11.06.2012

Halloween 2012


After 6 weeks of festivities, the actual week of Halloween finally came!
 
We kicked off the holiday with Evil Ball #8.
Brett and I had no clue about costumes until about 4 days before, and we maybe bit off a little more than we could chew.
 
What started as some simple paper mache pumpkin heads, quickly turned into sculpted, lit from inside, harnessed pumpkin heads.
That's what you get when you're married to an artistic wizard.
 
Let's just say we stayed up some late nights and made a few runs to the craft/hardware stores before it was all said and done.
 
Worth it.
 
We took home the Most Original Costume prize...2nd year in a row!
Damn straight.
 
 
 
All Homemade.
 
Next year, I'm going as a ghost.
I'm still tired from pulling that one off...and Brett did all the dirty work!
 
They were a bit of a pain on the old dance floor, but definitely provided some humor!
 
 
Brett, Becky, Mom, Annie, Me
 
 
 Minus our Heads
 
Mom, Annie, Randy, Dad
(Lady from the Birds, Gabby Douglas, Michael Phelps, Crazy Bird Witch Thing)
 
 
Not a clue who these people are.
(LOL!)
 
This was Jack trying my pumpkin head on for size during the construction process. 
Funniest thing ever.
 
 
On Monday, we picked 3 of our 16 pumpkins to carve.
I wasn't quite sure how Jack would take to cutting up his precious pumpkins, but he had no problem with it.
He also had very little interest.
Apparently, the smell of the pumpkin innards were just too much for him.
He kept a safe distance.
 
 Tucker was a happy bystander.
 
 
The crazy artist at it again...
 


 We tried really hard to force Jack to like this activity.
 
 
He made for a good peanut gallery
 
 
I should never be trusted with sharp objects.
Really.
I broke every tool in the kit.
 
 
Here's Brett's Jack the Pumpkin King creation...
 
My pumpkins are hardly worth sharing.
 
 
Wednesday was Halloween, and we started the day with Jack not really feeling like Halloween.
Of course.
He couldn't stop talking about and celebrating it for weeks...and then the day came and he kept telling me "Halloween is broken."
\
Luckily, a visit to Kate's school got him out of his funk, and he was ready to sport his bones costume and get into the true Halloween spirit.
 
 
 
 
He particularly enjoyed marching around the school with Principal Ross (Dorothy) and all of the other kids.
 
 
After some naps... we were off to Annie's for our traditional Halloween festivities.
 
Annie's boys were off by the time we got there, so my Griffin pics are lacking, but Lucy and Izzy were beyond perfect for prancing around the neighborhood with Jack as he trick-or-treated.
 
 
 

 
 
He was excited at first, but quickly realized it was a lot of walking and effort to just get a bunch of candy he wouldn't eat anyway (weird kid!).
 

 
So, his trick or treating lasted about a half hour, and then he was more than content playing at his girlfriend Annie's house the rest of the night.
 
We enjoyed yummy soup and breadsticks, and had fun just hanging out.



 




 
 
 
Tucker, as usual, was a huge problem.
(In case you can't tell, he too was bones.)
 
I could not wait until November 1st to take down and collect all of Jack's hundreds of random Halloween trinkets that were cluttering the house.  We really did have so much fun watching his little obsession, and I can't wait to celebrate the next holidays with him as he is older and starting to understand better.
 
We most definitely exhausted this holiday!
Now, onto the next!
 
 
 

The boy is trained.

 
FINALLY!
We took the leap (a couple of weeks ago) and Jack is potty trained!
 
After a couple of months of getting ready...deciding to do it...and then chickening out...
The time felt right, and we took the plunge!
(No pun intended!)
 
I woke up determined, prizes stocked, and ready to stay home for a few days to tackle this once and for all.
 
When Jack woke up, I took him to his drawer and closet and showed him that his diapers were gone.  I pulled out about 20 pairs of underwear and he was excited and ready to say goodbye to diapers!
 
Here he is stripping his last diaper before his bath.
(I think it's a pretty good indication he was too old for diapers when he was practically changing himself!)
 
 
 
 
 
Ewww! Diapers are gross!
 
 
He was excited and cooperative from the first minute.
 
 
 
We stayed home the entire day...and believe it or not...
He pretty much never even had an accident!
Amazing, no doubt.
 
It only took about 1-2 times for him to barely start going, and he knew to stop it until he made it to the bathroom!
 

 
 
We both went to bed totally encouraged and I, for one, was so relieved and surprised at how it all went down.
 
Within about 2 days, we were out and about.
Jack was fine going to the bathroom in public places, and to this day, hasn't had an accident away from home.  He used pull-ups at night for a brief bit, but we decided to nix those pretty fast and he's  essentially never woken in the middle of the night or nap with an accident!
 
The old #2 was a bit scary for him for the first bit, but he conquered that fear in no time.
 
With all the dread and procrastination on my part, I can honestly say...it was not bad at all.
I guess there's no question...the boy was ready.
 
What a stud!
 
 
TMI?