Tricky Toddlers on Halloween

Liora enjoyed Halloween this year with her friends Alexander and his little neighbor, McKinley. Running from house to house carrying bags of Halloween loot got the most giggles and smiles. Full costumes, including Liora's duck suit, were soundly rejected by all three toddlers. Go figure. Walking up to strange doors with weird lights or creepy spiderwebs was also not a hit - those were shunned. Parents had to do a lot of coaxing and full-on porch lights were helpful. A few other trick-or-treaters dressed to the nines in scariness succeeded in scaring our timid gang. But, in the end, a good time was had by all.

Butterfly and FootballBoy

Cowgirl and Butterfly

Trick... or we invade!

Huh. It appears that toddlers trick-or-treating interpret the welcoming smiles as an invitation to GO IN people's houses. Completely forgetting to say "trick-or-treat," Liora and gang filed right into several homes to look for who knows what.

Pumpkin Pickers

Liora and her friend Pacifica get ready to roll a wheelbarrow of pumpkins back to the farmhouse. They had a little conflict over who would be in charge, but it was resolved when they realized neither could move it. In addition to a ginormous pumpkin patch, this farm had a corn maze, pumpkin cannons and farm animals. A good time was had by all.

Exit Strategy

This is a picture of Liora and Pacifica in the kiddie maze. My daughter is the one with the strawberry on top.

Scuba Diver? You judge.

All kids seem to fixate on an animal (e.g., monkey), object (e.g., airplane) or archetypal role (e.g., firefighter). For Liora, being a scuba diver has captured her imagination for several months now. Her only exposure to actual scuba divers has been at the Seattle Aquarium, in a giant tank at the front. They feed fish and chat up the little kids that gather in front of the two story window. We also randomly ran into a scuba teacher and student on the beach in West Seattle as they were gearing up. At not quite two and a half, though, its not clear to us what she can understand about scuba divers. But, let me tell you, she wants to be one.

In this picture, Liora has gathered several sets of pajamas and a lei as her scuba diver outfit. You can see that the outfit is not terribly successful, most of it dragging on the floor about her feet. Her determination to drape as many pieces on her body was effectively preventing us from getting her pajamas on and generally moving along bedtime. This is not the first time the "scuba diver" transformation has been invoked to create delay. But I ask you, could you resist?

Little Buddha

In repose, Liora the scuba diver looks uncannily like a statue of the Buddha.

Liora's Bay Area Fan Club

Liora's biggest Bay Area fans gathered on the steps of Liora's grandparents for this October photo. This was the only one of 10 photos in which Liora was not putting a finger in her nose.

Puppet show Glow

Liora could not stop with a earsplitting grin at the Fairyland puppet show. The story clearly went over her head, but she was still riveted from beginning to end. At one point, she wanted to leave, but made Nana come back to see the end.

Fairy Training

Nana takes Liora on the Fairyland train, a staple of the park since the dawn of fairydom.

A Swinging Greataunt

Liora looks to her Greataunt Diane for a push on the porch swing. Did we mention that, although Liora is not responsible for posing in front of the Obama sign, she can say "Barack Obama" quite fluently?