Halloween 2010!

Another Halloween over. And a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mark!! Mark's birthday falls on Halloween but we celebrated on Saturday. I cooked grilled beef tenderloin with prosciutto-wrapped asparagus and baked potato...(a deviation from our relatively meat-free diet...but it was his birthday)!

It was a pretty good weekend apart from the fact that River started with a fever on Saturday night. It got to 40 degrees and he had it all through Sunday. Advil brought it down, but he was very lethargic and not his usual happy self (although even River with flu is a relatively happy boy).

We attended the school's Halloween Howl on Friday night. It was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, we spent too much time running after a little elephant (River) to take many pictures.

Bronwyn and Gala...cute dog and cat!

Nicole working hard giving henna tattoos, which the kids loved!

Litte elephant...

The kids had a fantastic time playing games and running around. It's a really well organized and fun event. Although the rooms were very hot and crowded, the kids didn't seem to mind and it was great to see them so excited and having so much fun.  I think I may volunteer to help out next year...but let's not quote me on that. We got the rest of our pumpkins carved and they look great (we think).

Spooky pumpkins

Halloween is BIG around here and I suppose by "around here" I am referring to the North American continent. After 17 years, I have got used to the celebration and can, at times, even get enthusiastic about it (kind of).  Of course, selfless soul that I am...I do it for the children, but it was never really part of our childhood culture in England. Sometimes, our version of trick or treat was to go around to the neighbours houses and when they opened their doors shout, "Trick or Treat!"...and if the neighbour wanted an easy life then they would give us money (cash, not candy). If they didn't then we'd pull off their gates or commit some other act of petty vandalism. I suppose we were basically a group of kids with a Halloween extortion racket. I feel kind of bad about it now, of course, and I'm sure that's all changed. The kids probably dress up to look far more scary and intimidating these days. I also remember my sister and I, and our best friend, waiting for darkness so that we could go out into our front yard where we would be "witches" and invent dances and sing strange made-up chants; round and round...over and over...until we got dizzy. Yes, we were that weird.

But here it is about dressing up, playing and having fun...and surely we need more of that!

Nicky (Wolverine), Bronwyn (zombie dog), Amy (princess)

All the kids look great in their outfits (a few more parents could have dressed up...you know who you are). Bronwyn was a very cute zombie dog. She did her own face-paints (including chains on her wrists and blood coming out of her eye (?!) River wore Bronwyn's elephant costume from last year. I'm not sure how much he got out of it. I'm sure he wondered why everyone was calling him an elephant! Mark took Bronwyn trick-or-treating with her friends. She was incredibly excited and by all accounts they all (parents and kids) had a fantastic time. People in this neighbourhood really go the extra mile to decorate their places. Mind you, some of the house around here look haunted even before they're decorated for Halloween. And Bronwyn brought home the biggest load of candy I have ever seen. Good job she gets a new set of teeth in the next couple of years. Some macabre decorations...




Fate had a different plan in store for me. Oh yes...I was to spend the evening with a feverish River...endure a sleepless night taking care of him...and then get puked on at 4:00am, (good job he's cute). Karma, I suppose, for being so bad all those Halloweens ago...

One pumpkin down...

three more to go...


The multi-face pumpkin!

 As part of the run up to Halloween, Nicky came over to carve pumpkins with Bronwyn. The intention was to carve two, but that was perhaps a bit ambitious given that 6-year olds have the attention span of a fruit-fly. They drew crazy faces around the sides and I carved. It's the pumpkin of many faces.

We still need to work on the others...I think I'm going to have sore hands. I also made pumpkin soup, baklava, and roasted the pumpkin seeds (I was having a domestic moment). Of course, I will probably be the only one to gnaw away on the pumpkin seeds. Apparently they are very good for you. Full of magnesium. And we all know we need to eat a bit more magnesium...it's something I worry about constantly (by the way: its atomic weight is 12, and so it's a relatively light metal...it won't make you feel full and bloated like some of those heavier metals...eh eh. Hey, I just made a chemistry joke!).

When I think of magnesium my mind conjures up lame chemistry experiments from high school. All the kids standing around wearing ridiculous goggles and watching something vaguely fizzling around behind a plexi-glass screen, hoping the teacher would just go for it and create an explosion. One that was potentially blinding so that it warranted wearing those ridiculous goggles. 

Anyway, later we took a walk to the park. Bronwyn and Nicky are really good friends and it is cute to listen and watch them play. They are well into toilet talk. As we listened to their chatter, I was fascinated by how many times they could put "pee", "poo", "fart", "butt" and "weenus" (don't ask), into a sentence. Something like, "And then you fart out your butt and it flies into a cloud of poo, and then it falls into a weenus that farts, and then poo and pee comes out!"  HAHAHAHAHHA!! I don't remember that phase, but I must have gone through it because I have an older brother. There has also been a bit of kissing going on ("ewwwww! giggle, giggle"). Very sweet.

Photo courtesy of River!

On another note, I picked up my Halloween "costume", or at least the accessories. I am going to be a cat. I was a cat last year and I have decided to be a cat that gets a little older each year for every Halloween for the rest of my life. Done. This is the packet it came in.

"Deluxe Play Instant Kit"...who could resist? And just in case you were misled by the photos of the two children in the foreground, the package makes it clear that these are "Adult Party Accessories". Having said that I also bought a packet for Bronwyn's friend Gala because she is also being a cat. I'm not sure what is so adult about cat ears, a cat tail, and a bow tie. I'm not even sure the sexual objectification of women is restricted to adults any more. But we won't go into that. The models have very odd expressions, especially the one in the middle at the back. Embarrassed almost: "Really? You want me to wear this silly leotard with fishnet tights and a bow tie and then put, what are they, mouse ears? on my head...oh, and a tail. And I should look porn-star provocative like the two women beside me? And you're paying me how much? Okay. I guess my modelling career is just about done, but I still need the drugs. How's this?"

Here comes the ....rain.

Woke up this morning to a dark, rain-soaked world and a sore throat. The cold that I have been trying to fight for the last few days seems to have taken hold in the night. Another night with not much sleep. My body seems to have forgotten how to sleep and it is very annoying. On the nights when I can sleep, River decides that 2am is a great time to wake-up and have some fun. On the nights when he sleeps, my body decides to lay awake. I'm not sure what is up. I am wondering if we simply lose our ability to sleep as we get older.

We have been worrying about River lately and those type of worries are true 3am worries. The type that keep you up for hours, but don't seem so bad in the light of day (I use the term "light" loosely...I am hard-pressed to describe the grey, dismal cloak outside the window as "light"). I think I really have to get a handle on his intervention program. We had a team meeting yesterday and today I met with another consultant who pointed out things that could be different in his program. The thing that is lacking is the skills needed to begin any kind of conversation with River (or him with us). This seems to be so slow in coming. She gave me some ideas and showed me some clips of other kids at different stages in their intervention programs. I was a little dismayed at the progress some of these kids had made compared to River. I think it is a lot to do with his program, it is good, but too slow. I need to take a more active role and take more control of his targets.

The consultant today gave me loads of ideas and offered to help me put together some "scripts" and storyboards for various routines. This way we can go through some routine activities with River until he has memorized the elements that make up those routines and be able to tell us what comes next etc. The hope is that he can then generalize this into other activities so that we can talk about various things/activities and what to expect...what we like, don't like etc. What is wonderful is that she is just doing this to help. No payment. She's even going to take a Saturday morning to show me how to make the "scripts/story boards on the computer. It's great to find someone like that. We found her by accident when we were frantically calling around (ANYONE) when we first received River's diagnosis and were completely overwhelmed. She guided us through the whole complicated system of autism funding/supported childcare/finding ABA consultants/finding behavioural interventionists/occupational therapists/speech therapy etc. She works with Vancouver's Infant Development Program. This is a great resource for parents with babies and young children with special needs. I have heard that cut-backs are coming. I just hope this program stays intact. It is an invaluable resource to parents like us. I think I may have to write letters to government!

River is still wandering. Perhaps more so these days. He takes off whenever I take, or pick up, Bronwyn from school. Luckily, I have met a few parents who know what River is like and how fast he can move. There are a few pairs of eyes looking out for him, which is fantastic. I'm so glad we moved schools. There are aspects of the old school we miss, but we have maintained some friendships and that is good. We had Callum and Conan (and Helen) over today which was great. Callum and Bronwyn were in kindergarten together. Helen and I made plans (again) to go for a beer which will be fun. We just need to make sure it's a non-hockey day because otherwise the bars are ridiculous. I will make a plan.

Bronwyn seems to have hitched a ride on the play date train this week. It's great...but busy! Halloween is fast approaching and I don't feel like anything is ready. It is also going to be Mark's birthday. Unfortunately, his birthday always ends up taking a back seat to Halloween. I am sure we'll come up with something. It's pumpkin carving day tomorrow....yay!

Halloween 2009

My favourite elephant, bat and pirate! We had a fun Halloween. Albeit among boxes and packing. Halloween is also Mark's birthday AND the anniversary of the day we met...so it's quite the occasion for us. Unfortunately, Mark's birthday takes a backseat now that we have kids and Halloween has taken over. Poor Mark! But we managed to make a nice dinner and it was fun to go trick or treating...

I was a cat. A very easy costume that I wish I'd thought of years ago. Black pants, black top...$3 clip on ears, some face paint, and a meeeooowww. The perfect last minute costume that I wish I'd known about a while back when there was actually a vague possibility of being invited to an amazing impromptu, Halloween party. (The kind that start after the kids go to bed). Oh well, better late than never!

Our pictures didn't turn out so well. The flash on the camera makes the room light up like a football stadium. Nevertheless the kids looked very cute!

It's almost spooky time!

Well it is almost Halloween. It's nearly as big as Christmas around here. It is also Mark's birthday - so it's an extra occasion in our house. Bronwyn had a school trip to a little family farm/pumpkin patch. I took River along too. It was a lot of fun. It was cute to see Bronwyn with her classmates. The kids are already getting really excited. River was captivated by a chicken. They were running around. There was also a cockerel with a loud crow...he wasn't so keen on that!

Bronwyn got to stroke the horses. She adores horses. I just hope she doesn't get any equestrian ideas because we certainly don't have an equestrian budget!

River took off to inspect some puddles...

AND we got around to carving a pumpkin. Bronwyn drew the design and I carved. Then Bronwyn wanted to pose beside it. We roasted pumpkin seeds and made spicy pumpkin soup. Very good soup, if I say so myself. I will make some more and write out my recipe this time. Unfortunately, we can't do too much decorating...we will be moving soon. Yippee!