Halloween snapshots

ready to go trick or treat!

here we go!

 the loot...

mouth full of chocolate treats

we got tricks too!

something about fatherhood

A while back I started a "daddy" blog called something about fatherhood. For whatever reason I no longer post on the blog. But now I've copied the posts from that blog to this blog, backdating each to correspond with the dates each was originally posted. The post are listed in chronological order, the first from February of this year and the final (which was never actually posted) from June--on the occasion of Lilly's birthday. I used the picture below on the blog.

It's difficult too

Resources

A girl's best friend, or Sick again

The village thing

Readjusting in times of change

Sighing at lunchtime

Lilly turns 2

sjokolademelk

Lilly is a big fan of chocolate milk just like me! Anne has frowned upon this, which is understandable. After all, neither of us want to raise a sweet tooth. But, really, Lilly doesn't eat many sweets. Our house is basically a sweet-free zone. No regular desserts, no candies. Only occasionally do we have ice cream, in which case we make it a family thing: Chubby Hubby for mama, Phish Food for papa, and a good vanilla for Lilly. And occasionally Lilly and I share a yummy, gooey, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, in which case I consider it father-daughter bonding. The same goes for chocolate milk. I think Anne has come to see it this way too (the photographer's eye tells all?!). Anne took many, many photos of Lilly and I drinking chocolate milk after carving and decorating our pumpkins for Halloween. Viewing all the photos together, I could see that she had captured the joy of our father-daughter bonding (heightened, to be sure, by the festive atmosphere at the time). Here are two of my favorites.

holiday season chapter one: Happy Halloween!

Lilly was the cutest Little Red Riding Hood on Halloween! You've gotta take my word for it, because at the moment, I'm unable to upload pictures from our camera to the blog (we need to refill our quota). Below are just a couple pictures taken with my friend's cellphone camera (her daughter's in the background) from when she took the girls to the pumpkin patch before Halloween.

Man, everything was great about this holiday this year. I remember last year, she was a little afraid when kids came to the door, but this year she loved it! All about it. I love how Halloween is not just about Oct. 31, but everything leading up to it, the actual day, and then the aftermath. Getting the pumpkin, carving the pumpkin (actually, Leighton carved one and she drew and put stickers on hers; I either helped her or worked on the pumpkin seeds, cleaning and then roasting them), reading about Halloween, talking about what's going to happen, how we'll get into costumes and go "trick or treat" and say "thank you" and "Happy Halloween!" Lilly and papa savoring some of their favorite treat: chocolate. Both some hot chocolate on the pumpkin carving night the Sunday before Halloween, and then some mini-chocolate bars after we'd come home from trick or treating and were counting the treats (I'd told her the treats were just for counting) before putting them away on Halloween the following Sunday.

Ahh, I love how holidays have become even more fun with a child around!

Now we look forward to Thanksgiving, and then Christmas (seriously, I've already start humming carols, but have vowed not to play any till after Thanksgiving). We look forward to having grandpa Kent and grandma Cheryl with us, and hosting our first actual Thanksgiving meal! I've already ordered the turkey from the Co-op and started stocking up on the things we'll need.