October

Max and I carved his pumpkin from the pumpkin patch which he found interesting. He mostly watched and then occasionally grabbed some seeds. We had been reading Halloween books, so he knew what a pumpkin was. 

In early October, Nate and I went to a marionette performance of The Sound of Music at BYU by an Austrian troupe that travels all over the world. It was impressive right down to the singing. At the end, they did the marionette scene from the movie while opening up the curtain above the stage to reveal the performers. So fun.

Oliver on the blanket that Deborah gave him.

Oliver's first bath after his umbilical cord scab fell off.

Max painting for the first time.

A neighbor anonymously dropped off these sugar cookies as part of a "pass it on" type thing called "You've Been Boo-ed!" I had two days to do the same for someone else, so Max helped me make monster eyeballs (carrot cake/cream cheese balls with orange zest and a chocolate chip) and ears (chocolate dipped pretzels).

We made Halloween greetings for the grandparents and great grandparents. Max stamped his foot and I used Oliver's big toe for the pumpkins.

We carved a bigger pumpkin with Nate. He did most of the work as Max watched intently.

Deborah came over for dinner on Halloween. We watched a movie while passing out candy. Max would run to the door every time someone knocked. It took him a bit to realize that he wasn't getting the candy but giving it away. We weren't planning on taking him out, but he showed more interest than I anticipated. Deborah and I took him down our street and back. He tried going inside someone's house before he realized we were just taking candy and leaving. It is a strange concept. He wouldn't let me put his candy in his bag. Instead, he grasped it all in both hands afraid I would take it away and ration it like I do all candy. Smart kid. I kept costumes simple and put him in his skeleton pajamas and painted his face. I used an old witch hat, and that was that.

Several weekends in October, Nate made some shelves for our garage. He took Max to Home Depot to get the wood and let him ride on the cart. I loved hearing Nate in the garage drilling screws and sawing wood. He'd let Max play around while he worked, and they'd come in for lunch. And when he was done, we had a TON of storage space for our many plastic bins full of holiday supplies, toys, and children's books. I think there is some camping gear somewhere out there as well.