October

This past month has been my favorite October. I have always loved Fall, all the pumpkins and changing colors, but now that I have Lillian in tow, I enjoy everything through her eyes... Those little eyes that see everything and tell her little hands to touch and chase everything. She loves finding pumpkins and crunching on fall leaves.  My little Hector the Collector has to stomp on and pick up all the fallen leaves she finds.  After picking them up, she invariably looks up to find the poor tree who lost them and says, "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh" until I reassure her that it was meant to fall, and then all is right in the world.  She is also smitten with acorns.  How many acorns can this child hold in two fists?  She is bound and determined to find out.  When she feels the cool wind on her face she looks around to see where it is coming from.  Everything peeks her curiosity.  Everything.  I love that about Lillian.

When thinking about what costume to make for Lillian, I wondered what she would most be excited to see herself as.  The answer came immediately.... a puppy!  Then I thought a puppy is kind of boyish, so I decided to add a pink tutu.  Lillian was transformed into a puppy ballerina, which if you know my rough-and-tumble-outdoorsy-yet-into-everything-girly, this was the perfect costume for her.  She particularly loved her nose, and this was no small task to paint on her face.  She danced around trying to get the pencil and see her nose by crossing her eyes.  The puppy nose kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger...

  

We painted pumpkins with Lil's buddy Luke.  Lillian liked the paint, but thought the paintbrush was over-rated, so this ended up as an exploration in finger painting.  She liked her pumpkin, but really liked Luke's pumpkin, so the activity turned into Lillian exploring finger painting on Luke's pumpkin.  Thankfully Luke is very patient and didn't mind.  I think I have a strong-willed child.... does everyone think this about their own toddler?  Oh well, Luke didn't mind....

The final product... :)

We also made jack-o-lantern pumpkin pancakes.  I found them on a website my mom found www.artfulparent.com.  We also found the directions for the pancakes below.

 

On Thursday, we trekked downtown for my favorite Farmers' Market of the year.  Halloween!  We lugged our wagon downtown and joined the Munchkin March, a little parade around downtown SLO.  Lillian shared her wagon with Claire, who just so happened to be a kitty-ballerina.  The two of them made quite the pair.... especially when they decided it was time to ditch the wagon....    Oh well, they had fun, and I got some exercise, holding 30 pounds of toddler and pulling a large wagon.  The raisins only worked for so long.

          

Trick-or-Treating was so much fun!  Lillian was determined to walk from house to house and very particular about which hand to hold.  Uncle Jeff's, now Daddy's, now Mommy's, now Mommy's other hand, now Luke's, which was my personal favorite to watch.  Lilly and Luke make such a sweet pair.  They really love each other.  So precious...  And of course, Lillian had to carry her own pumpkin bag.  By the last house, she was saying "tic-o-teat" and "ank-you".  I love that little girl.  Everyone says this about their own child, but now that it's me, I just don't know I can a little one so small, so much, and how I can love her more every day.  So cliche, but so true.  I just love that little girl.  She drives me crazy, that one, but I do love her.

Dan and Lil carved a pumpkin before we went out.