Halloween!

I'm not entirely sure why I thought we needed so many pumpkins...but here they are, ready to gut and carve!


This is one of the Middle Little's creations.

Here you see one of The Girlie's pumpkins on the left, The Middle Little's on the right, and one of Jack's pumpkins smiling from the pillar.

Jack in his Skelly-Bones costume...with his eyes, of course, closed!

The Middle Little in his alien costume!

Yes, that's a girl in there. My Girl. In a horror flick costume. Who is this kid???
These are the only two pictures I have of The Older Littles, but in my defense, the instant we got home, they took off to raid their loot! Once they'd consumed 12 pounds of candy each, they weren't going to hold still for pictures...but the sugar crash, when it came, had them sleeping really well!

Since The Olders were hiding in their rooms, "secretly" gobbling up candy, The Beloved and I took pictures of Jack!
Here he is getting a helping hand from Daddy so he doesn't topple into the flower bed!

This is The Middle Little's other pumpkin - same theme!
"What happened to your guts???"

"Don't be grumpy pumpkin...

"...I'll share my candy with you!"

"Dude! Cheer up!" You can see my attempt to copy Jack's "Pop-eye" face onto the small pumpkin over his left shoulder.
"I brought my little pumpkin over to cheer you up!"

"Hey! Little pumpkin...go sit next to this grump...
...and spread your smile to his face!"

Blue raspberry Dum-Dums!

"Hey Mom! Candy is gooooood!"

"Thanks Daddy! I kept hitting my nose instead of my mouth!"

Here's Jack's candy poured out all over him! Notice that the costume feet are just hanging, because Jack's actual feet are a good 6" inside the legs!

All Jack was really interested in was this crinkly Teddy Grahams package!

CANDY!!!!

Jack and his pumpkin smiling at each other!

Despite the pumpkin being nearly full to the top, Jack kept picking it up and rolling over with it! His arms have gotten much stronger lately. Later this evening The Girlie squeaked "Look at him! Look at him! Look what he's doing!" And look we did! Once his jammies were on Jack was on his tummy playing. And then he lifted up on his forearms, lifted that belly off the floor and started rocking! He wasn't quite up on his knees, but he was rocking none-the-less!

Look at all that loot!

I love the naked little toes sticking out!

And here is a pic of the back of the costume!

We'd started our trick-or-treating with Jack in my arms to drink his bottle, but he was too, too interested in the goings on to eat. So, into his stroller he went. I sat his pumpkin in there next to him and he went door-to-door pounding on his pumpkin, with very little interest in the candy being tossed into it. He smiled at every one who came out to coo at him and say how sweet he was! He pooped out about the last ten minutes, but once we were in the house he woke up, finished his bottle and was ready to check out all that loot!

It's interesting to note that with both of the Older Littles, every time I tried to enlist The Dear Daddy's help with photo propping, he'd roll his eyes and would only go along with a few feeble attempts after much badgering. With Jack, he's right there, setting up photos, adding props, encouraging Jack to go along, making suggestions, lending ideas...he's a changed man!

I read recently that approximately 75% of marriages do not survive a diagnosis of autism past the first year. And an overwhelming 80% of marriages are strengthened following the birth of a baby with Down syndrome, and those marriages remain stable for the long haul.

I'm giving us odds of 2 X 75, for two kids with ASD, to equal 150 points to the positive, because we survived it. Twice! Add 80 for Jack's Ds, for 230. I'm giving us another 100 points for the surprise pregnancy, and another 1000 because The Dear Daddy rocks fatherhood so well. So...we've got a surplus of 1,330 percentage points. And I counted on every single one of them when I had to tell The Beloved that the engine light was on in the van this morning on the way home from driving The Girlie to school because she missed her bus! Oh, how I do love a good run-on sentence!