Halloween

For a couple of weeks before Halloween, I had been buying candy and adding it to a very large black bucket in our living room. It is not a room we are in very often and thus, the bucket had largely had gone unnoticed. A couple days before Halloween, however, I come upon Alexander with a huge smile, pulling the very large pail of candy across the room. It was just a few minutes before he had dumped it out on the floor and was laughing and throwing candy and having a great time.

The next day, he found the smaller bucket of candy, but alas must have determined that was not as much fun as once again, he found and dumped the entire large pail of candy. Despite the large pile of candy on the floor, he even had to practically climb into the pail to make sure he had every last one of the pieces out and in the pile. He had a great time once again and I was just relieved he didn't realize how much he would enjoy what was inside the wrappers!




Finally, the big day came. Alexander got dressed up in his monkey costume and headed outside to greet the trick-or-treaters. He really got into the spirit and insisted on handing out all the candy himself. (He did very well and only once did he try to take candy out of a child's bag rather than put candy in!)

Petting Zoo

So, at the pumpkin patch (see that story below from earlier today), they also have a small "petting zoo". It basically consists of a few calfs, sheep, pigs and goats but boy was it a thrill for Alexander. He was fascinated with all the animals and was very willing to run up to them and even tried to reach in to touch them...all in all, I thought he was quite brave (almost too brave), until....crisis. One of the calfs mooed. I have to admit, it was loud moo, but I didn't expect the reaction from the little guy. He was so startled and so afraid that he instantly started crying huge tears and ran to me. It took a bit to calm him down, but then he saw all the other kids looking at the animals and he wanted down again. So, he wiggled free and ran back towards the calfs. Wouldn't you know it? Just as he got there....one of the calfs sneezed! I have to admit, we couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Alexander turning on his heel and running right back to me crying his head off. Poor thing. I am a bit concerned that he will now have a life-long fear of cows. Aren't they often called the most docile creature on earth?

Pumpkin Patch

Fred's parents are here visiting from Sweden so I decided it would be fun to take Alexander on his first visit to a pumkin patch (it was actually the first visit for all of us!). To add to the spirit, I dressed Alexander up in his halloween costume (a monkey -very fitting!). He was intrigued by the pumpkins but was not very happy as he tried to walk through the field (he kept tripping on the vines or falling in the ruts). We searched for a while and managed to find ourselves three very good pumpkins.

Then, it was on to the farm's "petting zoo"...