Getting Ready for Halloween

This past weekend, Leah helped me clean out our two biggest pumpkins for carving. She loved digging her hands in there, pulling out the seeds, and dumping them into bowls. She surprises me at times - she's come to dislike having food on her hands and always wants a napkin, yet she had no problem with the stringy pumpkin gunk. Go figure.

I had a couple big spoons to help us dig out the seeds, and Leah loved stirring what we had in the bowls, exclaiming, "I'm making pumpkins!" (What's really cute is "pumpkins" sounds like "cumpkins".) :)

Later in the evening, Dan and I each carved a pumpkin while Leah looked on and played with the little pumpkin pieces that popped out. We did two traditional jack-o-lantern faces that are smiley and fun!

We plan to trick-or-treat Sunday evening. So far, the weather forecast is very promising: low 70s and sunny. Yay! We can't wait to see Leah's reaction this year, as she realizes people will be giving her candy. Aside from ice cream, that's probably her favorite thing in the world.

Here are a couple more pumpkin pictures:

Wordless Wednesday

Hard to Get

Lately, Leah is fascinated by and obsessed with Hud. She follows him around, she talks to him, she tries her hardest to pet him or cuddle him. She tells us that Hud's a good boy.

As many of you are aware, Hud has always been the more standoffish dog with Leah. He never snapped at her, was never mean or aggressive. Quite simply, he was the first "baby" in our lives and I don't think he's ever quite gotten over having to share the spotlight or our affection with both Dodge and Leah. Dodge, on the other hand, is a big lovey boy. Leah knows she can cuddle with him, get kisses from him, or bother him all she wants and he doesn't mind a bit. He's easy.

But Hud. Oh, that Hud is hard to get.

Only in recent months has he been alright with Leah petting him or putting her arm around him; he'll even initiate a sniff or a kiss (though whether he's doing that for our praise or because he actually likes Leah, one may never know ;) ). It may have taken him longer, but he's coming around. Slowly, but surely.

Still, we can't help but wonder... will Leah be going after the hard-to-get boys? Ditching the good-natured, lovable guys for those elusive loners?

She sure seems to love a challenge.