeup time (blessedly later than her previous 6am wakeup), she was awake and crying at 5:45am. Desperate to get some more sleep, we brought her to bed with us and just cuddled, albiet awake, for another 45 minutes (amazingly).
While waiting for her usual breakfast of oatmeal with raisins, Evelyn wanted only to be in my arms, forgoing the usual attempt to wreak havoc in the living room first. I sat on the kitchen stool by the ipod with Evelyn wrapped around me on my lap, head against my chest, thumb in its usual position in her mouth. We were listening to music while John prepared the oatmeal, when he noticed that her eyes were closed -- she'd fallen back asleep. She did this exact thing once before; not knowing that she'd fallen asleep, I took her shifting around to mean that she wanted to get down, and without looking at her, I put her on the cold kitchen floor where she remained lying, totally asleep. Both times, I put her back in her crib before she even had a chance to eat breakfast.
It must be a really weird feeling, having these giant things erupting in your mouth, and not being able to fully understand what's going on or communicate effectively about it. It's tough being a kid sometimes.... but at least she got to take a nap before starting her day!
A couple of weeks ago, John brought up from the garage this cute little wooden chair that he'd picked up from Goodwill years ago. We were inspired by a recent birthday party at Gymboree, where we were surprised to see Evelyn enjoying a little baby sized rocking chair.
So we put out the chair and watched what happened. It took her only a few tries to master getting on and off the chair. The innate ability and capacity for children to learn, without any help from us, still amazes me.
You can see in this video why our nickname for Evelyn is "Monkey," as she paces around and hits the floor in her triumph.
This next video can be titled "Chairmaster outtakes." It was taken literally a minute before the other one. Like I said, she learned fast...
