Zuzu's gingerbread party

I don't mind running errands with the kids, because they both do really well when we're out and about. But I do have a limit to the number of times I'm willing or capable to get them dressed and shod, restock the diaper bag, throw snacks in my purse, load the stroller into the trunk etc. This is true even when there's no snow on the ground and the temperature goes above 20 degrees. The hardest part is planning ahead and making sure we leave when we're supposed to, to take advantage of the brief window between naps and meals. (Otherwise we end up hangrily devouring soft pretzels and popcorn at Target at 2:00 for lunch.) I usually reach my errand-running capacity quickly with just our standard weekly activities like the library and the grocery store.

Therefore, I have not yet taken my malfunctioning computer to the Apple store to ask them to fix it. This errand would be higher up on my priority list if I didn't have the internet on my phone. But since I can still read the news online--er, just kidding, since I can still check Pinterest and Facebook--my computer continues to sit uselessly at home, and the crux of this is, that I currently can't upload all the beautiful pictures that my husband took of Zuzu's birthday party.

Zuzu just turned three, and we had a gingerbread house party, and it was frankly one of the cutest things ever. A couple of low-quality phone photos will have to do for now.

First, there was a giant gingerbread play house. Daddy picked up a couple empty refrigerator boxes from Sears, and I made this:

The paper plate roof shingles idea came from here, and the lollipops idea came from here. The kids were pulled in irresistibly toward it, as you would expect.

But that was nothing compared to the joy of watching six children decorate mini gingerbread houses around our table with their mommies. The mommies handled the frosting and the kids handled the candy, and the kids did GREAT and the houses were too darling to believe. (I have heard that transporting the houses back home was problematic--there was a less than 100% success rate with this. Sorry, guys.)

The gingerbread recipe came from here and the icing recipe came from here. If you're going to make a gingerbread house, you won't do better than these recipes, which both yield sturdy building materials, and make the experience fun and easy.

I made the houses in advance and included a surprise: the tops lifted off! And I filled them all with skittles. I figured the kids needed some eating candy in addition to some decorating candy. I'm sure the parents were all extremely happy about this, especially the ones whose houses did not make the home journey intact. You're welcome for the mess and the sugar highs. I also made doors and windows in advance and then the kids could stick them on wherever they wanted.

I didn't know how long the kids would enjoy the decorating process. It was MUCH longer than I expected. We aren't planning to do a birthday party every year, but maybe we'll do a gingerbread house party every year just to celebrate the season. It was so so incredibly fun.

Cute baby boy

Oops, my phone just deleted the blog post I was writing. I was talking about Bear but pictures are better anyway, so here's a couple.

"Probably because I'm cute!"

When Zuzu was younger, before she started communicating, Daddy and I would talk about her cuteness incessantly. And then we'd say, we CAN'T keep saying things like this when she's old enough to understand us, or she will be vain.

Well, YOU try living THIS child and NOT telling her she's cute. It can't be done.

Recently at the grocery store she was riding in my cart. A boy was standing down the aisle from us, older than Zuzu. He stood and watched us for a while, just casually staring for a minute or two until we turned a corner, at which point Zuzu asked, "Why was that boy looking at us?"

"I don't know," I said. Of course I was thinking, "Cuz you're CUTE!" but didn't say it. So she said it for me. She looked up at me with a big smile on her face and exclaimed, "Probably because I'm cute!"

So there it is. The results of our being too liberal with the cuteness comments.

Halloween: an excuse to give and receive

In some ways Bear gets the typical second child treatment. For instance, at this moment there are exactly 15 photos of Zuzu in the living room above the mantel, and exactly ZERO of Bear. And he's now ten months old. (I sure hope I get around to balancing the photo situation by the time he's old enough to look up and notice a thing like that.) In other ways, though, Bear's babyhood has looked more like the first child than Zuzu's, due to the fact that I was working when Zuzu was his age and didn't spend much time on crafty things. So he got a "My First Game" poster to hold up for the cameras at our annual Brewers weekend this summer. It was Zuzu's fifth time to Miller Park and she'd never had a sign.

She also hadn't had a handmade Halloween costume. Well, not a finished one anyway. Last year I did draw some black polka dots on a red shirt with a Sharpie. I was trying to make her a ladybug for the second year in a row. But eventually we gave up on that idea and sent her to daycare in a Packers jersey. "She's Aaron Rodgers!" We also decided she would rather pass out candy than go trick-or-treating. If you're wondering if we were just being lazy, yes, we were. 

Bear, however, got handmade hobbit feet for his first Halloween. And also a ridiculous over-the-top handmade wig (I sorta ran out of time to trim it down to size). He was Bilbo.

This year Zuzu was Cindy Lou Who. I added ruffles to a store-bought pink dress and got an oversized red Christmas tree ornament for her to hold, and made her practice the line, "Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why??" She said it sweetly, if a bit too cheerfully, but she'd draw out the last "why?" perfectly.

All four of us went out into the freezing night for trick-or-treating, Bilbo the warmest with lots of layers. We watched Zuzu trot up to ring each doorbell, so excited at the prospect of being handed candy, her hair in pigtails, her Cindy Lou Who antennas askew, and I had that familiar mommy feeling of thinking one's child is certainly the most adorable in the world.

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, but as I watched her I remembered why we go to the trouble. Not just because kids are adorable when they're wearing silly costumes. Some people like the scary part but that doesn't appeal to me. I think we do Halloween as an excuse to give and receive. It is delightful to give to children, who receive so well, easily and happily. We can't spoil them constantly, so we set aside special days to do it.

As I watched our neighbors open their doors to my little girl, big smiles on their faces, their voices warm and welcoming, their hands full of the gift of free candy, I realized that this is what I always want for Zuzu. When she goes up to someone, tentative, smiling, hopeful, I want her to be greeted by a kind-hearted person who will open their arms to give her something good. Life will be harder than that, of course. And that's why we do Halloween. The rest of the time, people may not be nice, or generous, or appreciative of the person a child is trying to be, but on Halloween they are. "Who are you?" they ask. "I love it!" they say. And then they scoop candy into your bag. It's a magical night for a child and that's a good thing.