Counting the Pumpkins

Every time Katie goes on a walk, she likes to count the pumpkins.

One, two, three…they're all there!

Halloween Mail

Katie was so happy to learn that she had an envelope in the mail. She opened her mail and found a Halloween card, which she promptly, but not quite correctly, read.

She read, "Dear Katie, I love you soooo much! Love from, Grammy Noreen and Grandpa Joe!"

It was cute!

I love getting envelopes in the mail! 

Sometimes these can be tricky to open. 

I knew it was from Grammy Noreen and Grandpa Joe! 

I'm taking my reading pretty seriously these days. 

I was so excited by my mail that I had to hug my card. 

Maybe I'll read it again.

Leaves are Falling

One of my favorite parts about this time of year has always been the autumn colors. I miss seeing the especially beautiful trees in New England, but I still appreciate the colors we get. Katie enjoys the trees too. She loves when she sees leaves falling off of a tree, and she loves when she sees a leaf with particularly bright colors. She has gotten in the habit on walks of gathering leaf collections. It makes walks pretty long when you imagine the piles of leaves on the ground right now. As much as I miss the New England colors, I can't imagine taking Katie on a fall walk there. She wouldn't be done until spring!

I love the pretty colors I see on our walks. 

When we get back home, I always have a collection of beautiful leaves!

Pumpkin Carving

For the first time, Katie was part of the pumpkin carving experience. In the past, Garyldine had carved the pumpkins and brought them to our house, but I thought Katie would like to be involved this year since she loves to help with everything. We invited Garyldine to come over to help with the carving since it's definitely not my talent. Katie helped where she could and was happy to see a cat's face appear on her pumpkin at the end of the process. Thanks, Garyldine!

First, I had to help draw a pattern for the "lid." 

I got to use a butter knife to retrace the lines that had already been cut. 

It was sure hard to pry the top open. 

Finally! 

Gaga showed me how to scoop out the seeds with her hands. I still used a spoon! 

There's more to a pumpkin than what I thought.

We're nearing the end of the seeds! 

Enough scooping for me. I'll just draw on our carving pattern instead. 

Garyldine helped me poke some of the holes in the pumpkin. 

While my mom and Garyldine kept working, I decided to clean up our pumpkin lid. 

Time to wash the front off. 

I love my pumpkin cat!

A Dead Moth

Jennifer was looking out our back window with Katie when they looked down in the window sill and saw a dead moth. Jennifer explained to Katie that the moth had died, and Katie was ready to fix it with her fix-all solution. "It needs new batteries."

I'll get your wings flapping again.

You Know What?

Lately, Katie has been coming up to us and saying, "You know what?" When we say, "What?" she always answers with gibberish. I don't know if she knows what she's saying, but whatever the response is, it's the same every time. Well, Jennifer thinks she has interpreted Katie. She thinks it sounds like Katie's saying, "I'm Jose and I have a horse."

Now when Katie goes up to Aunt Jennifer and says, "You know what?" Jennifer responds, "Yes, I know what. You're Jose, and you have a horse. You know what, Katie?" Katie will say, "What?" and Jennifer says, "I'm Juanita, and I have a hamster!"

The conversation between the two of them always makes me laugh!

I like to laugh with Aunt Jennifer!

No More Pictures

Katie has been tired of the camera lately. When I'm trying to keep up with the blog, it can be a little inconvenient. I've heard a lot of, "No more pictures, please." I do give her space when she asks for it, but here are some of the pictures I have tried to take.

I don't want that camera right now. 

I'll just hide behind the couch. 

I want to play trains with no camera. 

Okay. Enough's enough!

My Very Best Friend

Katie has loved hanging out with Chloe lately. She's happy to follow Chloe around, feed her, read to her, dress her, sing to her, or anything else she can think of. She continues to tell us that Chloe is her very best friend. I think Chloe's a pretty good friend to have!

What are you doing up there, Chloe? 

Maybe I should come up there. 

I love you, Chloe!

Katie Singing to Chloe

(It's pretty quiet. Katie's singing always gets pretty quiet when she sees a camera.)

Trying to Read to Chloe

(Of course the camera interrupted part of the fun. I tried to convince Katie that the camera wasn't on, but I don't think she was falling for it!)

An Overheard Conversation

Katie had invited me to sit with her at her table the other morning, and she had looked out our sliding glass door to see that there were a couple of bugs on the outside of the door. In case I haven't mentioned it, Katie really doesn't like bugs. In fact, when she has looked out of the window at dinner time and seen bugs, she's been known to duck beneath and hide under the table. We tell her the bugs are outside, but she doesn't seem to think that makes a difference. Anyway, she had a funny conversation with the two bugs she saw on our back door. As soon as she was done, I wrote it down, so I wouldn't forget.

"Excuse me, bugs. Ummm…please move away from my house. Away from my door. It's just me. Please don't talk to me, bugs. Go away now…please!"

I thought it was a very polite request!

Go away now!

Halloween Pajamas

Back in September, I bought Katie some Halloween pajamas. I thought they were cute in a Halloween-sort-of-a way, so I was excited to put Katie in them. As I put them on her the first time, she started crying because they scared her. She recovered pretty quickly from her fear and went on with her night.

Then we went upstairs to go to bed, and when Katie entered the dark hallway, we discovered that the eyes glowed in the dark. The fear came back, and Katie quickly covered up the glowing eyes with her hands. She kept the eyes covered up the whole night, and when she got up in the morning and entered a room with lights, she would slowly uncover the eyes and peek under her hands. When she saw they weren't glowing anymore, the hands came down.

Her routine of covering up the glowing eyes has continued each time she has worn the pajamas, but now I think it's more of a game to her than being scared. In fact, she actually chose to wear her Halloween pajamas the other night over her cat pajamas, so she must like them!

These are my Halloween pajamas. 

I'm in the dark hallway, so I have to keep the eyes covered up. 

Are they glowing? 

Yes they are! 

Gotta get them covered up again!

Pumpkin Patch, 2013

Katie has been noticing and admiring all of the Halloween pumpkins and decorations around the neighborhood this year, so we figured it was time for our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch to get our own pumpkins. Before we went, I asked Katie what kind of pumpkin she wanted this year. She told me she wanted a "big, big one with a door that opens." She told Jennifer and my mom that she wanted a green pumpkin. She had big dreams, but luckily her dreams were flexible. We didn't get a pumpkin with a door or a green one. We ended up with "beautiful pumpkins" though, according to Katie.

At the very end of the day, Katie was looking through the day's pictures with me. She sat quietly for awhile, and then said, "It was a beautiful day. It was a beautiful day in the cloud (fog)."

I was excited when we were waiting in line to get in the pumpkin patch. 

There was a little too much commotion around the hay pyramid for me. 

The hay bale maze was fun though. 

I liked seeing the animals, but I still didn't want to pet them. 

This goat was pretty nice. 

C'mon, Grandma! Let's go see some more animals. 

I found a turkey! 

The turkey came over and pecked at my mom's camera. 

I saw the chickens move too! 

My mom tried to get a picture with me, but I didn't want a picture, so I fake-coughed for every picture. 

I don't really like standing by this, but I always have to every year. 

I was excited as we waited in line for the hayride. 

 I couldn't wait to find my pumpkin.

We sat in the back corner for our hayride. 

Grandma squeezed in for a picture with us. 

Aunt Jennifer was excited to push the wheelbarrow! 

We made it to the pumpkin patch! 

I found a big, big pumpkin with a door! 

When Aunt Jennifer picked up the first pumpkin, she got all dirty. It was at this point that she said she missed Garyldine since she got to do part of the dirty work last year. 

After I touched this pumpkin, I had to check for dirty hands. 

"Here's a beautiful pumpkin!" 

I was interested in this bumpy pumpkin, but I didn't want to take it home. 

I thought this was a "good, beautiful pumpkin" too. 

I helped pick out all four pumpkins. 

I like the pumpkin patch. 

Winnie the Pooh stayed in my hood, so he wouldn't get lost. 

We all worked together to clean the pumpkins, but none of us really liked the dirty work. 

We got one picture with all of us! 

I ended my trip by trying out the tractors. 

This was my favorite tractor!