#344 - TLG's Election Day Adventure

I've pretty much voted in every election I've been eligible for, including ones by absentee ballot long ago, and the ones where I was required to mail in my ballot because my precinct was too small to have it's own polling place. But today I was proud to go to our new polling place and I did something I've never done before: I took the little guy to the polling place with me. Now, this doesn't seem like a big deal, maybe, to many parents who take their kids everywhere. But the people at our polling place made it special for him, including letting him have his very own "I Voted" sticker when we were done at the electronic voting machine. I doubt he'll ever remember this small new thing, but when he's grown up he can tell his own children that his mommy took him with her to vote for President Obama.

On a side note, I watched Obama's speech this evening with a great mixture of pride and relief - I do hope that he will keep his word on some of his campaign promises including health care, the war in Iraq, and fixing this economy that's so broken. Yay!

#343 - Scheels Ferris Wheel

This afternoon, our little family visited the new Scheels sporting goods store and rode the indoor ferris wheel. The line for the ride moved very slowly so we were very excited when it was finally our turn. This ferris wheel goes up at least three stories in the air, and being inside you can definitely get some perspective on how far up you are - my hubby got a little queasy at the top, and I'll admit when TLG started moving a tiny bit in his seat, I asked him to stop because he was making me nervous! TLG and I played a rousing game of "I Spy" while we were stopped, trying to pass the time and not let on that I was feeling nervous. (We actually play I Spy all the time, at least twice a day and often in the car, so TLG is good at it.) You could see downtown Reno out the window from the top of the wheel! All too quickly, our ride was over. Then we explored the store a little, particularly the coffee shop (hubby), escalators and pet section (TLG and me). Honestly, TLG loved the escalators (we rode up and down about 4 times each) and we would have saved a little time and money if we had skipped the ferris wheel and just rode the escalators up and down! Ha! The store also has two huge aquariums full of beautiful fish, which we looked at for a minute or two. Scheels is quite a distance from our side of town, so unless we're desperate, I don't see us journeying back there any time soon, but it was a nice new place to visit today.

#342 - Trick-or-Treating for Real

Tonight, we took the little guy on his first neighborhood trick-or-treating adventure (which was also our first time going as parents). Since we practiced TLG's "lines" the other night (including "Trick-or-treat!" and "Thank you,") he took to them pretty quickly. We only went to houses that had lights on, but I was disappointed that even at some of those houses, nobody answered the door. We walked around our street, down an adjacent street to the corner, crossed it and looped up a court, and then headed back to our house. We are grateful to Grandma, who answered the door at our house for 45 minutes while we were out on the prowl. And we're also thankful for our great neighbors who ooohed and aaaahed appropriately over TLG's cute dragon costume and gave him a huge stash of treats!

After we finished our "rounds" of the neighborhood, we stayed up late (for TLG) and ate candy, answered the door for other kids coming by, and sat around being silly and giggling together. After a quick bath, we read some Halloween books that I've had since I was a child, and then it was time to turn off the lights. It's nights like these that make me feel so lucky to have such a great kid.

#341 - "I Want to be Little!"

Our little guy is growing bigger every day, there's no denying it. Two nights ago, he said matter-of-factly, "Mommy, I don't use a pacifier for naps at daycare anymore." Which was a perfect opening for us to discuss how he shouldn't use them at home, either! But we decided to give him until tonight to get used to the idea. So tonight, for the first time, we insisted that TLG go to bed without his pacifier. It was just me home tonight at bedtime, so when he started looking for the pacifier after his first bedtime story, I reminded him that he's a big boy and that he doesn't need it... and that's when he started crying and said: "I want to be little!" (So cute, and yet so silly!) Fortunately, my wonderful hubby came home about 20 minutes after bedtime, and so for the past hour or so, we've been taking turns answering TLG's requests (he wanted music on, he needed to go potty, he needed a stuffed animal from downstairs... you get the idea). My hubby finally had to threaten to close his bedroom door if he didn't stay in bed, and we think he's finally asleep. Whew!

#340 - Strip Mall Trick-or-Treating

Growing up, when we went trick-or-treating, I remember it always being at homes in our neighborhood or at the elementary school carnival. So tonight we put TLG in his dragon costume and attended the "Safe Trick-or-Treating" at the Raley's shopping center near our house. All the stores in the strip mall had people outside their doors handing out candy, and the place was pretty busy with families and kids in costumes everywhere! We fit right in, and we did practice saying "trick-or-treat" in the car on the way over there. TLG came home with plenty of candy to enjoy over the next few days until it's Halloween again and we can do the old-fashioned trick-or-treating at least at a few houses on our little street. He seemed a little overwhelmed at the stores, I don't know if that was from all the people, the costumes, the new-ness of trick-or-treating (since he has always been too little to go, this was his first real experience with that). He loved the candy though. We let him eat a mini Twix bar on the way home from the store, then after dinner he chose a Tootsie Roll Pop which took forever for him to finish (how many licks DOES it take to get to the center of the Tootsie Roll Pop?!?) All in all, this was a neat neighborhood activity.

Here's a photo of us standing in line near a neat decoration outside one of the stores:

#339 - Carving Pumpkins

I have only carved a couple of pumpkins as an adult, and it was quite a few years ago that we did one at our house. So tonight, TLG helped us carve a pumpkin. He has been learning about jack-o-lanterns at daycare for a week or two now, so he knew all about it. I was surprised that he didn't want to use his hands to get all the gooey mess out of the pumpkin (in my mind, that was a natural boy thing to do!) so we ended up using pasta forks to scrape everything out. (He called it a "rake.") My wonderful hubby did all the carving, to TLG's specifications, and we think the jack-o-lantern turned out great. The one mishap we had was we burned all the seeds we were trying to cook so we could eat them... guess we'll have to carve another pumpkin and try again.

#338 - Pumpkin Patch!

Today, my dad joined our little family at the Pumpkin Patch in Sacramento, where we had lots of first for The Little Guy (including his first hayride, haunted house, corn maze, and pumpkin patch in general!) I didn't remember that this particular pumpkin patch had so many great things to do --- TLG also got to go on a pony ride, play on the hay bales, climb through a long tunnel, and of course pick some pumpkins to bring home. We easily spent two hours exploring all the great things to do, and could have stayed longer if TLG hadn't gotten tuckered out and in need of a nap. Thanks, Poppy, for spending the morning with us. TLG and both his parents had a great time and really enjoyed exploring all these new things!