"I Just Need A Plate and a Fork and a Bunny"

Owen celebrated his second easter yesterday, and it was a rather quiet affair.  I did actually hardboil eggs this year, which was more than I managed to do the previous year, but since we hadn’t gotten around to dyeing them on Saturday, we decided on Sunday to forego the craft and skip right to the egg salad.

I had been squirreling trinkets away for Owen’s easter basket though, and he ended up with a nice assortment of rabbits driving carrots and hopping chicks and things like that.  The only candy I included was a chocolate rabbit (which, not knowing it was chocolate, he quickly threw out of the basket and kicked under the couch – don’t worry, dear reader, as those who know me can imagine, despite my sore back I crawled and rescued the rabbit, dusted it off, and placed it lovingly on the counter for future eating), and some jelly beans in plastic spiderman eggs.  Sean offered him a bean to eat, but he was having none of it; in fact, he didn’t believe they were food, let alone candy, and spent a good half hour or so taking the beans out of the egg and putting them on the chair, and then putting them back into the egg, etc. etc.

There is a method to his madness.

Owen was also invited to an egg hunt our neighbors were having for their granddaughters, but the hunt was supposed to take place at 10:30, and we went on a walk at 9:30 (we surprised two rabbits in the wild, of the non-chocolate variety!), and by the time we got back at 10, the hunt had already occurred!  Owen was handed a shopping bag filled with plastic eggs, which 5 year-old Savannah called “boy eggs” since they were all a sports ball motif.  Owen promptly sat down and took all the eggs out of the bag, and then put them in the bag, and then took them out of the bag, and then back in the bag – again, etc. etc., so it was probably just as well that he missed the hunt, since plastic eggs in a paper sack were more than enough excitement for him.

That cat's right behind me, isn't he?

Owen was so busy taking the eggs out of the bag and putting them back in, that he didn’t want to participate in the photo opportunity that our neighbors were trying to arrange, so Savannah and her sister, Guiliana, who is just two months younger than Owen, ended up sitting on either side of him, while he continued his activity, and at one point helpfully lifted his head up and said CHEESE before putting it down again.

And then we spent most of the rest of the day out in the backyard.  I hobbled around after Owen with my injured back, while Sean did real yardwork, Dorothy got in the way, and then Sean went inside and cooked us a ham.

Next year, I plan to dye eggs AND make a cake in the shape of a lamb.

Owen's First Halloween A Little Late

Working full-time with a newborn is not conducive to getting a lot of things done at home.  I'm basically gone for ten hours, and when I get home I spend most of my time with Owen, while fitting in only the chores I need to do for the next day.  This is a long way of saying that our Halloween preparations this year were not the most thorough.  We did get pumpkins, and we did carve them--but luckily for us trick or treating was postponed a few days because of Hurricane Sandy, since we didn't get our carving done until November 3rd.

So Owen had two Halloween costumes, although they were a hand-me-down and a pastiche.  Here is Owen as a scary skeleton:

And here he is in close up, looking not remotely skeletal in his skeleton suit.  A skeleton with chubby cheeks!:

And here is pumpkin Owen, in a costume once worn by his cousin Henry.  This is how he looked when the trick or treaters came by for their candy.  Festive, no?!:

One good thing about babies is that the line between halloween costumes and everyday wear is easily crossed.  For example, this is Owen's winter "coat," inherited from a friend of Martha's.  An adorable little blue bear-kin.

Anyway, Owen DID dress up for Halloween, so I suppose that is something.  Sean has next year's costume all planned, and since it involves a bit of sewing, I'm hoping I'll have this work/baby/ household upkeep thing more down pat!

(Dorothy had a Halloween costume too, by the way:  she was a punk rocker with a lavender mohawk and spiked necklace and bracelet.  Unfortunately for this blog, we didn't get a good photo of her in the costume (yet) because she kept attacking the mohawk....  I will try again, never fear....)