Halloween Recap
Pretty little pumpkins
As a person who loves moderate temperatures, I prefer autumn’s cool breezes to summer’s sun or winter’s chill. I also love all things pumpkin: itty bitty ornamental pumpkins, Jack o’lanterns, harvest corn and all that jazz. There’s just something about the yellow, reds and oranges of the season that make me a happy camper. That and I love pumpkin and apple goodies that are so prolific this time of year.
The Little Empress also seems to enjoy this time of the year, especially the pumpkins. She’s been crowing, “Pa-tee, pa-tee” (her way of saying “pumpkin”) every day. Sadly, we didn’t get a chance to go to the local pumpkin farm this year due to rain. Luckily, TLE’s school has been helping to fill the pumpkin void! During the month, she’s gotten at least a pumpkin a week. One week, the kids painted mini-pumpkins. Another time, they received more (unpainted) mini-pumpkins in their cubbies. And this past week, the kids got to pick their very own pumpkin from a little “pumpkin patch” that was set up on the school grounds. As you can see, TLE was absolutely thrilled with her pumpkin. (She fell asleep moments later, cuddling the pumpkin as she napped!)
TLE and her pumpkin
Her school also had a costumed “Harvest Parade” for the kiddies on Friday morning. Her school has students from about 18 months to four year olds so there was a pretty diverse mix of kids. Her class of toddlers were pulled by their teachers in wagons so the little ones wouldn’t get tired from parading around the playground. TLE loved it and enjoyed waving to her public. I wasn’t sure what to dress her as since she really doesn’t have any preferences. I ended up using a princess costume I’d bought for her last year but that she didn’t get to use. I know, I know, I’m usually so anti-princess but at home, she ran around with an inflatable sword with her costume. (I didn’t let her have the sword while at school since she’d just be a hazard with it.)
"No, Mom!" No pictures for this princess!
While I’d love to give TLE the full-blown trick or treating experience that I had as a kid — staying out all night, hitting all the neighborhoods and not stopping until the bag could hold no more — that just isn’t an option where we live. Luckily, there were plenty of free family friendly events put on by the community and churches as alternatives to nighttime trick or treating. We opted to go to the Halloween event at the local outdoor shopping mall.It is a relatively new shopping center and the second year they’ve held the event. There were a few free events for the kids, including a “haunted” bus and a converted bus made into a kid’s gym that TLE normally loves, as well as a bouncy slide thing.
Sadly, the event ended up being pretty lackluster for us though it looked like there was a pretty good overall turnout. We did get there too late to participate in the trick or treating since TLE ended up taking a late nap. One thing I noticed was that not all of the retailers actually participated in the one hour trick-or-treating window for the community kids. I got really irked when I saw signs that had “No Candy but Shoppers are Welcome.” I really wish I’d had the foresight to bring a notebook or to take photos of the establishments that weren’t participating. I know it is voluntary but seriously, how hard can it be to station one of the workers at the door for just an hour with a bucket of candy. Hell, pass out fliers for your next sale with the candy if you want. A “No Candy but Shoppers are Welcome” sign essentially tells me to “F*ck off, we don’t want your kids in here.” Okay fine, I won’t come in on Hallowe’en OR any other time of the year, for that matter.
There was also a pumpkin patch which had several inflatable rides but the prices were ridiculous! It was $5 for 5 minutes on ONE ride or $10 for an hour on unlimited rides. I was horrified to see that, despite the prices, there was little supervision of the inflatables that I could see. Little kids were packed in with rambunctious older kids. I refused to pay that much for the inflatables, especially with no real supervision aside from the parents and no separation to keep the wee ones safe. TLE tried, briefly, to get into the free inflatable but wisely decided it wasn’t for her despite the fact she really wanted to play in the jumpy. (Meanwhile, I was beginning to panic as I saw a group of older kids storm the jumpy just as she had climbed into it.) We lined up for the tumble bus but half an hour (in the sun) later, we got to the end of the line and she melted down in tears and clung to me, refusing to get on. *sigh* We searched for some food at the event but only found two tiny stands, selling over priced hot dogs and slices of pizza. No thanks. Luckily, we found a frozen yogurt store and ended up getting some yogurt to cool down.
The afternoon wasn’t a total waste. TLE really loves music so when she heard the live band kick in, she grabbed my hands and insisted that we dance. I took her to the center of the shopping mall where we hung around the fountain and she alternately danced to the music and gazed into the fountain pool.
Introspective
All in all, not a bad Hallowe’en at all! We may not have gotten to go to a lot of events or a proper trick or treating session but I think we’re not doing too badly for fun!
Read MoreIn lieu of content…
I shall post photos of The Little Empress. Because for the life of me, I can’t seem to write anything that I deem readable these days.
And… a random shot of my chain link fence to prove that I do, occasionally, take photos of that are not of The Little Empress.
4 Tips for Sharing Photos of Your Children Online
Being a shutterbug, I couldn’t wait to show the world photos of The Little Empress. The very first photo of The Little Empress was posted a mere three hours after her birth.
We’re definitely not the only family to do so. A recent article on CNN talks about a study that shows that 82 percent of kids under 2 have an online presence.
While the Internet makes it easy to share photos of your newest family member with far flung relatives and friends, the fact remains that these innocent photos of your child can also be a privacy risk. Here’s a few ways to keep your little one’s identity safe from the very start.
Use privacy filters. Photo services like Facebook, Flickr, Shutterfly and more have privacy filters that allow you to control who sees your photos.
Do not label photos with sensitive information. Sensitive information can include your child’s full name, birth date, birth place, etc.
Obscure any personal information that may be visible in the photo. New parents may want to rethink sharing the photo of their newborn the hospital isolette as information including the baby’s name, family surname and even delivering doctor may be in full view. Choose to share another photo that does not contain any sensitive information.
Ask friends and family NOT to share photos of your little one without your permission. This is harder to control — especially with excited grandparents — but (gently) explain why you would like to control where your child’s photos are seen.
BONUS TIP: It is popular on some parenting communities to share the names and ages of your children in your signatures. If you do this, use nicknames to identify your children rather than their names.
Read MoreWordless Wednesday
Homemade Adobo Sliders on Pandesal
Chicken & Spinach Ranch Pizza on Whole Wheat Crust
Everday Chocolate Cake (from the Smitten Kitchen's recipe)
Here’s the original recipe for SK’s Everyday Chocolate Cake.
Read MoreToddler Craziness
Ever since The Little Empress became a toddler, I’ve continually marveled at the seemingly random thought process of toddlers. It just never ceases to amaze and intrigue me.
A long time ago, we got a large yellow rubber ducky blow up bath for The Little Empress. She bathed in it from the time she could sit up until she was a little over a year old. Since then, it has been retired to life as a diaper holder in our master bathroom.
For whatever reason, The Little Empress decided on Friday night that Mr. Ducky is the bestest. toy. ever. and insisted that Daddy bring Mr. Ducky downstairs for her to play with. Daddy complied and TLE spent the rest of the night toting this rubber duck bath tub with her everywhere she went. Mr. Ducky is easily just about as big as her and quite unwieldy but TLE still insisted on toting him around.
TLE thanking Daddy for bringing Mr. Ducky downstairs
On Sunday afternoon, TLE was playing on and off with Mr. Ducky as well as just running around like a maniac, per usual. Oddly, she’d chosen a pair of pink footie pajamas as her outfit of the day. (This after wearing mismatching pajamas when we went out yesterday. I let her out in public in the most horrific of outfits but she’s so proud to do so. Who am I to stop her?) Eventually, she settled down (somewhat) to watch a few episodes of Futurama with Daddy while I attempted to wade through my work backlog. It was a nice change of pace as The Hubs ™ has been working 12+ hour days for the past two weeks so I think both of them were happy to have some bonding time.
About an hour into Futurama, I hear The Hubs ™ call out.
“Uh, honey? We’ve got a situation here.”
Situation, huh? I pushed back my chair and started to make my way out of the office when The Little Empress ran out right in front of me. Grinning, she handed me the diaper off of her naked butt and then promptly ran off. According to The Hubs ™, she had suddenly tired of her pink footies and decided that she wanted to run around nekkid. She continued to run around the rest of the afternoon, happily bouncing from chair to ottoman and to the floor again, reveling in the awesomeness of being nekkid. It took me about two hours to convince her to at least wear a diaper. (I’ll defend other families’ decision to EC but we are definitely NOT an EC household!!)
TLE & Mr. Ducky
Oh well. At least I got a few photos to embarrass her with later in life. And really, isn’t that what digital cameras in the hands of mothers is all about??
Read MorePhotography Practice
Yesterday, I saw two of my closest friends, Blackberry and J tie the knot. Technically, they’d gotten married about nine months ago but yesterday was the actual Big Wedding ™ for their folks. We weren’t able to get to their first ceremony, a civil ceremony held in a bakery for Unique Points ™, surrounded by their friends so we were lucky enough to be able to attend this one.
As predicted, TLE fussed enough during the ceremony that I had to take her outside not once but twice. The ride to the church was pretty long and the wedding was delayed for about half an hour so by the time the ceremony started, she had run through her tiny little well of toddler patience. The Hubs ™ offered to take her but TLE was starting to (loudly) crow for boob. I was left with the options of either ignoring her cries and letting her fuss, with the cry of “BOOB” ringing throughout the church or I could give in. I gave in for the sake of Blackberry’s wedding. This meant that I ended up missing a good chunk of the ceremony.
Of course, I brought along my dSLR. Blackberry had asked me months ago if I’d be their photographer. I declined because 1) I’m not that great of a photographer and 2) wrangling The Little Empress usually prevents me from doing anything other than, well, wrangling her. As it so happened, there was a communication mixup and our friend that she thought was going to photograph the wedding didn’t get the invite. (Ooops.) So the backup photographer ended up being the primary photographer while I ended up supplementing some shots.
I didn’t get quite as many photos as I would have liked. I was far too afraid of getting in someone’s way, blocking someone’s view or otherwise ruining someone’s experience to get in to get some of the shots I would have liked. I think this is why I know I could never be a great photographer. Great photographers aren’t afraid to get the shot. I’m a chickensh!t. 
Despite that, this chickensh!t photographer did at least get some decent shots, including one of Blackberry as she took her mom’s arm to walk her down the aisle. Blackberry later told me that she had only a handful of photos with her mom so this one would be extra special.
While I won’t share photos of the couple online, here’s a few shots I took of the decor and what not…
Bouqets on the train
Flowers at the church
Reception table decor
And of course, I have to include at least one picture of TLE and Daddy at the wedding.
TLE and Daddy
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Copyright
Text and photographs copyrighted by Michelle N unless otherwise noted. Random Geekery
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