Fall Festivities and Liquefying Bones. 'Tis The Season!
This year's annual Fall festivities took a turn in a much more difficult direction than I truly expected. Mind you, before I even explain what that means, keep in mind that in no way does that first sentence imply that a good time was not had by all. However, I will say that cavorting about with an infant in tow was way easier last year. Trying to keep up with not only a toddler's new found freedom in that they can run at full speed at all times, but also a toddler's unpredictable temperament from second to second; that you cannot in any way, shape, or form know what's going to occur from one moment to the next, well let's just say patience needs to become one of my virtues, and very quickly! Seriously, It's easier to predict the weather than a toddler, and we all know how lousy and off kilter weather predictions tend to be, well at least up until the point that the actual weather starts happening...like predicting it's going to rain the moment the first raindrop hits your head. By that time the weather is quite obvious, just like a liquefying toddler is unpredictable until the exact moment their body becomes devoid of all bones and turns into a mass the equivalent of poorly set Jell-O. This my friends, is how the festivities of this season differ from last years.
First Fall festivity: The Pumpkin Patch.
Piper patiently awaiting our departure!
Last year Piper was a mere 5-months-old and squealed with delight at everything they had to offer...petting zoo, pig races, hayrides, the pumpkin patch itself. She was new to crawling so basically was stroller bound the entire time, unless being held on my lap. She was all around the best behaved, happiest baby at the patch that day. Well let me tell you, things took a total 180 this year! This year she tried running away at any given moment of freedom, liquefied the moment she was not allowed her way, and broke down into tears after every "activity." These activities included the hay ride, the pig races, swinging in the car swing, and the cattle-car train ride. It's not that she wasn't in pure delight while these events took place, she just wanted them to last forever. And not getting her way made her melt down with tears, pleading for more. We rode the train ride twice because of this. And during the pig races, whilst waiting for them to begin, I had to several times get up and carry her to the back of the seating area to calm her down.
Pics from the actual patch:
Piper with her awesome cousins!
Us in the Patch!
Possibly my fav pic of the day!
Love this pic of us!
Wait, this is my fav pic!
Adorbs!
Best cousins ever!
We were sitting up front on the benches before the races began, and Piper wanted to get down and just go wherever she pleased. That would have been fine if that meant staying within arms length of me in such a large crowd and not bugging other patrons, but this was not the case. Every time I tried to get her to stay near me she completely collapsed onto the ground, once again in liquid form, and wailed like I was abusing her mercilessly. Let me tell you, as a new and first time mother. there is nothing more embarrassing than thinking people are judging your parenting skills. I'm sure they weren't, as most of them had children of various ages and surely had gone through this stage themselves at one point, but it still doesn't make it feel any better. I was totally paranoid that all eyes were on me! Luckily, I took these fits in stride, manged to peel Piper off the ground and remove her from the immediate situation by taking her out behind the crowds until she settled down. In the end, the only way she behaved was by sitting on my hip.
In the end, it really was a great day and I owe my nieces for coming along and helping out. I don't think my mom and I were quite prepared to handle Piper on our own this year. Thank goodness for small favors!
Pics of us being silly at the patch:
Normal smiles!
Everyone make a duck face!
Make a pig nose!
Everyone be goofy!
Now play dead!
Aren't they a cute bunch?
Second Fall festivity: Halloween.
This year Piper went as her favorite cartoon pig, Olivia. The costume was adorable, we went early enough to get in some daylight trick-or-treating, but yet I only managed to get two shots of her due to basic non-cooperation and once again her liquefying whenever she didn't get her way. Basic problem with the costume, there was a headband with ears to wear. I managed to snap a quick pic the day the costume arrived. I wanted to try on her ears while she was busy pottying and of all things, watching Olivia. I figured it would be the prefect opportunity. Well, as you can see from the pic, Piper thought otherwise...grump face!
Grump face!!!
On Halloween itself, it was very cold and she had to wear her ears with a red hat underneath. We also added some red bows to the tips and ribbon to tie the ears under her neck so they were less easily thrown to the curb. Even so, I still managed to only get one very blurry pic after her initial liquefying in the street while trying to get her to stand still for a photo. In this pic, one of my brothers is holding her as we took off on our adventure.
Blurry, but it's all I have!
Soon after, it was dark and no more shots were to be had. She had a great time trick-or treating and was so polite. She told everyone "thank you" and "good-bye" as we left their houses. Her politeness even garnered her additional candy at a couple of houses. By the time we finished up, she was worn out and needed to get home for dinner, so I managed no after treating pics this year...really is a shame as she was so cute in that costume!
On another Halloween note, Piper did get to enjoy her first pumpkin carving. By enjoy I mean she was totally grossed out!
And we ended up with the most jacked-up jack-o-lantern you've ever seen...looks like he did too much meth!
Our Jacked-up Jack-o-lantern!
Third Fall festivity: Thanksgiving.
I will be the first to admit that Thanksgiving is all a blur in my head. I meant to write and publish this post a long time ago, but life has been nuts! But as far as I can remember, Piper would hardly eat a bite of anything, had a few liquefying moments, wouldn't leave her pigtails in, and I stayed pretty stressed most of the day. It was probably a lack of relaxation due to all the cooking and cleaning and preparing for house guests, but toddlers will be toddlers no matter how tired a parent might be, they just don't comprehend our need to just chill sometimes. Plus, it's always noisy as hell at all of our holiday events, and this Thanksgiving was no exception. I will say that she did remarkably well out shopping for all the groceries. It took us about four hours to complete the shopping trip and she had no accidents and was in a good mood the entire time. Speaking of accidents, I almost forgot to mention this was during the time of potty boot camp, which you can read about in my previous post. I was off work a total of nine days, including weekends during Thanksgiving, Hence why I chose to host potty boot camp during this time.
After Thanksgiving grocery shopping!
Piper was looking adorable Thanksgiving. Wish she would have let me take some more pics!
Piper pushing her ball around the kitchen during Thanksgiving!
To tell you all the truth, I really just want to get this post finished and start on the Christmas post. Fall is past us and I'm tired of this one hanging over my head. I think it best just to post the pictures and get in over with without too many more words. The lowdown is that I'm now dealing with a lot of pressure at my job, a toddler with a mind of her own who is too smart for her age, (she's in the terrible 2's phase right now and is only 20 months), I've recently started dating again, and my writing time has been cut to a minimum. I hate that for my fans and for myself in the terms of keeping this blog as a memory album for Piper later on in life to look back upon. If I don't get this thing finished, I might just give up and that is something that would break my heart. So, I'm just going to cut myself some slack and just post the damned thing already! Forgive me for my lack of enthusiasm, but I think the pictures are quite enjoyable...that is when I could get an actual non-blurry pic of my constantly moving child.
I will end this post with a brief update of where Piper is now in life. She runs, dances, and tries to jump all the time. She had some setbacks recently on her pottying, so I dropped the issue for a couple of days during Christmas, and now she is back on track. She is prettier than ever but with the worst bedhead you've ever seen in the morning. She still liquefies when not getting her way, but will eventually give up...or I will (shameful, I know). She is a typical toddler and "no" is her favorite word. She says "no" for everything, even when she means "yes," especially when she's in a bad mood. You will get to hear more about all of this in the next post about Christmas, but just wanted to get that out there now to give you an idea of the holy terror I am at times dealing with. I so hope this early terrible twos means and early terrific threes! Crossing my fingers daily and patiently waiting on a miracle!
See what I mean about the bedhead?
This is what happens when she doesn't want to sit in her high chair! Then she complains that she's stuck!
This is what happens when she steals lipstick out of mommy's purse!
Quite the scary Joker face!
She thinks she looks beautiful!
This is what happens when left unattended around the baby wipes!
I'm going to go ahead and wrap this puppy up and send it out into the Nets for all to enjoy. Sorry it took so long to get out there, but better late than never, right? I've got a few more pics on the fancy cam from the Pumpkin Patch and maybe a couple from Thanksgiving as well. As soon as I have those retrieved, I will add them to the post, so don't forget to stop back by and take another look here in a day or two. But for now, I'm going with what I have before this post sits in the draft section of my blog for yet another month. So much more has happened since all of this and I need to get caught up to the present before next year begins...I have set my goal! Let's hope I can actually accomplish it. For now, enjoy and don't forget to vote and swing by my other social media sites!
Also find me on Instagram at SingleModernMom!
And for those who actually scroll to the bottom, here's one last video of Piper trying to "fly" down the street! She is always running and has many different styles. My personal favorite is the arms behind her like she is flying run...love my little munchkin!
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