Big Fun for Little Bug
When did Halloween start being so fun? I’m supposed to hate Halloween! Laugh if you want but I have had a deep fear of vampires since I was eight years old. I watched some dumb movie at my neighborhood friend’s house down the street and I’ve had nightmare ever since. Sometimes still to this day, I will pull the covers up to my neck because I hate the feeling of cold air on my exposed neck. Don’t even get me started on how much I can’t stand scary commercials on tv. I’ve been known to just plain not watch tv for the whole month of October.
But now? I love Halloween! Maybe I should say I love the celebration of harvest and fall. I have fallen in love with pumpkins. They are so pleasing. What’s not to love! They are round and orange (one of my favorite colors) and you can carve faces into them. And then, the best part: you can throw them away! I love that. I really don’t like boxes of seasonal stuff that I have to find a place for. Ask my family. Not having a place for everything is almost as scary to me as my neck being exposed on a dark night.
Baby Bug and I went to the pumpkin patch on Saturday. It was SO fun! I know it was kind of expensive but I shelled out twenty bucks and we did everything. We rode the wagon, we pet the sheep and the goats and a funny little hairy pig in the petting zoo. We ate shaved ice (green snow) and watched a pumpkin being blasted out of a cannon to a hill far away and smash into a thousand pieces. We ran around the corn maze that wasn’t really a maze but more of a labyrinth and examined every single dirt clod, rock and twig. It was the best thing for us. It was just so nice to be outside breathing air that doesn’t smell like a campfire for a change.
Of course we couldn’t leave without a pumpkin, even though we already have three at home from my Dad’s garden. I told myself not to buy another pumpkin but they called to me with their curly stems and big round tummies. I couldn’t just leave them there to rot. So we left with a big fat round one.
On the way to the car I had to carry Baby Bug on one hip and the pumpkin on the other. “It’s a good thing Mommy has big hips,” I said to Baby Bug as I hoisted her up. Then being the minor bird that she is Baby Bug said, “Good thing Baby has hips.” That gave me a laugh. She’s so funny. She copies everything I say. I should record her one of these days. I think I could get her to say the Gettysburg address if I wanted her to.
That night we carved one of our pumpkins and I introduced Baby Bug to the concept of trick or treating. She’s eaten cookies almost every day of her life but candy is a foreign concept. Let me just say, she caught on pretty quick. I don’t need to worry about her not knowing what to do with her special knitted pumpkin purse that Bethany Actually made for her. I think by Wednesday she will be showing other kids how it’s done.
If spending a whole day at the pumpkin patch and then learning about candy wasn’t spoiling her enough, I decided to take her to the big mall on Sunday for their annual “Pumpkins and Pancakes” breakfast. It’s such a great event. For the cost of admission (which I don’t know what is because we have connections and got in free) you get a gourmet breakfast (catered by the same restaurant who catered my wedding), fun dancing time with a real dee jay (think chicken dance and the limbo), fun with a bazillion other kids in costumes and CRAFTS!!!
Baby Bug and I LOVE crafts. I was worried she wasn’t big enough to really participate, since all the other kids were twice her size and there were open containers of glue and paint and gooey stuff, but she was fine. She sat right there next to the big kids and painted and made her own owl puppet as if she did this sort of thing every day.
One mother turned to me and said, “Do you get a lot of comments from people about how small she is and how she can walk already?”
“Sure,” I answered. “But that’s not nearly as fun as the looks I get when she says the whole alphabet and then counts to fourteen.” Moms love me when I tell them that. I’m such a show off. But she can. She’s a nut like that.
I’m sure I’ll pay for this someday when Baby Bug is the littlest in her class and she comes crying home to me because all her friends can play on the monkey bars but she can’t reach them because the ladder is too low. I know because I was the littlest one once. It’s not all fun and games being small.
I thought Baby Bug would be so afraid when we went to the big event at the mall. There was loud music and big kids everywhere in scary costumes. I thought she’d be clinging to me for dear life, afraid of being stepped on. But nope. She wanted to be right there in the middle of it all. She’s like a chihuahua, she doesn’t even know she’s little.
Phew! I need to stop having so much fun. These posts are taking me forever to write.
30 Comments
OMSH
Ooooh, I love those crafty tables for kids! And the pumpkin patch shot is beautiful. It looks like a blast!
Keely
All your photos look great. I’m so excited for Zoe to be old enough to appreciate all these fun things you do with Baby Bug. :)
SAJ says: Oh just you wait! Babies are sweet but TODDLERS are a blastola! Every day I am amazed at how much fun she is. Even though I miss my old life plenty, I wouldn’t trade if for the world.
Kuky
Oh looks and sounds like so much fun! And you can’t stop having fun. I love the way you write about your little adventures.
hue
All that sounds like so much fun. Truly. You’ll have to post where all these events take place so fellow Californians can take advantage in the coming years.
SAJ says: Here’s the skinny- Pumpkin Patch is Tanaka Farms in Irvine. The Big Mall is South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa. The “Pankcakes and Pumpkins” event is put on by CASA. It’s catered by Plums which I also highly recommend for locals who might be visiting the OC. :)
bethany actually
That’s awesome that bb wasn’t scared at all of the big kids and noise! Isn’t it great how when you’re a parent, your kids keep reinventing the world for you? :-)
SAJ says: Yes! I love being a kid all over again.
Nicole
I can sympathize with you. Little D is 27 months old and still only 23lbs! She is tiny and a total chatter box. People are a bit shocked when they find out how old she is really is. Don’t worry though … I find that the small ones learn how to adapt to their surroundings so that you have no idea that they are smaller than others!
The Chatty Housewife
Oh she is getting so big! Sitting at the table doing crafts, she doesn’t look like a baby anymore. When saw you two in person at Burbank, she was so little!
SmocknMama
Looks like fun!
LVGurl
I’m in love with the coconut bra over the t-shirt! :D
SAJ says: We love it too. The grass skirt and coconut bra was a gift from some friends who went to Hawaii. The onesie was a gift from a cousin of mine before BB was born. I never intended them to go together but it worked. I didn’t want her to get her ladybug costume dirty so Hula Girl it was.
mamasgotmoxie
awwwwwwwwww..baby bug is so adorable with her hula skirt and baby coconuts!!! and hey, i’m just glad to know i’m not the only one who hates those scary commercials…
Michelle
Love Halloween too, BUT…I still can’t sleep on my back at night because of that Friday the 13th movie when the kid got it in the back while laying on the bunk bed..remember that scene – Scary! Anyhoo, your Baby Bug is too cute in the pumpkin patch and in the little hula outfit :o) It’s fun to be the mom and take everyone to all of these fun places! What is she going to be for Halloween?
Angella
I loved this post! BB is such a big girl! And so smart!
And cute!
Hee!
kristin
oh, so what a treat to find your blog…full of cozy goodness…not even sure how i wandered here…
SAJ says: Why, thank you!
BeachMama
I love BB’s costume :). And she is so crafty like her Mom, how great is that? I tried to get J to colour with me today and it lasted all of five minutes (for him, not me).
And it is great that she is tiny and a genious. There is just as much disadvantage to being tall for your age, I went through it and now J is going through it, being the tallest in his class. But, since he has been huge since he was a week old, I knew it was coming. The worst part is when people expect so much from a four year old because he is so big.
Love your pumpkin carving too! (And we have Dots to hand out on Wednesday as well :) ).
SAJ says: Yes. I know being small has it’s challenges but I agree, being big might be a tad more difficult. Being any size kid is tough!
Becky Z
I went to a corn field and went through a maze too on Sunday. It was probably a little different than in California. I’m glad that the skies are clear again and smoke free.
SAJ says: I saw your pictures! You guys have real corn fields up there!
nicole
I love the second photo of baby bug in the corn field. It makes me miss home and fall traditions so much. Enjoy this time of year with your family.
SAJ says: Awww…I wish I could send you a corn husk! Hmmm… maybe I can. Scratch that. I wish I could send you a plane ticket to come home for a weekend or too!
Ashlie
Those are some cuuuuttee pictures! I’m going to be a baby snatcher for halloween. Just kidding. :)
Starryprincess
Love this post, I too love autumny stuff,well done on saving a pumpkin. Being in the UK. we don’t have pumpkin patches,I would looooove to go to one. Trick or Treat has caught on here very well hopefully some enterprising farmer will take up the challenge.
I also hate all the scary stuff,harvest, green, orange, who needs scary with that gorgeous lot around
Michelle
I can’t believe that I asked what your BB will be for Halloween…..a lady bug, of course! Ugh, where is my head these days (Don’t answer that – lol) :o)
jen
I never leave comments in a strangers inbox but had to say: what a CUTE little angel! Love the Chuck Taylors! ok, back to being anonymous!…jen
bluejaye
She is changing so much. I thought that was some other little kids in the hula skirt.
Katie
Oh my gosh, her hula girl costume is so precious. And I love your crooked smile jack-o-lantern. I finally carved my pumpkins this weekend too!
witchypoo
BB is the most adorable child. She’s lucky to have a Mom who takes her on adventures!
Shawna
Baby Bug is ADORABLE! She could just be herself for Halloween–THE ADORABLE BABY BUG! Glad you’re (sorta) getting over your Halloween-fear!
Sleepynita
She is just such a cute sweet little peanut.
Susan
Love this post! Its everything fall should be about.
b*babbler
How adorable is she?! I can’t wait until the Peanut is just a little bit older so that we can do things like this. We did the pumpkin patch thing this year, but it will be so much better when she’s walking.
Sandra
Baby Bug is so cute!!! I can’t wait for my Christopher to enjoy Halloween as well – this year he’s not quite a year, and not quite walking yet (lots of cruising and crawling), so I expect he will be more interactive like Baby Bug by next year (when he is almost 2). Baby Bug seems very well behaved!
Starbucksmom
Your baby bug is so adorable (with or without the costume)!!. I love ladybugs and just as a heads-up, I saw an ad in Parenting magazine for a new children’s book, Ladybug Baby Bug, by Janice and Mark Perkins, and the cover was so cute on the ad. I decided to get it for my kids. The ad said that 20% of the profits were going to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, so I thought, not only am I getting an adorable book, but I’m doing something good at the same time. When the book arrived (I bought it online at Barnesandnoble.com), my youngest started kissing the adorable baby ladybug on the cover and carries it around the house with her. I read it to her every night at bedtime. Because she liked the character so much, I bought her a baby ladybug costume for Halloween. She continues to love the book and I enjoy reading to them while they get pulled in by the colorful artwork.
Kim
You guys are two too cute!!!!
-A ‘normal’ Mom of 3 boys (under 5 years and 10 days) in NJ who forgets how she happened upon your blog but enjoys seeing a fun, ‘normal’ Mom of one girl (in hopes to be 2 -GL with that!).