Madeline's First Halloween

We had so much fun last night stuffing Madeline into her goldfish costume and parading her around the neighborhood! Maple was dressed up in an Elmo costume that I salvaged from Mollie's Goodwill donation pile one year. A little three-year-old spider came to the door for candy and said to his mom, "I didn't know Elmo was a dog!"

So after a family Halloween photo shoot on the front porch with the Jack-o-lanterns that Rob and I carved, we took Madeline to a couple of neighbors' houses (I ate her candy as we walked) and stopped by to say hi to Carrie and Garrott's Viszla, Daisy, who was dressed up as a bumblebee. Then later on in the evening, Buffy and Ellie (dressed as an adorable ladybug) stopped by to say hello, and Andi came over after class to help pass out candy and have dinner. It was the perfect first Halloween!





Madeline continues to practice her crawling. She isn't there yet, but she sure is giving it everything she's got. She even grunts from the effort. That's my girl. And now with her sharp little lone tooth, it's like living with a beaver. This morning, I gently pried her mouth off of the wood high chair she was whittling; she has scratched the plastic off of both ends of the television clicker (one of her favorite "toys"). Rob says she has Restless Leg Syndrome because seemingly in her sleep, she'll raise both her legs in her crib and bring them down with a big thud that we can actually feel from the living room couch.

And finally, huge news on the family front! My dad and Nancy are thrilled to be moving to Beijing with Caterpillar, effective January 1. We've all been waiting for weeks to find out whether they would be transferred to China, India or Russia. So they're in the midst of making all the decisions and preparations that go along with that enormous transition. I don't think the reality has hit quite yet just how much we will miss them...mostly because we are all so happy for them. And because we're already planning our first visit!

Finally, I had to post this picture of the first official "Pink Shirt Day" in Rob's work group of almost all men, a hallmark that started in part because of the teasing Rob takes from his boss for his pink shirts and ties!