Jack started preschool today! He'll be going every Tuesday and Thursday morning (9 a.m. to noon). We dropped him off, and I stayed for about 15 minutes. Right away, he started playing with the toys, and when I went to say goodbye to him, he eagerly showed me that he was cooking an apple (a toy apple) in the (plastic) microwave. I said to him, "Mommy's going to go home, OK? You stay here and have fun, and I'll be back for you in a couple of hours." Jack didn't even look at me. He kept playing with his toy food and said cheerfully, "OK, Mommy! Bye, Mommy!" I almost cried! When I left, he didn't even look back. I waited outside the classroom with my mom and Derek for a little bit in case Jack melted down (the teacher's idea), but nope, Jack did not look around for me at all. The teacher had thought maybe he'd cling a bit since it's his first time in this sort of environment, but apparently not.

I got to pickup early today, and Jack was happy to see me. He informed me that he had "a great time, Mommy!", that he ate apples and water for a snack, and that he had new friends. When I asked him what his friends' names were, he said, "Jack, Jack, Jack ... and Jack!" Um ... OK. His teacher said that they painted, and Jack did great sharing toys with other kids, and even went potty. He didn't ask her to go, but he did go when she reminded him.

When Jack got home, he wolfed down four chicken nuggets, a big handful of peas, a string cheese and a sippy cup of milk (about nine ounces). Whew! Now he's napping. Although seeing Jack in a classroom, with his own cubby, made me and Johnny a bit wistful, I'm also very proud of my independent, friendly big boy. I know this is good for him, to be doing something other than playing with his same old toys or watching PBS Kids and Playhouse Disney all morning. It's only twice a week, but it still feels like a big transition! We'll see how he does on Thursday.

I'll have to add some pictures later. Hope everyone's having a great week!

Today, we went trick-or-treating at Mattel (where Johnny works). Jack had fun doing this last year, but this year, he really understood what he was doing! It was a terrific morning, and great practice for "real" trick-or-treating tomorrow night. I know you're all curious about what Jack was for Halloween, so here we go ...

Yup! We dressed Jack as his favorite monkey, Curious George. When we decided on this costume a few months ago, Johnny piped up with, "Hey, maybe I can be the Man in the Yellow Hat." Well, of course he had to be! I love that my husband is willing to don a hideous bright yellow costume to make our son happy. Ha. At first, Jack was upset that his beloved Baba was now someone else, but after a while, he became delighted. He was in love with his George costume and couldn't stop looking in the mirror.

Oh, and I know you're going to ask: What was Derek's costume? Some of you may recall that Jack was a peapod for his first Halloween. Having gone through the rite of passage of dressing up my first tiny infant for Halloween, I have now become wiser (and some may say more cynical), because Derek went sans costume. He simply wore an adorable Halloween-themed outfit that our friend Jill gave us, along with a Halloween-themed bib. Next year, when he's actually walking and aware of Halloween, we'll get him his very own costume (I thought about putting him in Jack's monster costume from last year, but decided that would be patently unfair).

Who needs a costume to be cute? ;) 

My mom got Derek a really cute, tiny felt Halloween basket. We attached it to his stroller with a plastic hook.

Jack took great care to get two pieces of candy at every trick-or-treat station at Johnny's office, and placed one into Derek's basket gingerly. It was really heartwarming.

I don't think Jack ever wanted to leave Mattel. He's a lucky boy ... not everyone gets to say that his dad works at a toy company!

Enthralled by the balloons in the lobby

In the Mattel cafeteria

With Daddy at his desk

Here I am with Derek

Yes, I do also have a costume, but it's a devil costume that involves a tiny red dress. I'm wearing to a party with Johnny later tomorrow night ... I didn't think that would be appropriate to wear to Johnny's work!

Derek looked around excitedly while we went around getting candy. I loved looking at Barbies, Hot Wheels and other toys in progress. I did have to sign a nondisclosure form before going in there, so I can't talk about any of it here, but it was awesome.

I hope everyone has a great Halloween! I can't wait to see all the pictures on your blogs.

One of the beauties of living in Southern California is that it's perfectly plausible to splash in the beach and visit a pumpkin patch on the same weekend (and to have said weekend be in mid-October, no less).

On Saturday, we visited Donna, Scott, Madi and adorable baby Joshua! Unfortunately, I forgot the camera at home, so there are no pictures to document the great time we had.  They took us to Lake Mission Viejo and set up a wonderful spread of snacks for us to enjoy. Jack loved the "beach" and kept running into the lake. He didn't even mind falling facedown in the water (Johnny picked him right back up, of course!). It was a really hot day, but we didn't anticipate that Jack would go into the water. However, now that Jack is potty trained and in underwear, we simply stripped him down to his skivvies, and in he went! (I had some spare pairs with me, of course, for him to change into for going home.) Jack also delighted in his first episode of public urination ... a distinct advantage of being a boy. He's still talking about "pee-pee tree," and whenever we go anywhere (say, the Target parking lot), he requests "pee-pee tree." Sigh. Anyway, we had a wonderful time and can't wait to hang out again!

Sunday, we went with my Meetup moms group to Tanaka Farms in Irvine. I used "with" loosely -- everyone was supposed to meet at 11 a.m., but of course, schedules are hard to coordinate when you're dealing with toddlers and babies, so everyone ended up going at times that were convenient for them. We went in the early morning. Anyway, this is a real farm that's open to the public. In the fall, there's a huge pumpkin patch -- a real one, where you can cut pumpkins off the vine. There was also a petting zoo and tractor ride. We talked up the pumpkin patch trip all week, and by Saturday morning, Jack was very excited to go to the "fahm" and see "ginkins" (for some reason, Jack can't say "pumpkins" or even "pumkins." He says "ginkins"). Jack loved it! Derek slept in the BabyHawk the whole time, but I'm sure he'll love it next year.

Jack and the ginkins

The whole family!

Have I mentioned that I love the BabyHawk? Unfortunately I'm not modeling it very well in this picture -- it was tied a bit too loosely here.

Some of you might recall that we had a disastrous petting zoo visit last year, which ended up with Jack in tears and June with a torn shirt. This year, Jack fared much better (this could also be due to the fact that Tanaka Farms fed its petting zoo animals instead of starving them). He loved reaching into the cup of food that Johnny bought and feeding the animals. Whenever he did, he would open his mouth and say "aaah," just like we used to do when feeding him baby food. Cute.

"Ahhh, baby sheep!"

Next, we went on the tractor ride (or, as Jack would say, "wide tra-cker"). Since Jack loves tractors (and anything with wheels, really), this was his dream come true.

Hooray for tractors!

"Yook! Ginkins!"

After we picked up our pumpkins (a big one for Johnny to hold, and a little one for Jack; my pumpkin was Derek), Jack ran through the hay maze.

Whew! It was fun, but extremely exhausting!

Now, I have a couple of videos to share with you. The first is Jack excitedly imitating June and Charles' "crazy wave" arm motions.

The second is Jack "reading" Goodnight Moon. It's so cute. He'll go, "Night night, cow jumping moon" and "Night night mush."

value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4AA3Qc83-MM&hl=en&fs=1">

OK, I think that's all I have for tonight! Hope everyone is having a great week.