Trick or Treating

Fire Firghter Connie came to visit Jacob's preschool class today, and brought her fire truck to show the kids. This is the fireman's hat that Jacob made. I liked the detail he put into it!

We picked out a pumpkin a few weeks ago, and put it out on the step, but a squirrel came along, and tried to carve it before Jacob did. Tonight we went to the pumpkin patch to pick out another pumpkin. He still likes the little baby pumpkins the best, but we did get a bigger one too. Jacob doesn't want to carve this one, but said he just wants to draw a face on it. Tonight at the pumpkin patch, they were getting ready for the haunted hayride, so we had a long conversation about what a haunted hayride is, and that some people like to be scared, as long as they know it is just pretend.

Autumn Art Projects:

My step grandpa, Ernie, passed away earlier this week. Jacob seems to have a really good handle on the situation, which I am very impressed with. We talk honestly and really openly about anything related to the whole experience. Jacob got to visit Ernie at the hospital while he was in a coma. The nurse explained what all of the machines did, and Jacob even got to go into the nurses station and get a printout of Ernie's heart beating. We talked about Ernie's injuries from his fall, all of the blood in his skull that is squshing his brain and keeping it from working okay, and that when he dies his body will feel cold, and he won'[t need his body anymore, and his spirit will go to Heaven to live with Jesus.

At the visitation last night, the funeral director let Jacob visit the casket shop, and he got to see the different kinds of caskets, urns, and vaults. Jacob said he wants a blue casket with silver handles, an open casket at his visitation, and a flat stone in the cemetary.

At the end of the visitation, Auntie asked Jacob, "Would you like to go over and say good bye to Ernie?" Jacob walked over, waived, and said, "Bye Ernie". Auntie asked, "Is Ernie really in there, or is that just his body?" Jacob said, "That's just his body", looked up, waived at the sky, and said, "Bye Ernie!"

At the cemetary today, Jacob and I were talking about all of the head stones. I pointed to a flat stone, but did not notice that the ground had settled and wasn't completely level. "You want a flat stone like that, right?" Jacob pointed to another flat stone near by, and said, "No, I want a stone like that...a flat one!!" Then pointing back at the one I was refering to, "That one's at an angle going up a little. I want a totally FLAT one!"

When we got home from the cemetary, Jacob was playing, "Ernie at the cemetary". He had a scoop truck digging the site, and a white semi-truck "that has Ernie's body inside" delivering the casket to the cemetary. He even had police cars and other cars lined up in the procession. Not typically the number one topic for play, but it was really nice to see that he understood everything that is involved, and that it wasn't something scary for him.

After we got home from the Halloween party tonight, Jacob wanted to try on my wig and pretend he was a witch. Eventually, he gave up the wig, but he loved dancing around the living room, pretending he was a witch. He even started mini golfing with the broomstick and one of Fellow's balls (see video).

Tonight Jacob and I went to a kids costume party. I was a witch and he was a ghost. One of the games was to pair off and wrap your partner up in a roll of toilet paper. Jacob's "girlfriend" from preschool (Kendall) was his partner.

Jacob's first Christmas list: It was very sweet watching him sound out each word as he wrote. (Also, see video of Jacob looking through a toy catalog he got in the mail.)
Page 1:
Da L-va-bit (the alphabet)
train
and
Da Fire (the fire)
truck
Page 2:
Da Lin
con (the lincoln)
log
train

Field trip to the post office today.

"If I was a snake, and you wanted some chicken, I would slither over rocks and dirt to the chicken farm. And I would bite a chicken with the poison juice in my teeth. Then I would just wrap myself around the chicken and squeeeeeeeze it tight. Then I would slither away, and bring it back for you to eat some chicken." (We saw a snake eat a mouse at the nature center a few months ago, but this story was out of the blue tonight!)


Driving in the car with Grandma, Grandma pointed out that the Sinclair gas station just closed:
"Oh that's terrible!"

Helping Dad bring leaves to the compost (see video)

Up until the other night, we had not really had any family conversation about any political issues with Jacob. Tonight, Nate and I were talking about plans for the week, and that we wanted to watch the debate, and Jacob over heard. Jacob knows the names of the candidates, and what they look like, and he said "If I could vote, I would vote for Barack Obama". Out of curiosity, I asked him why, and he said "I like the way his name sounds. It's a fun name to say...Barack Obama". Nate and I did not say anything about his logic. Then he asked Nate who he was going to vote for. Nate said John McCain, and Jacob asked why. So Nate explained that taking care of babies is really important to him. and he thought John McCain would make better rules to keep babies safe. We talked about abortion, explaining that some moms who don't want their babies try to hurt the babies because they don't want them. (not exact words, but the just of the conversation.) You could hear the wheels turning, and Jacob was really quiet. Then Jacob said he was going to vote for John McCain too, to keep babies safe. Then he said, "Mom are you going to vote for Barack Obama, even though he has a fun name to say, or are you going to vote for John McCain like me and dad?"

"Okie dokie means yes in spanish."

"Bones are good to have! I know all about bones. In fact, I'm an expert on bones, because I AM bones."

Preschool Pictures (taken 09-22-08)

Pine Tree Apple Orchard

Jacob drew this picture of himself at the lake. He is in the house, with a tree on both sides, the dock at the bottom, and Jesus in the top left corner.

Perfect day to be outside today, but it felt a little busy with the fire station open house and the public works open house today. So tonight we relaxed and enjoyed the evening just walking around at the dam. Jacob had fun taking pictures and collecting leaves. He really liked seeing all of the water, and asked a lot of good questions about how the dam worked.

This afternoon, we went to the public works open house. Jacob's favorite part was still "the truck that sucks up the baby pumpkins". It was really loud with so many kids climbing into the trucks, and honking the truck horns, so Jacob had his hands over his ears a lot of the time, but he still liked seeing everything. He was really interested in the sign shop, where they make all of the street signs.