The key to a healthy Halloween

Halloween is not an innate holiday.  Who would have guessed?  In fact, the way that Calvin took immediately to the decorations this year we thought it might be.  It was late in September that the first elaborate trimmings of the upcoming holiday began to appear and Calvin recognized them right away, lurching forward in his stroller, squealing, and pointing.   In fact, our daily excursions have become less about exercise and more about hunting for pumpkins and other yard enhancements.  But trick-or-treating is most certainly not part of his inherent understanding of this October celebration.  Tonight we indulged our own desire to embrace the festivities of the season by attending the annual Zoo Boo at the Detroit Zoo.  Calvin thought wearing a costume was funny, he thought his parents wearing costumes was an all out riot, he loved the pumpkins artistically arranged in zoo-like scenes, and he loved the animals we got to glimpse, but he had no conceptual grasp for the actual treat collecting part of the evening.  At the first station he was openly concerned that some strange woman dressed in a pumpkin costume (not unlike his own, mind you) was putting something (pretzels) in his bag.  At the second station he took said pretzels out of his bag and tried desperately to give them to the bumblebee who was trying, without luck, to bestow upon him the gift of Skittles.  It was a very fun evening for all of us, and even turned out to be a healthy one.  Thanks to Calvin's diligence we came home with less than a solid handful of candy. 

A profusion of pictures, as always, in the Oct 20-26 album. 

You're not fooling anyone

Our childless moments are few and far between.  We harbor no resentment over this - most of the activities we enjoyed together before Calvin are things we can enjoy just as well, if not more, with his little boy presence - but the occasional date night is still a coveted thing.  Last night was the first time since Calvin's birth that we went out on a date together after dark.  Sure we've been on other dates as a couple, but those were lunch dates, or dinner dates shared with the 5:00 diners who are out using their AARP meal discounts.  Tonight we went out after both Calvin and the sun were safely tucked in for the night.  Our destination was opening night of the Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D movie, and we found ourselves surrounded by young couples out on early relationship date nights, complete with nervous giggling and awkward hand-holding.  In an attempt to fit in we tried this ourselves, sliding down into the uncomfortable seats and contorting our bodies in an effort to hold hands across the personal space defining arm rest, before finally giving up and admitting that we weren't fooling anybody.  "We look old," Cortney says to Jon, to which he replied "you look like a mom."  Well, there are worse things.  And our attempt at disguise still beat the two young men who walked out of the first showing of the movie and slid behind the potted palm in the hallway to wait for an opportunity to slide back into the theater for a free second showing.  A potted palm?  That's not a disguise - it's comedy.  But it worked for them - they sat directly in front of us in the late movie - a situation that we chalk up to weak theater security because believe us, they weren't fooling anyone either.

From fiery to frigid

It's hard to believe that less than a week ago we were sweltering in the ninety degree heat of a sultry Indian Summer.  At least it would be hard to believe if this wasn't Michigan, the place where you don't pack away seasons of clothing because you just might need those shorts in January or that sweater in July.  In reality it's not all too surprising, seeing as that it is now mid-October and wasn't it this time last year that we were seeing our first snowfall of the upcoming winter season?  In our family we welcome the changing of the season, with it's colorful leaves and brisk air, warm hats and fuzzy mittens, the warmth of the fire pit at the tailgate, and the sound of the first crackling logs in our fireplace at home.  We celebrated other seasons of change today, too.  Our football team finally played and won a decent game, which was a welcome change from the past month or so of
disappointing losses and bumbling, less-than-redeeming wins.  That alone provided us with enough reason to party the night away, but we also partied to celebrate a special milestone birthday (which milestone we will not give away) at Calvin's grandparents' house, where he entertained all with his increasingly complex dancing skills.  It is truly amazing how time and season march on and bring so many blessings with the days.

There are pictures galore, as always:  Oct 13-19 Photo Album 

Did anyone lose a kid?

We found this one in our house this afternoon:

These must be the halcyon days of fall

Fall is here: the leaves started changing, the nights started cooling, the days turned rainy and grey... and then came a return to the sun and warmth of the previous season.  Some would call it an Indian Summer, but we think a more appropriate term might be "paradise."  Sure it's hot, but we try to remind ourselves that instead of complaining about the heat we could be breaking out the hats and mittens like this time last year, and who wants that already?  So we took advantage of the hand mother nature dealt and made today a hiking day.  There's something a little odd about sweating through your shorts and t-shirt while shuffling through richly colored fallen leaves, but we didn't complain back in July or August so why should we now?  Not to mention that when we went on hikes back in July Calvin was a very different kind of hiking partner.  Back in July he enjoyed looking at the things we pointed out but was basically just along for the ride in his backpack carrier.  Today Calvin seemed to be doing most of the pointing, followed by that babbling noise that sounds suspiciously like a well posed question that we just can't understand.  He spent half of the hike in the backpack and the other half pushing his own little feet through the downed leaves.  He found a squirrel, a cat (inappropriately out of doors), a spider, and even a wee little frog, and he made sure to point them out for our own viewing pleasure.  He amazes us.  We love watching him discover the natural world we love so much, and we are thankful for these halcyon days of fall.