This Is Halloween

I like to think that summer is my favorite season. I love the beach; warm sand under my feet, cool waves rocking me, a lazy benevolent sun on my face. I do not, however, like sweating. I don’t like $200+ A/C bills every month. And I don’t like a scorched, angry acrid air that punches you in the face when you attempt to walk out your door. So I may need to rethink this whole summer thing (check back in with me again in February, though).

Autumn doesn’t really get properly moving in North Carolina until late October. It’s a little slower, and a little more unpredictable than other locales. One day it’s 54, the next it’s 82. But when it finally makes up its mind to be sensible and settles down around 67-68 degrees, that’s when I’m happy. The house is cool at night, and I sleep better. I’ve finally been able to have a few al fresco meals, and drinks with friends in a sweet evening breeze. This body is made for jeans and sweatshirts, not shorts and tank tops, and I don’t faint with heat exhaustion toting Jellybean around.

This past weekend was the local mommies ‘Trunk or Treat’ event. For those of you unfamiliar with such a notion, it’s like tailgating for a sporting event but with less beer and more music and unsupervised children. Actually, the kids at the soiree this year were pretty well tended. Everyone seemed to be having a fun time, despite the suspicious amount of weird squeeze-tetra applesauce-like product. Jenny’s favorite treats were definitely the lollipops, although I had a moment of concern watching her run down a hill with one in her mouth. And I did lick some grass and lint off for her, which I thought was pretty gracious of me. I didn’t get as much time to hang out with my favorite cool mommies as I’d like, since I was Jelly-wrangling most of the time. That’s the frustrating thing about a non-contained event. But there were some cool costumes, and we got to see friends, and we didn’t roast like last year. And Jenny learned the joy of eating too much candy and not eating a single bite of dinner, which is very important.

This coming weekend will be another Halloween party, this time with my hacker friends. A couple who moved to Atlanta will be staying with us, with their baby in tow, and I can’t wait to see them! Hopefully Jelly will refrain from poking him in the eye, which she seems to like to do to some babies. I am going to take her trick-or-treating with some of the partygoers and then try to put her down to sleep there. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Speaking of sleep and not getting any, she’s had a nasty little cold and, despite me and Vick’s teaming up to do our best to keep her breathing at night, for whatever reason she’s woken up earlier and earlier the past few days. Saturday was 6:30, Sunday was 6, and this morning was 5:15. Yep, you read that correctly. Although it was partially my own stupid fault, because I woke up to pee and decided it was too cold and OMG THINK OF THE CHILDREN and went in to cover her up. Which of course woke her up and made her furious. I pulled her into my nice toasty warm bed in the hopes that she would be lulled back to sleep by my regret and sleep-deprived frustration, but no such luck. It’s a 9 pm bedtime for me tonight!

Here are some pics of my favorite pet.

Jelly hangs out with some friends, Kai-Lan and Oscar

She's a good sharer, my Jelly; 'Here, doggie, have some!'

Jelly and Jellybean Mama, in a rare photo together

And just in case you'd forgotten (or never saw) last year...

Happy Halloween, everyone!!