Pumpkin farming with Daddy...

Sequoia and Colleen took me to the Pumpkin farm on Sunday since it was such a beautiful day. Sequoia and I had a ton of fun walking together and looking at all of the pretty plants and animals.

Like most kids, Sequoia thinks it is great fun to be 6 1/2 feet tall.

We got her face painted with a pretty little sunflower. I was amazed by how good she was about letting the girl paint it on her face.

Afterward she posed with her new friend Mr. Scarecrow from Where the Wild Things Are. It is really daddy's arm posing her with the scarecrow, but it cracked us up...

Colleen made us pose in the mural ... she can't walk past one of these things without making somebody pose. There are parts of her that will always remain a mystery to me...

Sequoia and I discussed the merits of being a vegetarian with Thanksgiving being just around the corner. Mr. Tom Turkey had his opinion on the matter as well and suggested we visit the soy bean field.

Sequoia gets silly-excited when she sees animals. I guess she thinks they are all dogs? I don't know, but it warms my heart to see her excited gestures and smiles.

She is a bit confused about pumpkin pie - certainly this does not taste like the pie that mommy gave her a bite of the other day...?

Colleen can't walk past one of those murals, and neither one of us can walk past a corn maze. Yes, I was born in the country... Here is Sequoia getting ready to tackle her first Corn Maze.

I put her up high on my shoulders so that she could scout the way for us.

When we finally staggered out the other end of the maze (Sequoia is not very good at navigating) we ended up in a beautiful field of sunflowers.

Sequoa was very serious about her sunflowers.

She got right in to them, studying their leaves and petals. Maybe she will be a botanist as well as a great shark biologist?

As we were leaving we ran into another member of the Peninsula Mommies group from Newport News, Jody, her son Jeremy, and her husband Charles. Sequoia and Jeremy get together regularly while daddy is at work at their regular play dates. Jeremy is an adorable big boy with one of the happiest faces I have ever seen. It is always fun running into some of the other parents when we are out and about doing stuff and it reinforces the fact that Sequoia is very fortunate to be surrounded by such a wonderful network of family and friends who care so much about her.

Trick or treats.....

The Gloucester Mommies went trick or treating at the assisted living center in Gloucester the other day. The little ones were all decked out in their Halloween finest.
Sequoia was dressed in her adorable Bluefish outfit.

But not surprisingly the day took a bit of a "Nature Channel" twist when our innocent little blue fish was quickly surrounded by a great white shark.

Luckily it also took a Disney fairy tale twist when Snow White came down to save the sweet little fish.

So it should not be surprising that we also had a spider looking for a little Miss Muffet to sit down beside .... by the way, if you were wondering, Brooklyn says that spider webs are not slimming. (of course neither are blue fish or shark costumes...)

Sequoia and Brooklyn were caught hanging out ... not that you can do much else when your mom dresses you like this. Pretty cute though....

They were joined by a very cute pink leopard ...

and some very cute baby love-birds. Precious little things, aren't they?

Here's Brooklyn showing off her pretty smile - her secret to getting more treats than tricks.

Having escaped her costume, Sequoia and pals like Katie make the rounds visiting her old friend Mr. Kelly.

By all accounts the kids were a huge hit with the wonderful residents at the center, and the kids seem to have had a pretty good time themselves. Here is Sequoia's friend Nikki in her hot pink leopard suit making one of the residents smile.

Judge that pumpkin, Pumpkin...

So why have a kid if you don't plan on making them choose between mommy and daddy? That is evidently Colleen's view anyway. The other night we had our 2nd annual pumpkin carving contest at the house. The contestants were Becky, Jeremiah, Colleen and me. Colleen thought it would be a good idea if our little Pumpkin was the judge this year. You would think that the beautiful 3-dimensional Air-Jaws pumpkin above would normally walk away with the blue ribbon - am I right?

Anyway, the pumpkin guts flew as the mad carvers struggled with ridiculously tough pumpkins to find inspiration in their gourds.

The creations were lit up and lined up (Sequoia's is the little one...not much you can do without a knife or teeth), the lights were turned out and Sequoia was turned loose at the other end of the living room. We all held our breath as Sequoia methodically crawled across the room, looked admiringly at each of the pumpkins and then definitively placed her hand on the one that smelled like mommy.

Let's see -
Mommy's idea,
Mommy's hand selected judge,
Mommy's blue ribbon.

Trip to the Aquarium...

We've been having a ball watching Sequoia expand her horizons. Since she has become mobile. With her crawling and driving skills improving every day she is able to act on more of her thoughts and it is adding depth and dimension to her personality. The other night she discovered that she could drive up to her fish tank - something that has fascinated her for months but that she could never get near on her own. She thought that was about the coolest thing on earth as far as she was concerned.

This of course is much cuter than the fact that last night she discovered that she could drive up to the kitchen trash can...an event that was equally fascinating to her, but not so entertaining for daddy.

Lil miss funny face...

So guess who discovered that her tongue is long enough to fit out of her mouth?

She cracks us up these days with the funny faces she makes while figuring it all out. At times she will go cross-eyed trying to see her own tongue.

I guess one day this will not be an attractive habit, but we are pretty confident that she will eventually grow out of this phase.

In general we are constantly amazed by what a big little girl she has become. She is funny and happy and strong and coordinated.

She thrives on learning about things and is always ready to laugh at new things.

Here of course she is laughing at her daddy. Few things are as funny as that. I mean she really enjoys laughing with mommy, but daddy? You just sort of laugh AT him.
As long as she's smiling it's OK with me.

Frost on the pumpkin....

So with the cooler weather comes Colleen's best excuse to date to dress up her little baby girl. I am not certain that Sequoia fully understands all of the pageantry involved in the fall festivals but as with most things she is a great sport about it.

Here is Colleen dressed in her hip-waders and fishing gear along with her trophy sized blue-fish at a Fall Festival on Saturday.

Colleen and Sequoia joined a group of their friends for a trip to the local pumpkin patch at Belmont Pumpkin Farms in Mathews County on Sunday. It gave Sequoia a chance to wear an adorable hat that was knit for her by one of our Oregon friends - Stacy Strickland.

Here is the crew
Katie, Brigid and Emory
Sequoia, Clare, Abbi and Evan

Sequoia's first tattoo was a pumpkin on her cheek - luckily this one washes off.

She spent a lot of time sizing up the batch of pumpkins searching for just the right one.

Oh this is fun stuff.

A moment of quiet reflection in the middle of all the fun.

There were also tons of sunflowers in the fields.

Clare and Sequoia finally have narrowed it down to one pumpkin ... I guess all we have to do now is teach them about sharing.

While daddy's away...

Last weekend I had to go up to work at the Annapolis Sailboat Show so we shot up the night before so that Colleen and Sequoia could spend some time visiting with the family while I worked.

Certainly Ryley always adores her time with Sequoia and it is fun watching them play together.

Sequoia was in heaven having enough floor space to actually go somewhere. Our house is somewhat limiting since it is roughly the size of a closet, but up at Sherri's house there is some serious real estate to explore. Of course there were few things as interesting as Levi the dog.

Sunday on our way home we snuck in a quick brunch with my sister Trish and my parents. Here my mom shows Sequoia how to put her feet on the table. Is it any wonder I turned out like I did?

Here is Sequoia with Trish and her dog Keeper at Trish's house in Mt Rainier, out side of College Park.