Halloween Extravaganza

For those of you who are unaware, I go a little nuts over the holidays. The end of September approaches and I begin organizing weekend activities and planning food and treats and decorations (housework and other such responsibilities be darned). This year I decided to try planning daily Halloween activities for Luke, something I have dreamed of doing since I was little and my mom dyed our milk green one St. Patricks' Day. 

Some of the activities, like the finger puppets I painstakingly sewed from the book Five Little Pumpkins, have been duds. Others, like our jello googly eye blobs, were wildly successful.

Honestly, who doesn't love gooified sugar?

 Other successes:
Pom pom pumpkin patch with ice cream scoop

and his monster, the *only* stuffed animal he is allowed to color on.

When all else fails, a Halloween song off of Youtube is sure to do the trick. 

Chopstick Lessons

So far surprisingly successful!

To Autumn

Dear Fall,

We miss you. It is so darn hot here. Every time we see pictures of changing leaves and apple orchards it makes us long for colder days. We feel like the only sane people as we listen to people talk about how nice it is outside and how beautiful the weather is.

The news is constantly announcing how a "cold front" is moving in, and we wait for temperatures to drop, only to be disappointed when they hover around 75 degrees. We see people outside in jackets and long sleeves (even puffy coats and scarves!) and wonder what they're doing as we walk around comfortably in shorts and flip-flops.

*sigh* Here's to the days when we don't have to turn on our air conditioning.

All our love,

The Youngs

Dethroned

Kingdom soon to be usurped by this little bugger:

Loyal Cougs

We have finally purchased Luke his heart's deepest desire: 

a BYU hat. 

It's still a little big, leaving lots of room for that giant noggin to grow, but is his constant companion, even in sleep. He is very concerned about getting it dirty, so it usually sits on the table next to him while he eats, and if it is ever misplaced I will hear an ever-repeating "mama, where's my BYU Cougars hat?" until it's found. He is very excited that he and dada both have BYU hats and asks dada to put his on often (mama luckily doesn't have one). 

And because it was promised several days ago but has taken us a while to deliver, here is the BYU Cougar fight song, as sung by a two-year-old. 

A Boy and His Baga

Last weekend Baga managed to squeeze a quick day-and-a-half trip into his business trip itinerary and stopped by to see us! Luke was very excited and made the most of every minute, following him around and forcing him to play lots of baseball and football. 

Luke showed off one of his favorite grocery stores, fed Baga some Tex-Mex and frozen yogurt, and let Baga play on one of his favorite playgrounds. 

We miss you Baga!

The No Good, Very Bad Day

I have to share a wonderful experience Lukey and I had at the Houston Zoo splash pad yesterday, so that any time your child does something that forces you to do something embarrassing in public you can think about this and decide yours isn't so bad. (with the exception of you, Wheelers, I doubt anything can top some of Caleb's antics) 

Next to the splash pad there are some very nice changing rooms for your changing convenience, and after splashing around for a while Luke decided to go check those out by himself. Before I could dash over there, he had locked himself in an empty stall and was happily playing inside. Unfortunately for me, the doors to the stalls go down far enough to the ground that it's a bit too small for an adult and the walls went up about ten feet (for all of those ten foot tall patrons out there). After several minutes of hearing "Hi, mama!" and "I locked the door!" coming from inside with clearly no attempts at unlocking it, I was forced to clamber over the ten foot wall with the aid of some other moms. I was not happy, let me tell you. 

Not. Happy.

But Luke sure was! He was sitting on the bench, kicking his feet, and seemed not the least bit concerned when I gave him a stern talking to in the most level voice I could manage. The conversation went a bit like this. 

Angry Mama: "Luke, mama is not happy. You are in big trouble."

Happy Luke: "Okay!"

Angry Mama: "We are going to have a time out in here."

Happy Luke: "Okay! I locked the door!"

While I counted to make the timeout official, Luke kept enjoying and admiring his surroundings (my bad, should have taken him out of his sanctuary). Every once in a while a brief look of confusion would cross his face as he would turn to look up at the ceiling, no doubt wondering where I had dropped down from. 

After the timeout we went back out and I gave him two more chances to go play (he kept headed for those darn doors!) before we had to leave. On our way out the splash pad attendants were laughing and called him their little buddy (did I mention he had also tried to escape the splash pad several times before this happened? had to be run down by the attendants). 

Sitting here writing this I can't help laughing as I remember it, but honestly at the time I think I was slightly insane. I don't really remember thanking the moms who gave me a leg up over the wall or what anybody said to me as we came out, I don't remember if this caused a scene (I guess enough of a scene that another mom thankfully took pictures) or if there was a crowd or something gathered around and I think it took a few minutes before I started really paying attention to anyone other than Luke. Honestly, how have we not all been committed?