Hallowe'en/Dark Time

The incandescent lighting we have made this look even more orange-y than it truly was, but here is Mavis in her basic outfit. She preened like a Diva when I tried the hairband on her at the store. Absolutely could not keep it on her for many more pics than this.

Like last year's E'en, this year was a bad-mood-too-tired-get-me-out-of-here struggle. Except instead of being one month old Mavis is now 13 months old and still not quite getting the fun of it. She seemed more interested in going to bed than having Mama take ANOTHER picture of her. We didn't even watch a festive movie. The funk might have been due to lack of Trick or Treaters. Foo! Don't kids know that even apartments have candy? Maybe next year...

Today I put up the playpen on the back patio so that Mavis could play in the nice gentle sunshine and watch the gold leaves fall from the trees. She must have enjoyed it because she jabbered the whole time. Being outside in the stroller has been a success thus far so I was glad to find that the playpen was just as good.

Have discovered that Mavis can move faster than me. The house is still not truly baby-proofed and I feel bad always telling her, "No." When she's tired she'll go from one no-no to another just to get my attention. People tell me this is normal.

Happy Hallowe'en

I will have pics of tonight later.

Last night we carved our Jack o' Lanterns and today I roasted the seeds. Hate to waste anything that can be used for food, so I'll be trying my hand at pumpkin pie made from pie pumpkins. Which is what we've carved this year. It wasn't as fun as carving big pumpkins, though. The faces are itty bitty.

A milestone today of replacing Mavis' rear-facing car seat with a forward-facing one. *Sigh* She is growing up so fast and now maybe she won't pull Houdinis and escape from her straps. We hope she can sleep sitting up straighter since we'll be traveling for Thanksgiving. At least the seat is well padded on the sides.

I am glad tomorrow is November. Mavis is too young to take Trick or Treating and with Stake Conference tonight there will not be many of our ward's Primary-age children knocking on our door. Lots of things seem to have taken away from the fun of Hallowe'en, the greatest of which is simply growing up and getting older. I thought Mavis would revitalize the holiday for me but that hasn't happened yet. Time will tell. This is our second Hallowe'en with her and we've done the usual celebratory rituals in spite of her littleness. At least they are in place for when she is old enough to enjoy them.

13 months tomorrow

A little fuzzy, but this is just a couple of hours ago this afternoon. I love two hour naps! They make for a much happier baby.

Last night we took our Pgh lamp stand to the curb for someone else to possibly pick up and love. We've used it for about four years now and Mavis found a way to disassemble it which made it a little dangerous if she were to fall against it wrong. So we traipsed off to Target for another base and came home with just the thing.

Tomorrow Mavis will be 13 months old. We wonder where this little person-in-miniature came from and are a little amazed that what she says almost makes sense. I look forward to her growing a bigger vocabulary as well as her hair. With Hallowe'en next week I need to get pics of her in her festive attire. The pumpkins this year will be a lot more fun.

literary Mavis

This was before we both got sick. Chas hasn't caught it, lucky man. I'm pretty sure it is just a cold virus, not anything worse but...ick. We just can't seem to clear our lungs.

Mavis says Dad-dee even when I came in the door last night so we are not sure if Daddy is someone who comes home or if it is truly Chas. She gets so animated when she hears the gate chime and sees him park the bike under the kitchen window.

So Mavis pulls herself up to the encyclopedias and tries to pull them out to read. Such a smartie! Better than toys, she'd rather have books read to her. After all these months and weeks, we've gotten out the books with the paper pages. Sanity is preserved for another few months.

We had her one year (late) appointment last Friday and found that she is 29" tall and smack in the 50th percentile. Really I'd not have it any other way. What would I do with a kid who was already as tall as I am?
We had a fun day after the Dr visit in spite of the five needle marks that vaccinations required. El Paso has an outlet mall on this side of the city and we all got something new. My major accomplishment: two pairs of jeans in a size smaller than I have been wearing. Hooray for clothes that fit again! As of this morning 22lbs lost.

the Teeth of October

I decided to wait until after the birthdays had passed before I decorated for Hallowe'en. Maybe it was a mistake as now I have to keep Mavis out of the candy corn and there will not be the lighting of the candles in their holders until the E'en. But I do have a bit of a costume for her. Since I can't sew to my desired proficiency level yet I am having to use the dollar section of Target. Mavis has a ghost shirt, striped tights and a black leotard to wear underneath the shirt in case of chill. Oh, and a hair band just in case she gets some more hair. She was so cute while she preened for me when I put it on her head.

Chas is back from his trip to SLC. We missed him while he was gone and Mavis is having a hard time believing that life is back to normal. I have been working on being patient with her. She is so precocious that I find my levels of patience and frustration at odds with each other. She can cruise faster than I can catch her sometimes though I rest a little easier now that I've put the outlet plugs in. Now she can play on the couch to her heart's desire.

And this morning there was a sharp little tooth that wasn't there last night. Mavis is now armed/fanged and dangerous. With much relief I reflect that she was weaned early last week.

Pirates

For fast food LJS is not our first choice unless it is for Pirate Day. Why stop at just talking like pirates? At least we paid for our meal instead of keelhauling the employees and making off with our deep fried food.

Mavis has had her first birthday and she couldn't even stay awake long enough to make it to her birth hour. I don't know if she even knew it was supposed to be a fun day for her. I tried to give her more attention and hugs and kisses which wasn't hard at all, of course.

Isn't it odd how we celebrate birthdays for children who are too young to remember the effort we put towards their day? But we'll take pictures and post them either here or on FB next week.

a favorite thing

One of my favorite things is my spice cupboard. I like to open the cupboard door and take a deep sniff. It makes me happy. I miss Penzey's and am ever grateful for mail-order catalogs of their wonderful spices.