CAnnNnnGeeeeeeY!

Halloween in the Burt home started a few weeks ago when we took Porter to the pumpkin patch. We arrived full of hopes to find The Great Pumpkin, but soon found we were a week or so too late. The pumpkins had started to rot, and were a little too cushy for me to want to dig my hand into for carving. We did let Porter walk around for a while though. Once he figured out he couldn't pick up the pumkins (after three failed attempts, complete with grunting, and one slimy sleeve from a much too soggy pumpkin), he decided to use them all as chairs, running from one "kum-kin" to the next while yelling "siiiiit."

I wouldn't count this as a failed activity though. It was a warm fall day, Porter loved the "dut" (dirt), and all the running around was enough to wear him out for a nice, long nap. Besides, it turns out the grocery store's pumpkins are just as orange (and much more firm). Here's a pic from project kum-kin take two. Porter didn't love the slimy guts, and after several tries, decided he didn't like the slimy pupmkin seeds either.

As for a costume, we thought we'd dress Porter up as Groucho Marx, but the mustache didn't last long. Porter's Grandma Burt and Uncle Jeff sent enough to last the next five Halloweens though, so maybe next year (Per Andy's instructions, we saved the handlebar for when Porter is a bit older).

Porter was a lion for his first "real" Halloween.
Did Porter trick-or-treat at eighteen months? Of course.

I told Andy if Porter's old enough to know what candy is, he's old enough to go trick-or-treating:

1. The child is like a bat, and can hear you open the candy jar in the kitchen when he's upstairs playing in his bedroom.


2. Whenever you're chewing, and Porter has not seen the source, he immediately assumes you're hiding something, yelling "cannnnnngeeeeeeee" at the top of his lungs.

Although he was initially a bit timid, as soon as the first neighbor shoved a giant bowl of Dots and Snickers in his face, Porter was in heaven. I tried to get him to say "tick-tee" (trick or treat) when people opened their doors, but he felt "cannngeee" would work much better. Six doors, six deliberations over the perfect treat (he gets that from me), and six fights to save the candy until we got home later, we were all eating pumpkin-shaped "pat-zee" (pizza) and getting ready for SUU Basketball's season opener.

Ready for the kicker? I gave Porter a little piece of bubble gum after dinner, and he was still chewing it at toothbrushing time after we'd returned from the game. I think that's the sign of a successful first canngeee-fest.

Catching Up

Summer is gone, and now autumn is almost over as well. Looks like it's time for another update. One of these days, I'll become a blogging queen with new posts every week, but for now, you get a Burt Family marathon full of the last two months of fun. You'll want to click on the October link in the right-hand column to make sure you see all 5 of our new entries.

This is the only picture I've got from the last two months with all three of us in it, so I thought it was as good as any to welcome you back to the Burt Family Blog.

For anyone interested, this was taken at the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake. I liked the squid, Andy liked the sea monkeys (brine shrimp), and Porter liked them all, repeating "Fiiiiiiiiish" over and over again.

Rough Housing

This one's pretty self-explanatory: Andy has taught Porter how to wrestle his stuffed animals. It was bear's turn tonight.

Along with wrestling, Porter also likes to "golf" by hitting a plastic bat (thank you Uncle Chris & Aunt Lori) into any small toy that's lying around. Also, he's just recently learned how to kick, and now runs back and forth between our living room and kitchen chasing-more-than-kicking a ball until he gets so dizzy or tired that he either falls on top of the ball or finds a "pil-ya" (pillow) for a rest.

Porter also loves dressing up in anything that isn't: a) his, or b) clothing.

Here he is in my pink headband,

The hat is his "ful-u-fly" catching net from his Elefun game,

And here he is in Andy's jacket.

And the fun doesn't stop there. Dinner time becomes more exciting (read: messy) every night. Porter's latest trick is to ask for both milk and water at dinner. Once both cups are filled and on the table, he builds towers with them, yells "top", and then knocks them over. He also likes to hold his empty plate in front of his face to hide from Andy and I.