I wanted to begin the Halloween post by writing about the day we carved pumpkins, which was actually the day before the holiday. We had made carving plans with with Evan's friends Cora and baby Margo. They were going to be over at 4:00 PM so it was important for Evan to lay down for his nap on time. What is interesting is that Evan is a good napper 98% of the time, but on this day, when I really wanted him to fall asleep on time so he would be alert and congenial when his friends arrived, he decided that sleep was not on the agenda. He made this abundantly clear by throwing that good frog, Froggy, out of his crib and wailing sadly while clutching his crib bars not long after I laid him down. So I reached deep into my bag of tricks and took him for a soothing car ride, a sure fire way to get him to snooze... I thought. After 20 minutes of driving, however, and after Evan had pointed out all of the Old Barns to me on Old Mission Peninsula, I thought I might have failed. I decided to head home, but before I did I pulled over, and told Evan that we were both very tired and it was a good time to go to sleep. When I started driving again Evan asked if my eyes were closed. I told him they were not, but suggested that he close his because it was time for rest. A moment later he said he could not see my eyes because the rearview mirror was pointed in the wrong direction, and he again wanted to know if my eyes were closed. I told him that my eyes were open for now, but that I was going to take a rest when we got home and that he should try to sleep now. I did move the rearview mirrow so that I could see him sitting behind me in the back seat. As we drove I could see that he was finally beginning to get a sleeply look on his face (sleepy face = expressionless with droopy cheeks and mouth, drooling is often involved). He started blinking more, and with each closure of his eyes, re-opening would take longer. Finally his eyelids were just too heavy, and he looked as if he were asleep. But then, right at that moment, his eyes opened once more, and he said, "I'm sleeping Daddy!" Then he shut his eyes again, his head rolled to the side to rest comfortably on his car seat, and I heard tiny snores. I thought it was cute and touching that he was trying to fall asleep because I had asked him too, and that he had caught himself just prior to nodding off, and was so proud that he had been successful at going to sleep. With this commentary I am posting a picture of the end result of our pumpkin carving get together. Aside from being a good time, we ended up with some sweet sweet scary cool pumpkins.
