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).