November 1: Halloween report, Setswana name

NaBloPoMo, day 1! I'm totally going to do this posting every day thing.

Carter's first Halloween went by quickly. Our plan was to sit in the driveway with Carter in costume, and hand out candy as the trick-or-treaters came by. Trick-or-treaters start coming around at sunset, which is right around Carter's bedtime, so we weren't sure how that would go. It was also pretty warm and humid too, so we decided against putting him in the puppy costume and used our backup costume instead: a jack-o-lantern onesie.



I was in costume too (originally a pirate wench, but I couldn't find the skirt I planned to wear, so in the end I was mostly just colorful). We sat out in our lawn chairs and Doug and I drank some wine and Carter played and stared wide-eyed at the trick-or-treaters and it was fun!



For about 45 minutes. And then Carter started to get tired, and he seemed to be a little freaked out by being outside in the dark, and he started to cry. Like a real cry with tears! So we left the candy on the porch, packed the chairs and everything up, and came inside. It was short, but it was still fun! Next year we might do a little more decorating, even.

Something interesting that Carter did yesterday afternoon was scoot across the living room on his back! I had out him down on his sheepskin rug and went to fold laundry. After about five minutes, Doug said, "Jenn, come see this!" I peeked around the corner and Carter had scooted all the way across the living room to where his toys are, and was pulling them out of the box! He will arch his back and then push with his feet to scoot himself. I don't know if this is a precursor to crawling or not. He still refuses to be on his tummy!

And finally, we heard from a friend in Botswana recently who has given Carter a Setswana name: Boitumelo, which means "happy". Isn't that sweet? He and his wife are expecting a baby, and they have asked us to select an English name for him. We're working on that one. It's more than a novelty, as people in Botswana do usually have traditional and English names; the English names are used in school and in situations when they are working with westerners. So this is a serious honor we've been given. :-)