Halloween is here!! Halloween!!!

This Fall is special, its a fall i have never experienced, but had always ( secretly ) dreamed of. It is the magic season of harvest goodies of all kinds, the season of pumpkin patches, hey rides, apple orchards, and Halloween fun. I have always enjoyed the season, but at the same time always felt a little empty experiencing it alone, while watching slews of enthusiastic children with their parents in toe. I have attended orchards and drunk apple cider, and watched other people's children roll around in hey, jump on tractors and weeeee all the way. I dreamed of having this experience with my own child. I dressed up for Halloween and went to bunches of Halloween events, but usually avoided staying home to give out candy to "trick-o-treat "ers. The truth is that it would always make me feel sad and misplaced in a way, and since i valued positive thinking, i mostly avoided those experiences that would negatively affect my psyche.
So, for all of these reasons, this year is special to me, because of my daughter being old enough to partake, as well as understand and appreciate these experiences.
The first Fall fa-la-la-la-la of the season was our trip to the Fall festival, although aside from the pumpkin that we purchased on the way out, it didn't seem to have any connection with Fall. We had a blast watching her do the jump houses and the slides, saw exotic animals on display and had general type of fun. The next day we sat in the park and carved a pumpkin together, which was the first one for all of us -- ever.

Later came my pumpkin casserole, pumpkin pie, and lastly, pumpkin soup, which we struggled to finish. We must be pretty pumpkin-ed out :)
Then this weekend we went to another pumpkin patch that had a petting zoo, a pony ride and a bouncy house, but not much else. We had a pretty good time, until the 40 minutes melt down in line for the face painting. The artist was doing an awesome job, and the kid really wanted to have her face painted. It took us about an hour to get a butterfly on the cheek.

But the rest of the day was lovely, especially watching some babies in costumes, and petting goats.
But this morning is a Halloween!!!! Last night i told the kid she should go to sleep quickly, to wake up early for the special day. She was told she had a bumblebee costume waiting for her, and a preschool Halloween party. I stayed up making the most fabulous kid friendly mac-n-cheese for the preschool party. This  morning she woke up bright and happy to put on her bumblebee pantyhose, and antennas, and beautiful wings, and a tutu!!! I felt so exhilarated!!!

It is the best Halloween dress up experience i have ever had! And, the day is still new -- there is a Halloween trick-o-treating tonight at the historical houses museum!!!

Like the "back in the day" times that we never lived

Crystal Cove... Paradise since the 30s, the American version of "dacha", where generations suntanned their summers away, fixing up their dwellings with whatever materials they could scavenge, where teenagers hid for their first romance-on-the-beach moments, and where the little ones dug in the sand for months at a time... And now, a historical park, where locals like us can come for a weekend and channel all of the excitement of the past from the comforts of the newly remodeled cottages over the ocean. And, so we did, vigorously!!!!
I stumbled upon this place almost a year ago, while researching the gateway possibilities for Thanksgiving of 2010. Of course, it had to be booked in advance, so no luck there. But, i book-marked it and on March 1 at 8:00:03 AM i was one of the lucky ones to score a reservation for 38B cabin for Oct 7-8. And so Friday night after work we drove there. Immediately upon getting into our cottage we spoke about leaving work early next time we home here! The deck overlooking the ocean was spectacular. We made a run to the local Trader Joe's for some supplies, and decided to have a relaxing sushi dinner at a nearby restaurant, which was nice. But both of us wanted to be back to the cottage, to watch the waves break in the moonlight from our deck. But, actually, we spent our first evening sharing a bottle of wine in our room and talking about all the important things very freely and frankly. It was nice to be here, to be friends, to be having a good time, to be talking about our stuff. But, overall, not sure if it was the magic of the cove, or the full moon, but the romance was in the air, from the moment we arrived to Crystal Cove, to the very last awake hours of the last day, which turned out to be Monday! :)
We made breakfast and ate it on the deck, followed it up by wonderful reading of Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, (that we found in the bookcase of the cottage!!!), followed up by some champagne, and an invigorating bicycle ride through the hills of the park, which we have hiked some month earlier. By the way, this was my first outing on a mountain bike actually going up a mountain. I was super intimidated by the thought of it, i knew i was way too out of shape for that undertaking. But C was patient and helpful, and waited for me on every hill, and i was determined to give it a "go", and so we did a nice loop, with a beginning flat section and then a series of hills going up, ending with a bunch of downhill speedy super duper slide. I was actually spooked out from flying down on some of the steeper ones, but enjoyed the milder ones for sure. Afterwords, we rode around a local shopping plaza and watched sunset. Back at the cottage we dug into our leftovers of roasted veggie lasagna that i brought along with whatever random snacks we had.  And another bottle of wine. And another beautiful evening. In the morning i started to think about how much i didn't want to leave this place. As we started to organize our things in the room for a faster check-out at 11am, i checked my phone and there was a message from the front office that the room became available for 1 more day. My heart jumped, could we?? Carlos wanted to, and we stayed, spending the day sitting out in the sun, sipping champagne, walking the beach, and dining out at the restaurant below. Not to mention the attic of the top bunk, and the moonlight of the porch, the day was filled with relaxing joy, an imitation, no, a reenactment, of a slow summer day of my childhood, which my brain kept channeling somehow. Beautiful moments in paradise, that's what Crystal Cove was to me..

And another thing

"Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy" -- may be the most motivating quote of all, well, at least to me. That does not mean that, akin to old Russian communist leaders, you should expand enormous efforts to turn rivers' flow in the opposite direction, but it does mean that a considerable amount of work is generally required to achieve nice results. Relationships and marriages are no exception. Often it is hard to talk when you are in a state of discourse, but it is precisely then when it is the most required. Not allowing for any sense of resentment to build up is the hardest work, but the pay-off is so wonderful -- that lifting up, un-earthly in-love feeling that picks you up to carry you through anything that the daily "real life" throws at you! And, once again, i feel whole, and home, and warm and everything else that doesn't rhyme with anything!

Yey to progress!

So, after a 3 week absence of us in C's homeland, i was expecting to come back to a disoriented, stressed out kid that whines and cries, and acts out 30% more then usual. Our psychologist also agreed with my expectation, stating that "there will be work to do" upon return. But... surprise!!! Nothing bad happened! Even more -- we came back to a happy, talkative, expressive child! Now, i don't think that she miraculously grew up a bunch while we were absent, but i do think that changing her schedule to a stable 5 days a week pre-school has been the key. Plus, now that she is in the older kid's group, their days are even more structured and more 'educational' then before. Plus her current teachers are a lot more involved and energetic then her old teacher that my C named 'the pigeon' so appropriately.
So, yey to progress and to pre-school!!!