WSDW: First Halloween

Yup, I’m ’bout to blast a bunch of Halloween-ness on this post because 1) last week’s post didn’t fall on the day of Halloween parades and outings; and 2) my main audience for these Wednesday posts are close friends and family members who look forward to seeing these pics more than the average person. Besides, with all the stores rushing for us all to get to Christmas, I don’t mind a little Halloween recap to slow things down a bit. I mean, why are we completely skipping over the joys and excitement of Thanksgiving? It’s actually one of my favorite holidays, competing with Christmas.

So anyway, Jia experienced her first Halloween. Last year was technically her first Halloween since she was born, but at only 8 months I didn’t really feel like making a huge deal out of it since she wasn’t going to remember it. Sure, we bought her a Halloween onesie (see last year’s post) and cute little jack-o-lantern knitted sock/booties, but we didn’t try to figure out an official costume or organize a stroll around the neighborhood. This year; however, was a whole different game. She didn’t like the orange glittery butterfly wings I’d bought her from the 99 cent store (it really freaked her out having the wings strapped to her shoulders) and she is really very into Mickey and Minnie. So, we got her a Minnie Mouse costume dress from Target and I ordered a little matching bow barrette from Etsy to go with it.

10/29-30: The first of celebrations was her day care’s Halloween Costume Parade, which was two days’ worth of adorable kids walking around in their halloween costumes while singing rhymes with their teachers. I didn’t go to the first day of the parade (it was a Thursday and Friday, same ordeal) but I attended her second day and tried to take pictures. That didn’t really go very well. Since I was hurriedly getting her dressed in her costume, she didn’t want me to watch her walk the parade from (semi) afar. She insisted I hold her hand. So a lot of my pictures are really close up and might be blurry, since I could only take pictures from a sideways angle while we were walking.

After that, we went to my nursing school friend’s family house for their daughter’s 4th birthday and Pumpkin Carving Party. Wow, I’ve never seen a bigger group of parents and young kids, and they were all dressed in really adorable costumes. Jia was a natural, walking around the party not needing to be attached to my hip, insisting on going into the “bouncy house” (one of the phrases she’s learned in the last couple weeks) and throwing balls through tall-standing wooden Halloween cut-outs. She also got to watch It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while munching on some Pirate’s Booty. We did carve our first pumpkin together, so she got her hands all gooey with pumpkin membranes and seeds.

Halloween Day was a big one: the three of us met up with one of our friends (well, our Best Man Ricky) and one of Jeff and Ricky’s old friend for the UCLA/Colorado football game at The Rose Bowl. It was Jia’s first tailgate party (an official UCLA tailgate), where the marching band played before the game, and it was her first ever football game. She was doing really well despite us all baking out in the 85-degree heat. We left the game at halftime (couldn’t bear the heat) and Jia napped in the car on the way home. We grabbed Thai food for dinner and then got dressed up and walked around the neighborhood for her first Trick or Treat. She said “Trick or Treat” an impressive number of times, though most of them were at LEAST 10 feet from the door. She would clam up when confronted with the person at the door. She also said “Happy Halloween!” a handful of times which was really exciting!

Note: No, she didn’t have any of her candy, no she won’t be having any of her candy in the future! And yes, Jeff and I are slowly making our way through it, trying not to give in to temptations too quickly.

Other things she’s done throughout the last week:

Pumpkin Socks/Minnie Socks: She’s become very particular about what socks she wears on some evenings. It was November 4th and she insisted on wearing Pumpkin socks to school. On November 2nd, she insisted on wearing Minnie Socks and we didn’t have any clean ones, so she went to bed sock-less.
Pumpkin Light/Circle (Mummy) Light: We got her these $1 glow sticks that had a pumpkin topper and a mummy topper, to walk around the neighborhood with. Well, she has become intent on carrying them around the house, even after breaking them and even after the glow is no more. We’ve now Gorilla glued the toppers back onto the stick and she still walks around with them.
Hello Kitty Shoes: She calls the little black and gold kitten flats that I got her “Hello Kitty shoes” and insists on wearing them at the most random times. She really likes them – one of the main reasons is because she can put them on herself, since they have no straps.
Sunny/Bright (She actually says, when it’s super sunny out, “Sunny, it’s bright. Jia sunglasses?”)
Blanket: Oh this just happened. It’s getting pretty chilly out here in the evenings, averaging in the low 60’s. So, Jia’s room can get chilly in the middle of the night. I went in last night after she started crying and it felt cold, so I grabbed a really soft warm blanket from under her crib and laid it across her. In the morning, she was laughing and asking for her blanket. She didn’t want to get out of her crib, instead, she continued to lay on her tummy with the blanket ontop of her all cozy. When Jeff took her out of the crib, she kept saying “BLANKET! BLANKET!” and was happy as a clam when I draped her shoulders in her blanket. So now we have the blanket obsession going on. At least there’s no more crying at drop-off and her lions stay relatively clean since she leaves them and forgets about them for a majority of the day!
Marker caps: I found this pretty neat. After she was drawing with some highlighters of mine, I noticed much later that she’d put all the colored caps on their respective marker. This is mind-blowing to me, she seems like the most observant little human ever!
In the bath tub she’s now lying on her belly pretending to swim
We are teaching her some Chinese: Well, by “Chinese” I mean we’re teaching her the words for “chopsticks” “armpit” “fart” and “nose” so far. If this isn’t great Chinese schooling, I don’t know what is! Maybe Jia and I will be watching some Learn Chinese channels on AppleTV.
Role playing with dolls: At daycare they have this “dramatic play” area, where there’s a kitchen set up, a box of doll babies, baby blankets for the dolls, and other items. I came to pick her up the other evening and she was walking around with a doll and baby blanket. As I gathered her belongings, she showed me she was putting her baby down for a nap. She laid her doll down on the floor, laid the blanket on top of the doll and said “shhhhh, shhhhh” =) so cute. Also, at the Halloween Party we went to, she found a doll stroller and was attached to that thing, saying “stroller, stroller” and pushing it around Erin’s back yard. I think I know what she wants for Christmas!

Pics:

Those dried tears from “almost” not having my hand to hold during the parade

Not a great pic, but this is how they all walk together, holding onto these rings

She looks so big here!

Happily playing in the fenced in area for her class

The following pictures have been posted from my phone onto Facebook, but are cross-posted here so my grandma and non-Facebooker family can see them too:

I'll continue to carry her as long as she lets me... except it's easier backpack style because she's getting tall and her head keeps knocking into my chin!

Pre-UCLA game: I’ll continue to carry her as long as she lets me… except it’s easier backpack style because she’s getting tall and her head keeps knocking into my chin!