All the World's a Stage...

One of Livia's favorite things to do is watch either Sharyn or me play with Cassidy in the backyard. The window in Livia's playroom (what used to be a dining room) provides an unobstructed view of the right half of our backyard. Livia will wait anxiously at the windowsill and as Cassidy comes bounding into sight Livia will burst into laughter or scream "Go, Go, Go". To really get Livia laughing though, you can play hide or seek with her by ducking under the window and then coming up again in another spot within the window's view. Cassidy even gets in on the act sometimes by barking and jumping at the window. To Livia, I believe, all the world's truly a stage, and all the men, women and dogs merely players. This clip gives a short taste of what it sounds like to sit with Livia at the windowsill while Sharyn and Cassidy play the part of actors in the looking glass.

Walking!

No new photos, but an exciting week

It's been a very exciting week. Grandma Marilyn and Grandpa David arrived last Monday night, just as Livia was going to bed. She was excited to greet them at the front door until Cassidy knocked her over (Cassidy just could not contain her own excitement, which is about 10 times greater than any human is capable of) so once again, Livia started screaming as they walked in the door. Oh well-- she was content for the rest of the visit though. Dan woke up in the middle of the night and realized that we had no power-- he woke me up to tell me this, and we soon realized that we had no internet or phone either. This seemed suspicious to me because we have never lost power in this house, even with many crazy wind and rainstorms, and it was barely even drizzling. I started to get really worried about some sort of Election Day conspiracy to prevent people from voting, so we were relieved to learn that it was only a very local problem. Dan even went to the two local polling places to see if they had lost power and needed help. Our power came back on at 10am, but the day's excitement didn't end there. We went to the Museum of Life and Science, where Grandma and Grandpa got to see Livia play and climb a lot. Later that afternoon we went to Gymboree, where Livia displayed her playing and climbing skills once more. Grandma was so busy taking pictures that I didn't get any of my own. But Livia slept through the most exciting part of the day-- the election returns! Not only did Obama win in a clear race, but he even carried North Carolina, which was pretty exciting over here. At the end of the week (Saturday), we met up with Steven and Dani Temares, who were in Raleigh for a travelling soccer tournament. Livia got to watch her first soccer game, and she even got to kick (and mouth) the ball at the end of the game. She spent the entire two hours walking the sidelines while holding only one of our hands (previously she needed to hold two hands). She is much steadier than she was even a few days ago, so we think she will probably start to walk in the next couple of weeks. We are both excited and nervous for this to happen. The anticipation has Cassidy going through a "stress shed" (if I was posting photos now, you would see a clump of dog hair).

Happy Halloween!

We carved the pumpkins earlier this week. One of them is my style and the other is more typical of Dan. Can anyone guess? (Hint: this is actually a trick question).

On Halloween morning, Livia wore her special bib, which was part of her birthday gift from Abby. It was a great way to start the day.

I took Livia to the Museum of Life and Science. It had nothing to do with Halloween, but there's not much going on most Friday mornings, so it seemed like a good place to go. We recently became members there-- it's a great museum with lots of cool exhibits and a mini zoo outside, but Livia's favorite part is the baby play area. She especially loves the tunnel and slide.

Halloween eve was very non-eventful for Livia. She started getting really really tired around 6:15 pm. We tried to take her to our next door neighbors' house, but they weren't home yet. So Livia went to bed just before 7pm and didn't even see any trick-or-treaters. Cassidy, on the other hand, saw all 120 trick-or-treaters that came to our house. Cassidy dressed up as a dog with devil ears and a vampire cape. Her cape actually looked just like the one that Alexey wore.

Here Cassidy is enjoying her special Halloween treat.

Livia did wear the costume briefly before going to bed. The only thing she wanted to do in it was to chew on a spoon from her kitchen set.

I tried to get a photo of Livia and Cassidy together but this was the best I could do.

Dan and I always argue about getting enough food (for Halloween and also for parties, etc). I insist we have enough, Dan worries that we don't, and usually we compromise and get a little more and end up with way too much. This year I was insistent that the 6 bags of candy and 50 frosty certificates would be enough. Our first trick-or-treaters came at 7pm, but we literally had 100 people come over the next 40 minutes. Dan raced to get more candy as we were running low, and I literally ran out of candy and shut the lights for a few minutes. Then he got back with 5 more bags, and we only had about another 20 kids come over the next 45 minutes. I will admit that I was wrong this year-- oh well. But we still ended up with lots of leftover candy that I didn't want around, as usual. This is what everyone saw as they came to the door. I was waiting on the steps, and I stepped outside to hand out the candy so that Cassidy wouldn't jump on anyone and Livia wouldn't wake up. Cassidy only made 1 little girl scream. All the kids liked Cassidy's costume. Livia slept through the entire thing.

Yesterday we went to my friend Sherri's house for the Horizon baby/toddler Halloween party. There are 5 people in my 20-person office who had babies in 2007, so there are lots of kids around the same age as Livia (ranging from 10-18 months). Unfortunately my camera ran out of memory so I could only get a couple of shots. Livia did wear her cow costume and I dressed up as milk. We all had a great time and Sherri, Mark, and Caitlyn were wonderful hosts as always. Here we have the Taylor family (Kevin, Melanie, and Malachi the dragon).

And here is Mellisa with Maya the duck

And the answer to the pumpkin carving question (if anyone really cares) is that Dan actually did both of them, but the simple face is definitely much more my style, as I would never have the patience to research pumpkin designs, print out a pattern, and spend 2 hours (with some frustration and swearing) trying to get it just right. But I have to say that it's the most beautiful musical pumpkin that I have ever seen.