Halloween

Lucy was a bat for Halloween. Why a bat? It simply made sense with her personality. She tends to flap her arms when she's excited, her screeches are getting supersonic, and then there's the biting! So, Grandma, Brie and I had an evening of making her costume. Her costume was made of four simple parts. A $3 black shirt, $3 pair of pants, some black felt, and $2 pair of baby tights. We turned the tights into her hat-- cut off the legs and sewed them shut into ears. I'm sure this will be the subject of a therapy session someday but I'm pretty proud of it right now! Here she is, excited to try it on for the first time:

Bat baby!

Halloween night, before the costume, playing with some new toys.

Cousin Taylor was a shy ladybug, but she sure raked in the candy!

Bat baby and a dirty diaper.

Now for those of you who have been asking me what Lucy's favorite food is, here is a small montage of an attempt at solid foods (which is characteristic of all solid food attempts in the past two months).

We take a small taste.

We don't seem terribly pleased about it.

"No thanks, I really don't care for any."

She thought it might taste different on a spoon, but sadly it did not.

And after about one and a half small tastes of squash, all further attempts are met with this, and other equally angry/disgusted faces.

And so, what is Lucy's favorite food? The answer is decidedly breastmilk!

It's the Great Pumpkin Lucy Clare!

Yesterday was one of the funnest days I've had in a long time. We went to the pumpkin patch with Jeremy, Leah, Taylor and my mom. The pumpkin patch was a surprise for Taylor, and so when Jeremy and Leah were talking about it beforehand, they were calling it the "PP." She guessed, "Pumpkin Patch?" and they said, "Uh, no. The Purple Potty." We met at their house, and played around for a bit, and then Taylor went up to Jeremy and said, "But, we have to get going to the Purple Potty." So we did!

We went to a small pumpkin patch in the middle of no where, and for a little while, Leah thought we were all going to be killed (It was all kind of adding up to a horror movie-- an empty pumpkin patch, a woman on a motorized scooter with a tazer, some chickens who were following us everywhere...). But, pretty soon we were having a lot of fun. Except for Lucy who had fallen deeply asleep on the way there. I thought we weren't going to get any good pumpkin pictures, but she woke up just in time.

Having just woken up, she wasn't quite sure about this place for a few minutes...

And then she cracked the first beautiful smile!

She was really excited about the gravel, and even snagged a mouthful of it.

All the farm animals scared Taylor a bit.

Mom petting Elvis

Later, back at their house, Jeremy showed Lucy the drums.

She was not really sure what to think.

October- it went by fast

What has kept me from blogging this time? An incredibly crazy two weeks, one of which was spent addressing newsletters for FOCUS, the other spent deep-cleaning our house (it needed it). Now that those two things are done, I feel absolutely wonderful. And now I can fill you in on all of our October adventures.

At the very beginning of October, my best friend from college, Amanda, got married in Milwaukee. I was very, well, honored to be her matron of honor. It was a fun weekend (besides the times when Lucy was not a happy camper due to limited interaction with me throughout the day. She was overall a trooper though).

At the rehearsal dinner, Lucy realized what her life's dream is...

To be a member of a mariachi band! She could not keep her eyes off this group.

Me and the lovely bride. I wish I had more pictures of the day, but between Lucy and wedding party duties, I was a little busy.

On our way to and from Milwaukee, we stopped in Whitewater to see Grandma and Grandpa Stanley!

Lucy's and my favorite room of the house is probably the kitchen. I bake or cook or do dishes, and Lucy finds her own activities on the floor.

Lucy loves the refrigerator. We have many pictures of family and friends taped to the fridge, and seeing all of those friendly faces sends Lucy into a state of glee. In this picture, she is clapping her hands for everyone.

See what I mean about finding her own activities in the kitchen? I had to clear out these bottom two shelves once she started crawling, and now she likes to go exploring into them. These pictures reminded me of the first wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.

This is Lucy's winter coat, which has been seeing a lot of action this October. On this particular day, we took a walk in the Soulard Farmer's Market.

Lucy loves riding on our shoulders. As you can clearly see!

Mid-clap.

Apple-picking

I'm playing catch-up here on our life events. A couple weekends ago, we went apple-picking with some friends.

Seeing as Lucy loves anything involving nature, she had a very happy day.

I can't believe I've never blogged about my favorite baby item before: the sling. I can hardly imagine our lives without it. It is the only way that we can have pleasant shopping trips. Lucy is as content as can be just hanging out and looking at the world. If she is in more of an active mood, I put her in so she is facing out. That way she can kick her legs and grab things (therefore, I mostly wear it with her facing towards me).

James tastes a Sun Crisp, and approves.

And then we were the ridiculous parents who hold their baby in between apple branches for a baby photoshoot. I think it was a pretty cute one!

After a couple of really busy weekends without much family time, this was such a great day. We decided to risk it, even though rain was in the forecast and it turned out perfectly. We got enough apples to make a pie, and then it started drizzling. There was a mad dash for the trailer that took you back to the shelter and we made it on pretty quick. A very nice woman with an umbrella sat next to me and covered Lucy and me. About two minutes after we got under the shelter, it started downpouring like crazy. So, we went home and enjoyed a nice rainy day.