Fright Night

It is October 21 and, as far as I am concerned, the scariest part of Halloween is over.  We have carved pumpkins and survived.  No small feat.  Enter Brody.  If you've read these blogs, you know most of these stories are about Kai.  Kai does enter this story, but this one is mostly Brody.

Brody has been slightly obsessed with the pumpkins since we bought them.  He stares at them, says "Hi punkin!" to them, waves at them, tells every stuffed animal we own that we have "punkins" and if we are outside for even an instant - he sits on them.  Usually, I can intercept the pumpkin riding before it happens, but the if there is a second trip to the car for the groceries, I am certain to find him sitting on the big one and using the stem as a handle.  Or licking them.  Ever since I made pumpkin bread he really wants to eat them.  Today we went to Sam's Club which means at least three trips to the car and so I just decided to carve them and get this holiday underway.

Brody was ecstatic.  He was literally screaming with anticipation as we cut open the pumpkins.  Not sure what he expected, but seeds and goo may as well have been gold.  He helped scoop and dig out the goo and loved every minute of it.   Remember how I said he really wanted to eat them?  I have no idea what raw pumpkin will do to a diaper change, but tomorrow I am sure we will find out.  Actually, I am going to be in class tomorrow, so I will ask Ryoji when I get home.  Hahahaha.  I didn't even plan that one....

I TRIED to stop him from eating it and telling him it had to be cooked etc., but it was no use.  That kid chomped away. Since we were also dealing with knives, I had to prioritize my concerns.

I was slightly shocked at how comfortable Kai was with the knives.  He was quite dexterous.  I will file that fact away and choose to ignore it before it creeps me out even more.  Kai did not want any help and did his whole pumpkin by himself!   Major accomplishment for a kid who prefers to let other people do any form of work.  Brody really wanted to help, but I have parenting standards.  No going solo on knives until they are at least 5.  He did not concur, but once he agreed on a silly faced Jack, he helped a little by pushing out the pieces I cut. And then trying to eat them.

It took us till after dark to finish the silly things, so both boys got to see the pumpkin lighting.  Those battery powered candles are quite realistic!  Brody was so happy.  Kai was beaming with pride.  I was exhausted.  There was goo everywhere.  Stupid Martha Stewart's idea about using a shallow cardboard box lid to contain the mess is genius on Pinterest.  It only works if you don't trip over the cat trying to take the box to the recycle bin.

It was a fun evening.  I have pumpkin carving memories from my childhood and hope the boys will as well.  Letting Kai carve whatever he wanted turned out to be a great idea, too.  I guess I expected a face. Silly me.  It IS Kai.  Oh and the pumpkins?  Brody's is the silly smiling one.  Kai's?

It's a masked ninja.  With his eyes closed.