Greetings to everyone.

Xavier attended a birthday party for a friend he knows through his MOPS group. A local bouncy house served as the venue for the fun. The Pizza Hut across the parking lot served as the catered meal after the fun.

It took Xavier some time to grow used to all the bouncy contraptions available. He did not want to go on the trampolines because they were (in his words) "scary."

It took Dad getting involved and crawling into the air-inflated train slides to get Xavier to stop shying away from the smaller slides. Once he got a taste of the slides, though, it was game on! Up the front of the train, down the slide in the back. Through the "maze" in the next car. Up the ramp then down the slide into another maze, then out the caboose. Once out, it was race around and repeat, laughing all the time.

After a time, I did get him to go on the trampolines. They no longer seemed scary. Once on them, Xavier bounced, climbed and slid and had a blast.

By this time, Xavier had found a friend to run with, another boy about his size. The two discovered the giant shark. Once they identified the climbing ramp, up they went. They did the shark slide several times.

Then I introduced Xavier to the big slide. I asked him, "Do you think this is scary?"

"No!" he replied and squirmed to get out of my arms.

Over the ramps, down some small slides, then up, up, up, a high incline to the big slide. He climbed like an experienced monkey. This slide became his favorite. Too bad we discovered it so late. Lunch time called, and he only had two runs at the slide. He so wanted to go back and do it again (and again, and again…)

We found our shoes and socks, put them on and walked across the parking lot. Their, pizza, drinks and party favors awaited. Xavier ate pizza and pasta. Looking at me he told me "I like the white pasta." There were two choices, one with a white sauce and one with marinara. I did a double take at the phrase "white pasta". Where did he learn that?

In all the eating, playing with party favors and watching the opening of gifts, Xavier never forgot about the big slide. It's all I heard about from the time we left Pizza Hut and drove home. He wanted to go back.

Greetings to everyone.

Xavier loves pizza. It's his favorite food. It must have pepperoni on it and lots of it.

Tonight, Rebecca had pizza on the menu. We purchased pepperoni at the local market over the weekend. The deli at the market only had the uber-sized pepperoni, so our slices were about four inches in diameter.

Xavier was oblivious to what his mama was doing in the kitchen as she prepped for the meal. He sat on Daddy's lap playing a computer game involving bombs and loud explosions. He would laugh heartily whenever he blew himself up.

Generally when he plays this game, it is difficult to pull his attention away from the explosions and bomb dropping. But when Rebecca called to him asking if he wanted to help make pizza, Xavier left tennis shoe skid marks on Dad's legs.

Xavier helped grate the cheese and lay out the pepperoni on the crust. Then, he watched and waited intently as the pizzas baked. He helped make two of them: a big one for mom and dad, and a little one all for him.

The pictures show the chair he stood on to do his work. Underneath the chair, some of the cheese which did not make it onto the dough. Both ovens worked to brown and crisp Xavier's creations.

We all enjoyed the pizza. Xavier ate enough that he did not require a second supper before bedtime.

Greetings to everyone.

Above you can see Xavier's pumpkin he carved last Friday (right) lit up as well as our big one we carved yesterday (left).

Several weeks ago, Rebecca took Xavier shopping for a Halloween costume. He chose what he calls a dinosaur.

So excited to wear his costume, he put it on as soon as he got home. He ran around in it until bed time, chasing Mommy and Daddy around the house and going "Roar!" Not surprisingly, one of the books we read before bed time was How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight.

After school the next day, he came home and (after a nap) put on his suit again. He would tell us (in his endearing three year old playful lilt) when we roared at him: "You not the dinosaur. I am the dinosaur."

After a few days, Xavier forgot about the costume.

Then, his Tuesday/Thursday class had their Halloween party, and they all wore their costumes—all except Xavier. He was too shy to put it on; I spent a good fifteen minutes trying to talk him into it. In the end, he just wanted to carry it.

At the end of the day, however, when we went to pick him up, he was once more the dinosaur. His teacher said he wanted to put it on about an hour after class started.

Sunday afternoon (yesterday), after Xavier's nap, we carved the last two pumpkins. Rather than carve out the castle on a hill (Xavier's choice) Dad spent so much time drawing out, Xavier used the saw tool and cut all over the place on the pumpkin. The result might be called the Colorado Chain Saw Pumpkin Slaughter. This likely due to Dad being distracted with carving his own pumpkin this time and not hovering over Xavier to help him cut along the Sharpie lines.

After finishing the two pumpkins and eating dinner, we went to a local church's Trunk or Treat event. It literally was trunk or treat. The middle of the parking lot was reserved and people dressed up their cars and trucks with Halloween themes. Kids wondered the lot "trick or treating" the cars. Some of the cars had games to play in order to win a candy treat, others had elaborate visuals. One car let kids roast marshmallows and build a Smore.

Xavier was shy the first quarter trip around the loop. Carried by Dad, he hid his face in Dad's shoulder. He got some candy in his bag, and with coaching said "thank you." Then, he came out of his shell. It might have been the "Finding Dory" themed car (yes, the car was dressed to look like Dory).

Xavier walked up and, with coaching, said "trick or treat". This he repeated until the big Noah's Ark themed truck.

After trick or treating the back of the truck, there was set up a little boat big enough for three or four kids Xavier's size to play in. We went back to that boat three times—it's all Xavier wanted to do after discovering it.

This is Xavier's first real Halloween, as he understood enough to take part in the festivities. He still has not fully realized he has a stash of candy yet (unless he is reminded). We're going to keep that tradition alive for as long as we can.

Happy Halloween 2016!