With Halloween approaching, I asked my mom to bring over some costumes that she made and still had from when Courtney and I were little. She brought a couple for Kalum and a few for Samara. Samara said the Pink Panther head was stinky inside. She was quite disconcerted that Minnie Mouse only had four finger spots in the gloves! In the end, she chose the Pink Panther to wear to daycare on the 30th and the Lion for "Noah's Ark Party" at preschool and trick or treating. We chose the pumpkin for Kalum, since he finds any form of a hat unacceptable right now. We figured at least people would know what it was and we could put warm clothes under it.
Samara was SO excited to carve the pumpkins that we got! We had gone to a pumpkin patch on a sunny Sunday to get some small ones, but had to get a couple bigger ones at Hy-Vee, as the patch was already out of big ones. She kept asking when we were going to cut them open and pull out all the guts (her words). She had no fear in digging her hands inside and scooping everything out - this is much different than her Mommy was, and still is. It was a Daddy/Daughter bonding experience while I photographed, directed and played with Kalum.
Samara LOVED trick-or-treating! She got super excited when kids started coming to our door, and made sure they each got some candy in their bag. When it was time to head out, we could barely contain her to the same driveway as us and the nearby sidewalk. She was off and running, but at least politely saying trick or treat and thank you. I heard an occasional roar for the people at the door as well, upon request. She kept saying, "One more house, one more house." Then when we'd gone all the way up and back down our entire street (Daddy and "Pumpkin Kalum" retired to the house before then) she was like, "My legs are so tired, I don't think I can even walk any more." Good thing we were just one driveway from our house, or I think I would have been lugging a lion back home!
Samara's Moments & Milestones for the month:
- Early October - Recognizes her name on paper, something she has to do each morning of preschool (find her cubby, then her name on the table and put it into the mailbox)
- Talks completely non-stop when she is excited!!
- Early October - had a phase for about a week where she was waking at night, talking LOUDLY in dreams. A few of the times she actually was very scared and crying. It took a while to get her to actually wake up, but I didn't want her to hurt herself the way she was thrashing around and hanging off the edge of her bed. One time she said the carpet was going to get her!
- Mid October - says Kalum is her favorite boy! aw, sibling love.
- Loves jumping - off the couch (even though it's a no-no with Mom), steps - as high as we'll let her jump from, over cushions, etc. She is fearless and actually lands on her feet most of the time.
- Jeff's gecko from work was not doing well, so he brought her home to keep a better eye on her. I asked Samara what would happen if Daddy's gecko "Shera" died. She was very unemotional and matter-of-fact in her explanation. She said, "Shera would just go to gecko heaven". I asked her about the body, "we would just throw it in the trash after leaving it in the cage for a while, then we'd have to get another gecko later". I guess we won't have to be burying a shoebox when the inevitable happens, huh?
- Oct 23rd - we had our first Parent-Teacher conference with Samara's preschool teacher. It was a phone conference call with Mrs. DeVries. She said Samara gets along with all the girls and when asked she will say her favorite part of school is "playing with the other kids". She has made progress in knowing that during Circle Time she can't go and play. At the beginning of the year she didn't really understand that (or choose to). She seems to like all the activities, not just one toy or craft station.
- At Hy-Vee (one of Samara's favorite stops) she chose the grocery cart with two steering wheels, one for each kid. Samara taught Kalum when to drive, turn and stop. They both enjoyed the adventure until Samara got to hug-y, then K was done!!
- Early October, he moved beyond his first one and only word - BALL! and now says "baby" for anything with two eyes - babies, kittens, other kids, etc. He kind of makes an S sound for Samara, so we'll see when he gets that one down.
- Oct 6th- figured out how to go up our short set of stairs - Daddy found his triumphantly at the top! Three days later he had mastered the full set of stairs and could make it all the way to the top in about 30 seconds.
- Mid October - adding more sounds to his vocabulary, kind of says "yay" when clapping, "bup bup" when going down the stairs on his bottom, "eesz" for please while signing. Cookies are the food that helped him to master this request - REALLY likes those animal cookies!
- Late October - understanding more and responding more every day. He's already into football and will hold up one hand and says "da!" when there's at touchdown. Says baba when he wants his milk and can sign please and more during meals. If you are snacking, he'll hang by you and grab at you wanting some and signs please. He thinks anything that comes out of a crinkly sounding bag must be good. How do we learn this so young?!
- When he smiles really big, I think he really looks like his daddy. :)
- Getting even faster on his feet and when you play a chasing game, he really runs away!
- With turning one comes inevitable toddler injuries - nothing major, but just they typical... has rolled off of our bed, rolled in slow motion down the stairs and face planted out our front door when it opened (thank goodness for the welcom mat on that one!)
- We are trying to get rid of the bottles in our life (and thus his). He will say "baba!" and shove the sippy cup away if he's not in the mood to settle for less than bottle-yummyness. Both the bottle and sippy cups contain the same milk, just at a different temperature. But, we have been fairly successful during the day at meals. He is essentially just down to a bottle at bedtime with Daddy.
- Kalum had his Doctor's appointment for his one-year wellness check-up ON his birthday. A healthy little boy, cruising through the motor skills, much like his sister! He also had to get FOUR shots - poor kid! Here's his measurements at that check-up:
- Weight: 24 lbs (76%)
- Height: 30.75" (78%, up from 66% at 9 months, grew about 1.5")
- Head circumference: 45.1 cm (15% - so where are the small-ish head genes coming from?) At least he looks proportionate! :)
- First Halloween at home! Last year we were still in the hospital, so it was fun that this year he got to dress up and go trick-or-treating with Samara.
