O Pumpkin, My Pumpkin

It's a good thing we got out the camera(s) for these pics:

(my turn with the camera)

(Little Omi's turn)

Because the very next morning, I found all three of our pumpkins smashed in the street:


Wah! We went out and picked up two new pumpkins, which have been rolling around in the back of my car for several days now because I'm afraid to put them out on the porch in case they become the victims of neighborhood ne'er-do-wells.

Zoo animals on parade

Little Omi got another chance to wear her costume today at our library's baby costume parade. What fun! We paraded all around the library, then next door to City Hall. All the city employees ooh'ed and ahh'd at our little menagerie. The best little girl in the parade was dressed as a lion and would roar on cue. Too cute!

When we returned to the library Little Omi took off for the reference section, her favorite part of the children's area.

Haunting the zoo

Tonight we learned a big lesson. We went to the zoo for their big Halloween event and braved the hordes (thank goodness for the stroller) with some other families we know. When we arrived at the carousel, everyone eagerly got in line, except us. Weren't we taking Little Omi? they asked. Oh, nah, we replied. We'll just stay behind and watch all the strollers. We were sure Little Omi would cry or get scared or just not be up to it for some reason. Where we ever came up with that idea, I'll never know, because as soon as the others stepped onto the platform, Little Omi started to wail. Was she just tired? Overstimulated? No, as the others got off and we went to play in the adjoining playground, it became clearer and clearer that all Little Omi wanted to do was ride that carousel.

So we took her, and she loved it. I think she would have stayed on forever if we had had enough tokens. And we could have watched her forever, with that look of wonder on her face.

This marked the first time she told us she wanted to do something she had never experienced before. (Or at least the first time we got it!)

Pumpkin patch

Yesterday we finally made it over to the pumpkin patch that a local church organizes every year. Little Omi has seen a lot of pumpkins at the Farmer's Market lately, but never this many in one place. She kept trying to pick each one up, except this one, which she kissed.

Tomorrow we are going to do our first Halloween event up at the zoo. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she'll keep her costume on for more than 5 minutes this year!

Let it go, Indy.

After much hemming and hawing, Googling, brainstorming, and 2 trips to the fabric store to look at patterns, I have decided to give up on sewing Little Omi's Halloween costume myself this year. I made it official on Monday by purchasing this zebra costume at Old Navy. At $14.50 I could hardly turn it down, considering the fabric alone for a costume would cost more than that. It did break my heart just a little, though. See, this year Halloween falls on a Wednesday, which means it will be on a library story time day and Little Omi would actually have someplace to wear her costume. Plus, I dreamt up the best idea I've ever had for a Halloween costume and it even has a literary theme: The Very Hungry Caterpillar! I just don't have the sewing experience to figure out exactly how it would work, though. If anyone out there has made this costume, please let me know how you did it! I won't give up entirely, however. There's always next year, when Little Omi might actually go trick-or-treating.