Pumpkin Love

It's finally Fall around here, and Finn couldn't be happier. He has a newfound love of all things pumpkin for some reason. Our weekend walks are characterized by exclamations of "Muh-min" about every 15 seconds or so, every time we pass another house with something the tiniest bit pumpkin related on display. Side note, to our toddler, the words pumpkin and muffin are pronounced the exact same way. Perhaps I need to take a cue from that and start baking him some pumpkin muffins for his pre-breakfast snack - yum!


Finn also gets a kick out of all Halloween decorations. Not even the scary ones phase him, and to my dismay he even gets excited about the super-large spiders we've seen on display. Ugh. But I love that he is enjoying it, since this is my favorite time of year. Colorful leaves, breaking out sweaters after way too many days of tank tops, pumpkin lattes at Starbucks, I love it all. Except the large spiders.


This past weekend was pretty quiet and low key, but still a ton of fun. The reason was Finn - he is definitely going through a wonderful phase right now, so much so that I'm not sure I want to talk about it lest I jinx it and the tantrums start up anew tomorrow. He is happy and talkative and mimicky and funny, so full of excitement for EVERYTHING, that even just going to the grocery store is fun with him. I have heard that the whole numbers can be just as great as the half numbers are awful, but as we roll into Finn's second birthday in a few days, I'll be wishing on his candles that 2 1/2 is just as kind to us as 2 has been so far.


Saturday we went on a "hike" in a nearby state park. I use the quotes because much of the way was paved, and we brought Finn's stroller along (not so easy to maneuver on the unpaved parts, though), though he refused to sit in it much of the time. It was a wonderful day, weatherwise - a long-sleeved shirt and jeans was the uniform for everyone, and I think you'll agree that Finn looked particularly cute in his:

The next morning we set up the fake pumpkins we purchased at Target a few weeks ago (on a whim, and at Finn's insistence, of course). They are perfect for the front of our house, which gets full sun during the afternoon that has been known to heat our storm door to a flesh-singe-ing degree and would no doubt make short work of any real carved pumpkins we might place out there. Finn is in love with his new buddies, and enjoys just sitting next to them on the steps every day, especially when M. and I are trying to load him into the car to take him to daycare. Every night, after dinner, we ceremoniously go outside and plug them in, so Finn can exclaim over and over again about "light!" "Muh-min!" "Mommy, light!" "Muh-min!"

Though not the best picture, I included the one above so that you can see Finn in his typical state of late - running somewhere, anywhere, with a devilish grin on his face. This kid does not slow down!