Santa Monica Pier

Speaking Jane

The time is ripe for a quick list of the cute things Jane is saying these days.

Icy-cone (Ice cream, or more generally, an especially nice dessert)

I like it (I don't like it) (This one is especially tricky for those not in the know)

I heavy (Pick me up and carry me; I'm tired of walking)

Carry you (Pick me up and carry me; I'm tired of walking)

Carry me (I want to carry this object around)

I'm okay. I'm fine! (Said multiple times a day, when she falls or bumps into things.)

Jane has started doing more pretend play. She will crawl around saying "Ribbit ribbit, I a frog!" or "Woof woof, I puppy!" Or, she will run around whooping "Hee-Haa! I cowgirl!" or march stiffly and say in a monotone "I am a robot. I am a robot."

Sometimes in the car, I have the girls take turns singing solos. Jane invariably sings her own unique version of Jingle Bells, which is quick and has some really nice lilting notes in it: "Jingle bells, jingle-aallll-way! Jingle bells, jingle-aalll-way! HEY!" (I've got to get this one on video.)

2009 Halloween Stats

For the 8th year in a row, I am pleased to present our trick or treating statistics. One of these years I'll have to get my brother Bob to make me some bar graphs and pie charts and whatnot. Being a word person, though, I am giving you my usual annotated list.

To see the results from previous years, start on my blog post dated Nov. 1, 2008, and you can follow the numbers all the way back to 2002.

Now, on with this year's numbers:

200: Total number of trick-or-treaters! Early on, Robert predicted 200 for the night, and as so often happens, he was proven uncannily correct.

6:35pm: First trick-or-treaters

8:25: Last ones. I kept the lights going for 20 minutes after that, since we usually get a few stragglers up until 9pm or so. But none this year. My theory is that all the older kids were at parties by this time.

30+: Princesses, mainly Disney, remaining by far the most popular costume for little girls.

50-ish: Cowboys, pirates, robots, superheroes, skeletons, vampires, etc. The boy costumes seemed evenly distributed among the classic looks.

15+: Something that appeared to be a costume, but we didn't understand it. Case in point: a pink tracksuit with ironed-on letters in front spelling out "WOOPY." We still don't get it.

7: Pack of very tall, polite teenage girls with, thankfully, not a single slutty costume among them. One of them had a great 80s workout outfit with fluorescent shirt, head band, leg warmers, the whole bit.

4: Family members in matching orange Department of Corrections jumpsuits. Each suit also had a nickname printed on the front. The mom's was Dopey, but I didn't catch the others. Is it possible they were trying to look like dwarves, or was this a reference to what landed her in the slammer?

3: Oompa Loompas, looking fantastic in full costumes and make-up. Before handing over the candy and I asked them if they would sing. They excitedly lined up on my porch and did the classic knee bending dance and sang about the dangers of overeating. Best trick-or-treaters of the night, for sure.

1: Sleepy baby in stroller, possibly in a costume but we couldn't tell for sure, whose two parents came forward with grocery bags to collect candy. For the baby. Sure.

Other costumes of note: 2 matching Cleopatras with elaborate costumes, hair, make-up and jewelry; a grown woman in a fancy Indian Princess dress; Supreme Court Justice with black robe and white wig.

In general, most of our traffic was made up of classic trick-or-treaters of the appropriate age, 2-12 years old, with smiling parents standing back and reminding the children to say thank you.

We had very few moms with their own candy sacks, very few uncostumed teens, and although the number of treaters who were taller than I am was still in the dozens, I have to acknowledge that most of them were still of the appropriate age. It is really weird seeing prepubescent children taller and heavier than I am, but with all this good nutrition and cheap meat in our society, it's becoming more and more common.

Most importantly, I was very happy to see that our numbers were back up again this year after several years of decline. I am hopeful that this signifies a renewed interest in trick or treating in general. Certainly while we were out ourselves last night, we felt a great community spirit as we traveled among many other groups of trick-or-treaters. Happy Halloween!

Trick or Treating

The girls had a very fun Halloween today. I will admit to being glad it's over; it seems like the festivities were really stretched out this year, with a lot of carnivals and parties to attend. But today was pretty mellow for us. We went to Maggie's soccer game, had my parents over for dinner, and finally put on costumes and headed out for a trick or treating jaunt around the block.

Maggie picked her costume from a catalog weeks ago and never wavered in her choice: She really wanted to be a Star Trek officer. Sometimes she watches TNG with me and she quite likes it, especially Dr. Beverly Hills Crusher. But for the costume she went with the classic 60s look with the tall black boots. I also painted some "futuristic" gold eye make-up on her, which she loved.

Audrey, who desperately wanted her costume to somehow fit with Maggie's and yet did not under any circumstances want to wear a Star Trek uniform, decided to be an alien princess. We made her some funny eyeball antenna and tried to paint her face green, but she ended up unhappy with the results. Daddy saved the day be suggesting she be a Monster Princess instead, with green hair and pink fangs. She loved this idea. Her hair was very, very green and got many comments while we were out. It took two shampoos and a tubful of green water before she was back to normal.

For Jane, we didn't plan a costume ahead of time (though I would have loved for her to have been a Tribble, it just didn't work out--plus, I'm pretty sure she would not have agreed to wear a big fuzzy costume). I pointed her to the dress-up bin and tried to tempt her into a dog costume or the crocodile costume Audrey wore when she was two. But Jane picked out a pretty pink princess dress, and that was that. She was so cute when we put it on her. She twirled and swirled, and ran to look in the mirror, where she turned this way and that to fully admire herself. She even let me put bows in her hair, which she hardly ever does anymore.

Before and after our own trick or treating, the girls had a blast handing out candy to the people who came to our house. Maggie especially loved doing this, along with calling out the numbers and costumes for us to make note of on my official stats clipboard. (I'll post separately with our famous stats...we're happy about this year's turnout!)

Halloween art

Maggie:
Audrey:
Maggie:
Maggie & Audrey:
Jane:

Audrey's preschool Halloween party

Jane, my mom, and I went to preschool this morning for the Halloween party. A (very talented) face painter turned Audrey into a tiger, most of the other girls into cats and butterflies, and the boys into snakes and pirates.

Audrey the Tiger:

Audrey and one of her best friends, Amanda:

With one of her other best friends, Amina:

Marching in the funny hat parade (Audrey made a paper crown decorated with jewels):

Lined up for the pinata (and pouting for the camera at this point):

Girl Scout Flag Ceremony

Maggie has joined the Daisy troop at her school (that's Girl Scouts for K-1st grades). Today the Daisies and Jr. Girl Scouts teamed up to do the flag ceremony at the morning assembly. Maggie had a proud little smile on her face the whole time, and was especially pleased when she marched past her class sitting in the front, and all her friends called out her name.

Zoo

Maggie was off school today, so my Mom and I took advantage of the free time and nice weather to take the girls to the zoo, where we hadn't been in a long time. It was fun seeing Jane really enjoying all the animals (especially the giraffes and the chimpanzees).

Cider making and pumpkin carving