Who's a pumpkin?

Instead of trying to play catch up, I'm going to jump to the highlights of the past two months and then try to keep up from here on out. We'll see how well I do. Cross your fingers.

Biggest and best and most life-altering things first-- Jack is walking. He is a tumbling, toddling little Frankenstein, moving with arms held out in front for balance. He often doesn't seem to know which direction he'll end up going. Sometimes his feet move to fast ahead of him until he finds himself in an inadvertent run, which he resolves by the simple expediency of plopping down on his butt, grinning and starting over.

Next, though equally life-altering, the heat here in Texas has finally broken. Around the 2nd week in September, 80 and 90 degree days became the norm. Now at the tail end of October, the mornings are a brisk 45 or so and most days have settled nicely into the mid-70's. It makes a world of difference. The comfort is marred a bit by the onset of fall allergy season. It seems a strange thing to be sneezing and runny-eyed at Halloween, something more appropriate for Memorial Day. But that's Texas.

Speaking of, Halloween! It's the beginning of the end-of-year craziness. Anna has decided to be a bat. I have tried to talk her into many other things: witch, butterfly, spider, cat, anything. But she is adamant; it must be a bat. Since, strangely, bat costumes are not all the easy to come upon, Terry has once again stepped in to save Halloween and give Anna some spooky wings. Silvia is much easier. She will be, as usual, a pink princess. This year she has a fancy store bought dress which she has already worn into the ground, but she couldn't care less. It's pink, it's pretty and she's thrilled. Jack, as the baby, will be a pumpkin, simply because there are pumpkin PJ's to be had everywhere you turn. I suppose I could have asked Monica for the frog costume Anna, Silvia and Ryan all wore, but pumpkin is easier. So a pumpkin he shall be.

Then the big day comes. November 3rd, 2011. Anna will be 7 years old. It's a big thing. Something about 7 has always made it seem like that turning-point age where she is no longer a little kid. Of course, that's been true and evolving for some time now, but just the official day of it, 7th birthday, feels so strange.

After much thought, we had to accept that this house is simply NOT set up for entertaining. There's no real way we could easily have a party here, so Anna lucked out big time. On her actual birthday we'll do a small family thing, but the following weekend the REAL event will take place. She is having a Fancy Nancy party at a fancy little party place called Sugar and Spice, made exclusively to throw the girliest, pinkest and silliest parties ever with everything from hair, nails and glittery make-up to fashion show dress up and karaoke. She is thrilled. This is also the first year where she's inviting friends from school, people we don't know. See? All grown up now. Told ya.

Walking, cooling off, growing up. Time just keeps slipping by with or without my permission. Funny, that.