Pumpkins, Flowers and Cows, Oh My!

Its that time of year again!  I have decided that this is the week to begin our preparations for Halloween!  One of my favorite holidays...I was inspired by a post over at The Mustard Seed to take a look back and also a look forward.  Her post, Fall In Love...with a lil Pumpkin was a look back at their first healthy Halloween with their son Jude who has a chromosomal abnormality called Partial Trisomy 17 and a heart defect known as Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.  I decided it might be nice to do a similar look back at Bean's first Halloween here! 

Last October, we had just been released from the Ronald McDonald House and finally headed back to Chico after months away!  So, we had moved to a new house (we had moved out of our last house and put our things in storage thinking we would have to wait much longer to find a heart for Bean...we are so thankful that we were able to find one so soon after being listed...) the middle of October and I definitely was excited to be home with Bean for Halloween (I love Halloween...such a fun holiday!).  We took a trip to Max's Miracle Ranch - a very special place run by a family whose child has had heart issues of his own - and they now run this ranch for families in similar circumstances, do fund-raising for them and get group tickets to local events for the families and their kids.  They are truly special people doing special things!  So, we went and visited their pumpkin patch, saw some pigs and met the family and some friends who were there.  I am definitely planning on visiting there again this year now that Bean is old enough to recognize the animals and have some fun!  But, here we are in the pumpkin patch - it is crazy for me to see Bean so small and puffy (from the medication she was on at that time).  What a difference a year can make!  But, she was still awfully cute!

Bean weighed a little over 10 lbs at that time.  She is now not quite double that - somewhere around 18 lbs. now.  So, she is still pretty small, but just looks so much older!  Here she is at our first pumpkin patch visit of this October (last week - it wasn't Max's Miracle Ranch...just one that we drove by a sign for and I HAD to go and get a pumpkin or two to get the season started!):

 Bean with her magical white princess pumpkin!

 Bean and I with a pumpkin that is probably 20X Bean's size!

 Bean and our friend Steve...enjoying their hats together!  Bean just learned how to say hat this week...she still doesn't like wearing them, but she loves saying their name!

It was a quick visit, but Bean loved picking out a pumpkin her size and she now knows what a pumpkin is and likes to go get hers when we ask for it.  She did try eating it, so there is a small bite mark in it now, but luckily I had washed it when we got home just in case she decided it might taste good. 

Of course, the most fun part of Halloween is dressing up!  Last year we couldn't really get out much because she was still on heavy doses of predinisone and other anti-rejection medicines.  This year, we are a little less afraid to wonder out into public (although flu season will always be a scary time of year for us), so I have a few Halloween celebrations on my schedule for us to attend - most of them through the Chico Mothers' Club.  It should be great fun and we'll have a lot more pics this year.  Last year, we did dress her up for Halloween and she helped us hand out candy to people who came to the door.  She was a cute little flower:

 Those eyebrows and cheeks were really something - getting off the cyclosporin has really brought them into proportion with her face now - but the puffy cheeks looked great with the flower costume! 

This year, she will be going as a cow!  She has the moo down (it was the first animal noise she learned - she now knows a whole lot of them - more animal noises than words), and I can dress up as a farmer!  :)  She is walking like a champ and loves to carry bags, so she is ready to roll for this Halloween! 

So, I'm going to try to get our Halloween decorations up tomorrow and start getting more in the spirit of the season. It isn't easy because it is still summer weather here and doesn't seem like October at all.  But, we'll make it work! 

How are you all celebrating Halloween?  Tell me about it and link to your blogs in the comments!