So, two weeks ago - October 31, 2008, was Sophie's first Halloween!
Since we aren't pagan Satan-worshippers, we celebrated the lighter, more social aspects of one of the few American holidays that can be spoken above a whisper. We dressed Sophie up as a beautiful rendition of Sleeping Beauty (the redundancy is intentional) and started the day's festivities at my work.
As Halloween can still be mentioned in the workplace in our beloved state, it is celebrated all day at Allianz. Teams are encouraged to decorate their areas, and in the afternoon kids are allowed in to trick or treat through the cubicles.
Our theme this year was penguins / the Antarctic - which tied into a big sales initiative from earlier in the year, so we scored some big points with the muckity-mucks. It also had the benefit of not being scary, which was the approach last year - we wanted to lighten things up a little bit.
Stacy and Sophie came about 2:00 in the afternoon, and Sophie instantly took to the glasses we made up for our "costumes" as Rock-hopper penguins.
As you can see, once she warmed up, Sophie was her usual hammy self :)
Afterward, we went to our church's pumpkin party, which is a safe alternative for families to go to to get candy and have fun without partaking in some of the other trappings of Halloween. It's a very positive thing.
Here's Stacy and Sophie in the parking lot before we went in. Again, notice how despondent Sophie is...
One of the neat things about the pumpkin party at church is that they bring in a christian magician who not only plays well to the kids, but also ties in his tricks with teaching from the Bible.
Sophie hasn't had much candy at all (and we'll keep it that way as long as we can - now if we could just reduce our own candy intake...) but she did gnaw on a sucker during the show.
The room where the show was held is called the Video Cafe. It's a more relaxed atmosphere with tables and chairs that also has screens for people to watch and participate in services.
We were sitting in a raised section of the room, and there was a ramp leading up to it. About midway through the show, Sophie wanted to walk around a little, so I took some pictures (we didn't have much of her in the dress otherwise).
This is an adjusted picture that was taken in the dark, so the colors aren't quite right, but you can see her beauty clearly...
Sophie is already a flirt (in that she know how to through her smile and charm around, and she likes), and while she was walking around, she decided to schmooze with some "older men." She is going to be trouble in a dozen years (or several dozen if I have my way - no dating until 40)
The carnival in the gym was definitely the highlight of the party.
We met many friends who and their kids, and here, representing the Wizard of Oz, are Chris and Jen, and their kids Emma and Andrew. Emma and Sophie get along great, and Emma is a sweetheart. Though I don't have a picture of it, went down the slide a few time together holding hands, it was really nest to see. Hopefully Jen's attempt to capture that were successful...
This inflatable slide was the best thing in the world, as far as Sophie was concerned. She was cautious on the first run down, but was hooked after that.
We went down the slide a half dozen times before the magic show, and at least two dozen times after.
And every time, I had to carry her up the 20 foot long ramp going up. By the end of the night I was exhausted!
Here's a montage of her coming down the slide - she liked sliding down both backward on her stomach and forward on her butt.
Good times were had by all, especially Sophie, so it was a successful evening!
Sophie's been learning many more words, and is getting better with object and color recognition. It's really neat to see her trying to learn, and wanting us to tell her what things are so she can find out what things are. Some of her favorite words now are: "Moom" (Moon), "Proom," (Prune - she loves them,, and they have been essential in curing a major bout of constipation last week), "Pool" of course, and she has started saying "Wuv You" when we tell her "I Love You" - which is just the best thing in the world, next to her hugs.
Sophie is also getting much better at using "please" when she wants something - we're steering her away from the "My" / "Mine" that she started using a little while ago. When she says please it's pretty cute too - she puts a lot of energy into it.
That's all for now, talk to everybody again soon!
Larry
