This week’s One Word Photo Challenge is, eigengrau. This was a color I had to look up so that I could help you understand the color better by describing it.
She loves her superheros!
My sister and I took our kiddos to see the Christmas lights at Garvin Gardens. Of course, I had mini me up on my shoulders. So much easier to keep up with her that way, lol!
I found some pictures of family members that have left us, but are still remember in our thoughts. Hug your loved ones as you never know when they will leave you.
Earlier today, I caught my daughter going through everyone’s stocking. I know she’s anxiously waiting for Christmas, but I had to again, tell her that she has to wait for Christmas day to open presents, and to also leave the stockings alone as they’re not all for her; she didn’t bother getting into hers, which is on the other side of the tree, with her name on it. I thought I had put them up high enough, but I’m guessing she stood on the back of the couch and got them down, then dumped them all out. I know she particularly liked what my nephew is getting, as she was wearing it. I had to tell her that was for Hunter, which she put back with no arguments. The two of them are really close, like brother and sister.
She still hasn’t found my new hiding spot for all the presents, thank goodness. Guess the third time is the charm, or maybe it’s the really heavy container I put in front of the closet door for good measure. If I have a problem moving that thing, she won’t be able to budge it an inch. Maybe I should knock on wood…*knock, knock, knock*…wait the desk is fake wood…
Each time she found my hiding spot, she would open all the presents, carefully putting the empty packages into the trash can, then run around playing with everything she got out. I wasn’t home when this had happened, or it would’ve been prevented when she got too close to where I was hiding everything. When I walked inside the house, she immediately rushed up to me and showed me what she got with all the excitement of a four year old. Of course I knew where she got the toys and inside I was screaming ‘NO!”, but on the outside, I was smiling and just agreed to let her have them. There was no way I was going to take toys away from a child with autism. So, I just simply found a new hiding spot for the next round of presents, twice.
I didn’t buy that much for her to open each time I had moved to each hiding spot, but now that it’s closing in on the big day, there’s no way she’s going to get into them now, Mommy is broke, er, I mean Santa is broke, so he put this heavy 20 gallon container in front of the door, hiding all gifts from small and crafty hands. I’m so lucky she can’t read this, lol!
I was talking to one of my cousins, and we both agreed that peeking at our presents before Christmas, runs in our family, so I know I’m getting paid for my raising. My sisters and I would open our presents early. Our parents would put a few under the tree and it would bug us, not knowing what was in those wrapped packages. I had unwrapping presents down to a science. Steaming the tape just so and then peal it off without tearing the wrapping. Though once we got a peek at the contents, we weren’t at all happy, so when Christmas arrived, we weren’t all that excited to open anything. Let’s just say, kids aren’t all that happy to receive clothes for Christmas, that wasn’t what we told Santa what we wanted. So what happened? It wasn’t until later when we found out that our little scheme wasn’t much of a secret and that was why the early presents under the tree were nothing but clothes.
Well played.
Now I know how to deal with that when my daughter gets a little bit older, but how to deal with her now is the fun part. I can’t even get her to leave the ornaments on the tree alone. She takes off with them, plays with them, then I can’t find the things when I notice they’re gone. Usually, they’re hanging on the Venetian blinds in the living room, but I guess she got tired of me taking them down and putting them back on the tree because they’re now MIA.
I am proud of my daughter. I had turned her loose last night to trick or treat unassisted. She followed her cousins door to door with no problems, as if she knew what she was doing all along. With her first house, she simply ran up to the door, saw a piece of candy she liked, calmly took it, put it in her pumpkin, and ran back towards us. She got too excited though as she kept running and tripped in the street. She cried for about the time it took her uncle to give her back her pumpkin and she was fine after that, which was about ten seconds. Later that night I looked and she had a small scratch on her nose. But for the rest of the night she continued to run up to each house, hold out her pumpkin and wait for it to be filled, then run back to us.
My youngest sister and I had our girls ride in the wagon, while the four boys ran around to each house. I think they wouldn’t care about riding in anything, they were enjoying themselves running around the neighborhood. Besides I think the parents wanted them to run off all that extra sugar.
There was one house that was decorated in Haunted Halloween decor. Spooky blinking lights, Halloween music, spiderwebs. Mostly just overdone with the spiderwebs. Our brave boys slowly approached only to have a couple of guys in scary costumes jump out and spook them. The youngest of the boys just stands there and says with his plastic sword dramatically, “I can kill you.” Then he holds out his pail and says, “Trick or treat.”
The girls walk up to the house next, as they are walking slowly behind the boys, and the oldest girl gets spooked and backs away. My daughter just looks at the guy strangely and then laughs. The guy hands her candy and says, “I love her, it’s always the youngest ones that are the bravest.” I then say proudly with a smile, “That’s my girl!” My little girl turns to wave and says, “Bye!” I couldn’t help but laugh.
As soon as we got home I tried putting my daughter to bed. She was crying non-stop and kept getting up. She saw me pull my shoes off and the crying got worse. She grabbed her pumpkin, now emptied of its contents, and brought me my jacket. I think what she was trying to tell me was that she wasn’t done trick or treating. I tried to tell her that Halloween was over with and that it will be back next year. “Candy,” was all she could say through her sobs. She still hasn’t gotten the trick or treat words down just yet, but I’m sure she will next year.
I rocked her to where she finally calmed down enough to finally put her to bed. I was wanting to get there myself. Maybe I should’ve ate some candy along the walk like the boys were doing. I know I wish I had at least an ounce of their energy. I laid her down in her bed without any trouble and crawled into my bed without interruptions. It was a good night and I was excited to see that my little girl enjoyed herself. I’m already looking forward to next year!
Author Jennifer N. Adams 