Happy Halloweening

Happy Halloween!!

Lily and I went "Happy Halloween"-ing this evening. Since Lily's too little to eat candy and I don't need to eat candy, we (okay, I) decided that we would go "Happy Halloween"-ing instead of "Trick-or-Treat"-ing this evening. We made up little gifts (pairs of Halloween cookie cutters wrapped in pretty orange tissue paper) and took them to our neighbors. We only went a few places; we went to see the families next door and acrossed the street, the lady next door, and the hummingbird ladies down the street. Though I hadn't really anticipated being out and about for more than a half hour or so, we ended up visiting just about everywhere we stopped and our outing lasted nearly 2 hours. Lily was a little tired and fussy during the later part of the evening, but she did exceptionally well considering she had shots at the doctor's office earlier today.

Lily's First Post

> nncl/ b/m lllllllllm, jj 8.

I had help with this one. We'll consider this Lily's first blog post. She "talked" (IMed, essentially) with one of her cousins on the computer briefly last night. It's hard not to introduce her to technology this young....

Wardrobe Shift

Today was the day of the great wardrobe shift -- the day where all of the spring and summer clothes get packed away in boxes and all of the fall and winter clothes come out of the aforementioned boxes (before the spring and summer things get put in them, of course). I also packed up a few things to give away; a group at the church is collecting clothing for a charity donation project, so I sent a box of things that direction. I also boxed up some of Lily's not-yet-too-small summer dresses. It seemed a little strange boxing up all of her summer things knowing that I won't be pulling them out of those boxes 6 months from now. I've boxed up things that she's outgrown before, but it's strange to box up the things that still kinda fit.

Lily helped me with my little project. She played on my bed for a while, and then we moved her to her little bouncer. Lily and I talked for a while, and then she played with Tucker. Tucker really just sat there and looked at Lily, but she found that entertaining enough. She giggled and laughed--not the delicate baby laugh, but a full-fledged guffaw--and seemed to have a wonderful time talking with her Tucker.

Halloween/5 Month Pictures

Lily had some pictures taken at Studio Mommy this afternoon. In other words, I took pictures of Lily today. I dressed her up in her Halloween costume and we did some outside fall shots. She's going to be Winnie-the-Pooh for Halloween; I got her costume for $3 at a thrift store. (I couldn't justify spending $30+ on a Halloween costume when she won't remember the occasion.) Anyway, the pictures turned out pretty cute; now it's just a matter of deciding on which one I want to have prints made of and send out as Lily's 5-month pictures. Here are the three favorites; any suggestions?



(This last one should be rotated, but my computer is being uncooperative this evening.)

One of Those Days....

The day isn't over yet, but it's certainly been a long one already.

Lily didn't sleep through the night; she woke me up at about 2:45 this morning. She fussed for about 45 minutes before she went back to sleep. Sometime during those 45 minutes I acquired a case of the hiccups. Then I had trouble going back to sleep because of the pesky hiccups. My 6:15 alarm seemed to go off way too early. My hiccups didn't go away during the night. I was about 10 minutes late getting out the door this morning, and I had to stop to get gas on the way to school. I picked up a big hot cocoa at the gas station, and I managed to spill some of it on my shirt (my white shirt, nonetheless) during my commute. I pulled out some napkins and my bottle of water to try to blot out the spots, and then I promptly spilled the water all over my lap. The good news was the hiccups went away. However, they came back. They did go away again and I haven't spilled anything on myself in the last 3 hours, so I guess the day is getting better....

Birthdays

Happy Birthday Mommy!! (It's my Mommy's birthday today. YAY Mommy!!)

Also, Happy Belated Blog-Birthday to Me!! While I won't disclose my Mommy's age, my blog turned a whopping 3 years old earlier this month.

New Layout

As you can see, I now have a new layout for my blog (and I'm not sure that I like it). I decided yesterday that I wanted to enable a few new features available on blogger, and I was required to update my template in order to do so. I checked to see that the template I had been using was still available, and I proceeded. However, I soon discovered that, though the basic elements of the template remained the same, there were some rather obvious changes: the formerly beautiful and balanced page was now cramped and smooshed and certainly not aesthetically pleasing. Thus, I decided to select a new template. (If I knew anything about html I probably would have attempted to make changes to the old template, but all of that code looks like a garbled mess to me.)

Anyway, my blog has a new layout. Does it work, or should I try again?

Mommy's Little Helper

Lily's been helping me with all sorts of things today. She helped me with a little laundry this morning, and she helped me with some yard work this afternoon. (She likes being outside, and she really likes to watch the trees. I tried not to keep her out too long today because she's been fighting a little cold for the last few weeks.) She already worked so hard that she decided that it's time for a nap....

Coupons

I like coupons. My mommy sends me coupons in the mail, and I try to remember to sort through them before I go shopping. Today I made a conscious effort to go shopping with my coupons. Actually, I made out my shopping list based on what I had coupons for since the grocery store currently had a 'double coupons up to and including $1.00' promotion going. Anyway, between the store sales and the coupons, I actually cut my grocery bill in half. (The 'Total Savings' column at the bottom of my receipt read '50% off.') It was totally worth the extra 15 minutes of planning that went into this trip to the store....

$2.95

That's the gas price that I saw on my commute to school this morning. It's amazing to think that 5 years ago we never would have thought that gas prices would ever go over $3 per gallon and 5 months ago we wondered if gas prices would ever drop below $3 per gallon again. Even though I sill have half a tank of gas in my car, I think maybe I'll fill it up again today....

Mina

No, we didn't get another kitty. We're kitty-sitting this week for Mina, a kitty who belongs to one of our friends. (The friend who typically kitty-sits for Tucker when we go out of town.) Anyway, Tucker and Mina have gotten along wonderfully this time. (And that hasn't always been the case.) Tucker was initially a little protective of his humans; he slept in the hallway during the first night Mina was here, presumably to keep her out of the bedrooms. He's been a little better about sharing his humans lately, though he still seems to get a little upset whenever Mina gets too close to Lily. Mina's been doing well too; we haven't had any reason to refer to her as 'Meany' at all this visit....