A Belated Happy Thanksgiving and Weekly Update

We started the Thanksgiving week off by attending a holiday light parade downtown. Last year I went with Regan and Baby Alex (who can no longer be called by that nickname!) and Alex's Grandma. We stood outside for over an hour waiting for the parade to come by, and we nearly froze to death. The babies were great - Miss Mouse was in her fluffy snowsuit, in a front-carrier, tucked inside my jacket toasty warm. Alex was hanging out in his stroller in a snowsuit. Regan, Vanesa, and I, on the other hand, were nearly frozen solid by the time the silly parade went by! We still had a great time, but I learned a lot for this year. Unfortunately, Alex and his family weren't able to be there with us this year on account of a nasty cold from which he was just recovering.


Anyway, first, it was fun (as well as helpful!) that this year Daddy was actually able to attend the parade with us! On a Tuesday night, it is often more likely that he is at work than attending a parade; so we (the Mouse and I) ecstatic to have him with us! We headed downtown and had a bite to eat right after Daddy got off work. We were able to find a parking spot not even a block off the main parade route! After eating, we had just enough time to run back to the car, load the Mouse into her backpack, and find a front row spot (well, we were behind a few people in lawn chairs) before the parade started rolling by. Perfect timing for an absolutely perfect evening - hanging out in the chilly, but not frigid or even windy, weather, watching bright floats pass by - as a family! Daddy and I attended light parades for holidays past in Lisbon and the lighted train celebration in Enderlin, and Miss Mouse and I enjoyed last year here. But there is nothing like all being together to celebrate and to have the opportunity to watch our baby's face light up as bright as the floats (okay, so Daddy didn't have a good look at her face, but he heard her loud and clear as she demanded "more! more!").

Ooooooooooo.......

Enjoying the parade - the backpack has to be one of the best inventions ever!

This was one of Miss Mouse's favorites; it was horse-drawn. It was actually one of three horse-drawn floats plus a group of riders on horses that had lights draped on them. Our little horse-lover wanted many, many "more".

It's hard to read, but this one says "Santa's Water Treatment Plant". Odd, eh?
Another float

Our Mouse is growing up! Notice the "church shoes", floofy clothes, long hair (the bangs are curled, by the way), and barrett. She's developing into quite the little lady.

I'm not a totally terrible person when it comes to sugar. I let her have one beater from one of the batches of sugar cookies we made for Thanksgiving. It took her 45 minutes to lick most of it off, and half of it went on the floor, as she said, for the "birds". But she had a grand old time and got very dirty (which she can now say!).

Remarkably, they turned out fairly well and tasted good, too! Sugar cookies are definitely not my strength, and decorated ones have traditionally been my nemesis. This time, though, they turned out much more like my in-laws' (who make delicious sugar cookies) than mine! Oh, and just so I'm not known as getting too "soft" on the sugar issue - Miss Mouse was told that they were for older kids and grown ups at the Thanksgiving party (though she did have some pumpkin pie - and promptly had a sugar-rush-and-sleep-deprived-induced-tantrum).

We had a nice Thanksgiving begun by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and a little bit of dog-show-watching afterwards. Miss Mouse and I stayed home while she napped; Daddy went to the Thanksgiving party we were invited to (he offered to stay home with her, but he knew most of the people at the party better than I- so it made more sense for him to go). After Miss Mouse woke from her nap (actually, I woke her up at 3 after a two-hour nap just so we could get going to the party...waking a sleeping baby usually seems to be a mistake, especially after she was up from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m. with a tummy-ache the night before....will Mommy ever learn???), we strolled down to the party, too. Daddy's boss and his wife had invited several families over, so there was much visiting, food, and merriment. We had a nice time. Miss Mouse enjoyed playing with their new Brittany puppy, Zoe....until Zoe bit her. Zoe is losing her baby teeth and chewing on everything and everyone in sight - not so much fun for a small child. We attempted to get Miss Mouse to pet her on the tail-end, but the closest the Mouse would get to forgiving her was to look at her sympathetically and say "niiiiice". We explained that Zoe was using her as a pacifier and that she is a baby and doesn't know better. I think the Mouse accepted that, but she still didn't want much to do with petting the puppy after that!

After about 3.5 hours there visiting and playing, I could tell it was time to go and could also tell it was not going to be an easy departure. Sure enough, the poor Mouse with her sleep deprivation and sugar-high threw an absolute fit. I had to retrieve Daddy from video-gaming in the basement to help get her in the stroller. He was sure he could get her coat and hat on with no problem....at first....until he got them both on, turned his back for a second, and then turned around to see both the hat and coat thrown onto the floor where they had started out in the first place :) Talented Mouse we have. At some point, I think when she had crawled and wedged herself behind a chair in the living room, I got the giggles because she was just totally out of control - nothing we were trying was working (trust me, two of our hosts were trying along with Daddy and me!) - and it seemed the best choice was for us to chuckle (not letting her see it, of course), relax, and wait for it to dissipate a little. Or, we could have started scolding her, giving her time-outs, teaching her absolutely nothing at that point. Trust me, she's had several time-outs, and they work very well for her (they broke a Mommy-hair-pulling-spree and seem to be working well to control fits at church). Given the state of the Mouse at that point, we chose to laugh off her fit, explain her sleeplessness, and scram. She screamed all the way home. Didn't even care a bit about Neighbor Ken's lights that he had just put up! On the bright side, about ten minutes after arriving home, Miss Mouse was settled back into her normal self, reading books with us, snacking on cheese and crackers. Closing out Thanksgiving Day 2008, we were thankful that "our Mouse" returned and sent the "other Mouse" packing!

Ready for church Thanksgiving Eve.

No one has taught her to pose like that!!!! What a little flirt! She is modeling her new training pants which she finally agreed to try out on Saturday night. She promptly peed in them, but she agreed to try on another pair and did quite well for about half an hour in them (at that point she had to get her bedtime diaper on, but the pants were still dry). Now she doesn't want anything to do with them, but it's a start, eh? She's been admiring them but refusing to try them for over a month, so at least trying them on for a period of time is some progress!

Last night when Daddy got home from pheasant hunting, we took a long drive around town to look at Christmas lights. We only saw the tip of the iceburg, I'm sure, as far as what is out there for displays, but we had a great time. Miss Mouse was quieter than I thought she would be (I had expected squeals of happiness), but whenever we passed several houses without lights, she would ask for "more! more!". She also responded in the affirmative when asked if we should keep looking for lights and if she was enjoying them. She was pretty disappointed to come home! I think we'll have to make Christmas-light-looking a regular event through December now. Thank goodness for gas prices being a bit lower!

This morning, Miss Mouse and I enjoyed the snow. She calls it "No!" and seems to love it. Neighbor Ken gave her a sled ride yesterday while I shoveled (don't worry, we had all of 1/2 an inch on the driveway; I just didn't want it to turn into ice before Daddy had a chance to do it); she apparently remembered how very much she loves sleds! We shopped this morning and used some of Mommy's birthday money to get a bench for the entryway; it still needs to be picked up from the store and then stained (more work for Daddy! Mommies aren't allowed to use stain when pregnant), but it was pretty exciting to find what I was looking for at a much lower price than I had anticipated! Miss Mouse enjoyed the snow all morning, from outside the house and then from inside, too, with her little face pressed up against any window she could reach.

All the Colors of the Rainbow

Well, some of them anyway, are being identified at our house now! I've known for awhile that she recognizes her colors because she will hand me the red this or that and the yellow this or that when asked. However, we had a big breakthrough today involving colors and socks. She was helping me put her clean clothes away today when she suddenly turned and started saying "neen! neen! neen!". I couldn't figure out what she meant at first, until I saw the two pairs of green socks in her hands! I gave her a hug and told her that they were, in fact, green and that she had done a great job finding them. Back in the drawer they went, to be replaced by "enk! enk! enk!" - pink socks. Another hug, more praise, socks back in the drawer. Quick as a wink I hear, "bobble! bobble! bobble!" - purple socks have appeared. More hugs, giggles, and praise. She wasn't sure what to say about the yellow socks until I said "yellow" first; at that point, she repeated "yellow" almost as clearly as I had said it! I couldn't find any blue socks (I think they're in a laundry pile waiting for washing later today), but we looked at a book with a blue picture - "boo", for now. I can honestly say that 21.5 months ago, I would not have thought she would be learning her colors based on her socks, but it seems to be working! As an aside, I should note that we've been "working" on colors all summer - outside with colored chalk, colors of flowers, green grass, colors of lawn decorations, toys, inside with colors in books, at the grocery store with food colors, etc. It just appears that the socks are the catalyst for the actual verbalization of the color words; I guess the child likes her socks!

Word Explosion!

We are just having a word explosion at our house this week! Here are the latest from our 21.5 month old:
*Night-Night=Night-Ight
*Nice - Used on anything from animals to stuffed animals to the picture on her diaper (yeah, she's loving to a fault, I'm afraid) and pronounced with an extended "iiiiiii"
*Laura=Yes, congrats Auntie Laura; we finally have your name! It sounds like "Yuda", but it means Laura for sure.
*Steph=Again, congrats Auntie! Yours sounds like "Jess", but it really does mean Steph.
*Amy=Mamie (a cousin of Daddy's who loves Miss Mouse)
*Leah=Yeeee-ah (Daddy's boss's daughter who also loves the Mouse)
*clean=keen
*dry=As in "dry diaper"; sort of sounds like "die", unfortunately.

Silver Bells

Yesterday marked the start of the Salvation Army bell-ringing campaign here in town. The church Daddy serves picked that day to supply the entire area with bell-ringers, so Miss Mouse and I signed up way back in September for a 1-hour shift at the grocery store by our house. I had been hoping for months now that the weather would be fairly nice and warm. I wasn't too terribly disappointed, but I did freeze. Thanks to a heavy duty snowsuit from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick, snowboots from Grammy, and mittens made by a wonderful woman in Enderlin (who passed away last year - how lucky were we to be able to get these mittens to remind us of her??!!), Miss Mouse stayed warm and cozy. She sat in a grocery cart while I stood to block any wind while I rang the bell. She had no interest in ringing the bell herself but she agreed with a hearty "yes!" that perhaps next year we would leave the baby with the neighbors and she could ring the bell then for a shift. I probably looked a bit crazy as I explained to her that we were ringing the bell so that people would put money in the little kettle and that the money was used to by food for people who didn't have food. She listened intently, though, and said, "oohh" when I was done. We went through the explanation several times during the shift. She was quite the little beggar, too; once she had seen enough people put money in, she started getting upset with those who walked by without donating. She would sign furiously and quietly say "more, more!". I tried to explain that some people were going to donate later, but she didn't really think that was a good explanation! We were thankful to have our backs to the wind, and I was, again, so thankful for her warm winter clothes. She stayed much warmer than I did (the gloves I chose were rather thin - more for running in cool weather than for standing out in a strong wind ringing a bell!). One observation that struck me, and I remember noticing this in college, too, is that the majority of people who donated money looked like they could use some themselves. There was one quite well-dressed man who stopped and donated and chatted awhile, but other than that, it seemed to be young parents in older clothes (hmmm....I probably fit that description myself, and thankfully we don't need food baskets - so looks can be deceiving, but still) and older people who were dressed, hm, let's say, not in furs and leathers. I remember noticing that trend when I rang bells for the Salvation Army (at the same store, in fact) in college. One older woman stopped and said "I donate to this organization every year. Whatever I can. They can just make all the difference." I don't think it was the wind causing the tears in her eyes. Anyway, I think we are well on our way to having a hardy, prairie girl, since she made it fairly happily through an hour like that yesterday!

The Funniest Things

I wanted to get these phrases down before I forget. Samantha came up with some good ones this weekend!
1. Walking right into Miss Mouse's face, saying "You need a haircut!" (She does; I'm just trying to wait to where it will last through Christmas for her bang-trim).
2. Looking at her bangs hard, asking my mom, "Could you braid it?" (Apparently she gave up on the haircut and was hoping that braiding would help! We curled the Mouse's bangs everyday after that).
3. Answering what was her favorite part of the day on Saturday (after attending the Ludefest with music, crafts, etc.), "Holding hands with those people I don't really know to say the prayer at supper"!
4. On the way back from the Ludefest, Grandpa rode with Auntie Laura. He had ridden down with us. Sam urgently asks, "How will The Grandpa get home?"
5. Wanting someone to color with her, Sam says "Come here!"; Mandy says "Mom?"; Sam, "No. Someone else"; Mandy, "Who?"; Sam, "Someone's Grandma"! Pretty clear, really.

New Words

Miss Mouse has acquired some new words, giving new freedom of expression! Here they are:
*Milk=Nik/Nuk (she tried out this new one yesterday - 21 months)
*No=Neeeeyo
*Done=Deone or Nine
*Samantha=Nyanana
*Sam=Am
*Pear=Perrrrr
*Cheese=Chssssssssssssss (this one came a couple weeks ago)
*Bye-Bye=Bye-Bye or B-Bye (adorable; appeared about 20.75 months)
*Bowl=Bo
*Book=Buck (this one is new around 21 months)
*Yes=Yes (very clearly; this one has been around since about 20 months)
*Please=Pees, Pees (around 20 months)
*Grammy=Nyammy (this one came about 20.5 months and is used for both Grandmas right now)
*Grandpa=Baa-uh (this was appeared around 19.5 months)
*Mama=Mama (instead of Ma - this changed about 20 months)
*Dada=Dada (instead of Da - again, around 20 months)
*Paul=Pole (light on the "l" sound; this one appeared around 20 months)
*Baby=Baby (very clear, too; came around 20 months)
*Park=Bek (not very clear unless you pay close attention to context; I noticed it around 20 months)
I might be missing some, but these are the recent ones that I can think of. We have the old "standards" of bear, duck, dog, bath, meat, raw (waw), rude (wude), mean (meeeee), bird, ball, more, moon, some of which still don't have the ends pronounced, but we're working on and obviously expanding the vocabulary and clarity! It's so exciting!

Chugg-a, Chugg-a, Choo-Choo!!

There haven't been any posts since last week because Miss Mouse and I were on a train trip with some friends! We boarded last Thursday morning (early morning) and headed out to Williston with our friends Mandy and Samantha. I won't post Mandy's age (which is changing today - happy birthday to her!), but Samantha is 4.5 and was excited beyond words to be on a train. She and the Mouse both did fall asleep, though, even after being in the bright lights of the station for awhile. They had breakfast and played with stickers and color books for the last two hours of our ride which was really very pleasant other than the person in the back of our car who sounded like she should be on oxygen (she turned out to be a young woman in her twenties?). Miss Mouse was, of course, overjoyed to see Grammy and began saying "Nyammy! Nyammy!" as soon as we got off the train (we had looked at the calendar all week and pointed to the day we would see Grammy and Grandpa and Great Grammy; I know she has no concept of calendars, but she loves looking at them and pointing to special days). We had lunch and much-needed naps at Great Grammy's house and then headed for the farm. We spent Friday just lounging around at the farm, doing lots of coloring, playing with play-doh, and watching for our dolphins to grow (these weird little fish Grammy found that start out small and grow quite a lot bigger in the course of 72 hours; of course, if you're a 4.5 year old, the "rule" is that you have to check them every time you think of them and let everyone know that they are, indeed, growing for sure!). Saturday morning was spent in Crosby, chatting with lots of people we hadn't seen in a long time, listening to musical performances, pointing out all babies (that was Miss Mouse's job), and, yes, eating lutefisk. Not me, certainly. My plate contained only meatballs, potatoes, veggies, and lefse. It seems that the Mouse is a traitor to her father and me. She lapped up Auntie Laura's lutefisk (well-buttered, of course) as quickly as she could put it on her plate. She followed the lutefisk with a couple slices of lefse and then ate the majority of my Swedish rice pudding (I had only wanted about 3 bites, and 3 bites is about what I got!); needless to say, after all the sugar and cream in the rice pudding, getting her down for a nap took considerably longer than usual. A "once-every-few-years" treat (meaning the sugary pudding and the disgusting, er, different delicacy of lutefisk!). Saturday afternoon, Samantha was introduced to Auntie Laura's miniature horses. Feeding them treats and hay rated pretty high on her "best thing of the day review" at night according to her mom. They're a pretty great size for small ones to feed, pet, and love up. Miss Mouse joined us subsequent days to play with them. Sunday we spent visiting with family as Great Auntie Karen, Great Uncle Bill, and Great Grammy drove up for lunch and the afternoon. We all did lots of coloring, too, under Samantha's direction. She's quite the coloring fiend! It was time to pack up again on Monday, but we did manage to sneak in some outdoor time to give the girls a wagon ride (in my old red wagon), time to play with the cats, and a bit of time to swing and play with the horses. The most popular event that day was the wagon ride. Then it was back on the train on Monday evening. Miss Mouse didn't understand why Grammy and Grandpa didn't get on with us, so she patted her hand on the window, saying "Nyammy! Baa-uh!" Until Mandy started to cry, I was fine; after that I was crying, Grammy was standing outside crying, Samantha looked ready to cry (she really took a liking to "The Grandma, The Grandpa, The Aunt"), and Miss Mouse was confused. The rest of the train ride went better, though, we had some loud people in our car that night. The girls managed to sleep through them! What a wonderful trip with good friends. We made lots of great memories!

Yum, Num! Lutefisk! Uff da....

She only looks unhappy because she is out of lutefisk.

Miss Mouse's favorite baby, Baby Addison, stopped over to play on Sunday.

Too Sweet

Sometimes a person finds a dessert that is so delicious and gooey and sweet that it almost hurts; perhaps it is that one can feel their teeth rotting, but maybe it is just that extremely sweet and yummy that it sends the "enjoyment" feelings nearly over into pain feelings! Well, witnessing this moment was just about that sweet, definitely more than two mommies could handle without saying "ooooooohhhhhh". "No-longer-Baby-Alex" came over on Thursday (with his Mommy, of course - he isn't a baby any longer, but at least he's not driving yet!) to play. One of the first things he and Miss Mouse did was to take turns hugging the giant stuffed Winnie-the-Pooh. Then they proceeded to attack, er, play in her room, where most of her toys are now. At least for the moment, they play remarkably well together and seem to have a lot of fun picking up a toy, looking at it, and then pushing it at the other person. The other person's job then is to look at that toy and promptly push it back towards the first person. Regan and I think they're attempting to share. Again, it just can't help but elicit "ooohhhh's" from the mommies. And hugging the pooh-bear. That was just too sweet.

29 - For the First Time - Honest!

It's official. I'm in my last year of being a 20-something. Daddy left 20-something behind several years ago, so I've "held down the fort" as the 'young' person in the house. One more year. At least if I'm honest! My birthday started early - 6:15 a.m. Apparently Miss Mouse was excited and wanted to start the celebrating early. Actually, I think she had gas, but we'll put it in the best light possible, eh? Daddy took the first hour up with her (being that it was my birthday and all), so that was a treat. The morning really turned out to be fun with a trip down to the yarn store and lots of puzzle-playing (Miss Mouse is incredibly "into" wooden puzzles right now). As I was rocking her to sleep for her nap, I began thinking (not as rare an activity as might be imagined!) and pondering about where, ten years ago, I would have thought I would be at 29. Most definitely it was not at home rocking a toddler to sleep everyday, rejoicing over independent bathroom behavior. My vision was to be a professor by now, perhaps holed up in a library somewhere in Europe doing research requiring much sifting through musty books, hundreds of years old; aahhh, the smell of musty books is like none other. Then, I planned to be a counseling psychologist, certainly helping dozens of people a week by now. But try as I might, as I sat there looking at my sweet, sleeping girl, I couldn't imagine anywhere else I would actually want to be now, other than here at home with her and her Daddy. It was odd to realize, for this super-competitive, Type A, achievement-focused person, that somehow life has changed me to the point that the glory of competition and achievement for myself is in this moment far outshone by the day-to-day light of raising our daughter. And I think I like that change in myself. Funny. Anyway, she didn't take a very long nap in the afternoon, but it was long enough for me to work out and try my hand at mitten-making. I estimated much too small for the mitten, but I've whipped out a couple more now that did fit. Daddy was home early, avec fleurs - what a gentleman. Or, as Great Grammy said, I have a "thoughtful husband". Yes, indeed! We went out to eat so that I could get my free birthday meal. We also picked out my birthday present which is a fake Christmas tree. Glamorous, yes, I know. Quite the present, though! I just couldn't see creating more work for myself vacuuming up needles before they would get imbedded in small feet for the next several years. Daddy agreed, so even though we are sad to lose the "real tree" smell and look for a time, this is going to be a much more practical option for us. I also bought some "shatterproof" decorations for it. Truly, we have a very well-behaved child who doesn't really ever bother our decorations or anything; I have not totally "baby-proofed" the house (other than things that are dangerous); I expect her to respect what is "Mommy's and Daddy's" and not to touch it (she gets to wave at things that are identified as "Mommy's and Daddy's"). On the other hand, I'm not naive enough to think that, on a cold, windy day, when we've been cooped up inside for hours, when she hasn't napped well, when she perhaps isn't feeling up-to-snuff, that she is not capable of pulling over a Christmas tree. Certainly, the capability is there, and it just seems like tempting fate to put on Daddy's and my precious ornaments from 1976 or 1979, etc. No point in playing with fire until we get burned! Anyway, we finished off my birthday evening with pieces of French silk pie from Perkins after Miss Mouse retired for the night. It was a great day!

November Rain

Even though the day started out with a downpour and has continued with such, it is really a treat to see it raining in November. Miss Mouse, who started her day much too early at 7 a.m., and I took a walk earlier, in the downpour, with an umbrella. It was great fun for her. Not only did she constantly look up at the umbrella and say "dee, dee!" (i.e., "pretty, pretty!"), but we also had the good fortune to see upwards of ten worms crossing the sidewalks and driveways! Being that I have a snake phobia (that I have no intention of curing - I know what that process would be, thank you very much!), it probably seems quite odd that I absolutely love, love worms. Well, Miss Mouse does, too. We stood and watched the worms work their way across the pavement, discussing (okay, I did most of the talking) their sizes and directions and wondering if the small ones were babies (she did get in on that word numerous times). Jolly good fun! It was extremely unpopular to move inside again, but our umbrella was nearly soaked through. So was I, for that matter, since I had been focusing so hard on covering the Mouse that I forgot to cover myself most of the time. Anyway, after the fit about moving back inside, we worked on making playdough worms (and a cat, of course, too - we always have to make a playdough cat). Then we colored for 15 minutes and subsequently spent another 15 minutes practicing taking the crayons out of the box and putting them back into the box. More jolly good fun! I'm hoping the afternoon and evening go as well today. There is no sign of let-up in the rain, and this is a super-long day for Daddy (hence, also for the two of us hanging out at home). As a sidenote, Daddy has been greeted, for the past two weeks or so, by Miss Mouse running full speed at him with her shirt pulled up, making kissing sounds at him each lunch and evening. This is to indicate to him, in no uncertain terms, that she wants her belly kissed. I try to oblige, but she really prefers Daddy to do the belly-kissing. Not really sure where that came from, but it's pretty funny! And it has to be an adorable way to be welcomed home after a long day!

Election Day

First of all, can you believe my mums look like this on November 4? Have no fear, the 7th is coming, and there is always snow by the 7th!!! :)

Miss Mouse takes her civic duties very seriously. Check out the all-important sticker. It needed to be transferred to her t-shirt before her nap.

This was Miss Mouse's first "big" election day. She was a sweetheart. This is actually her second time to the polls, but the first was back in June for the local and state primaries and local initiatives. As we walked out of the polling area (a local church), an older lady caught me and said that she had always brought her children with her to vote and that now, as they are adults themselves, they can't imagine not voting - it was just something they always saw their mom do, and so they do it. I thought that was neat to hear. I hadn't given much thought to it other than that I take the Mouse with because, well, what else would she do while I voted? And, of course, because she gets a cool "I Voted" sticker that she insists on wearing around the rest of the day. It was neat, though, to have it pointed out that I'm, perhaps, actually teaching her some core values just in something as simple as taking her along to vote with me. Interesting, too, to remember back and realize that perhaps I vote because I always saw my parents doing so; it wouldn't really cross my mind to just skip it because I'm busy or something, even though I don't necessarily always vote in the same way as they do. I have a feeling Daddy had the same experience growing up. We were little sponges, after all, and so is our very own Mouse, I suppose.

Miss Mouse after the election in June. Apparently she did not feel quite as serious about that election.

The ever-popular "I Voted" sticker.

Picture-Update

Daddy's Masterpiece
She's kissing the pumpkin. She's so proud of Daddy's work; she points at the pumpkin, saying "Dada, Dada" to remind me that Daddy carved it!

The uncarved pumpkin was discovered to be rotten inside. She's making the face for "ick" and pointing at the "icky" pumpkin.

Happy Halloween!

Our little butterfly.

Halloween Fun

I'm not sure how many more cute photos of adorable children in costume I can stand! They are just so cuddly and cute-looking that I'd like to just cuddle them all up!!! What a fun time of year! We, too, had a great time on Halloween. Miss Mouse and I drove down to a family friend's house in (what used to be) the south part of town (now, mid-town). We had fun visiting him, and Miss Mouse dressed up in her costume and had her picture taken on his porch. We stopped at the church on the way back north to show off the costume again. Then, we dressed once again (the costume isn't too conducive to carseat-riding) to show off the costume to the neighbors. She was a beautiful butterfly, though, as you'll see when I get around to posting some photos, she will have repeat appearances as the butterfly for the next year or two (the costume turned out to be huge - who cares? it was $3 at a rummage sale!). Daddy and I trained her well, practicing the "rule" that when kids say "trick or treat", Miss Mouse gives them a piece of candy. I was able to get an entire supper cooked while she loaded and unloaded her pumpkin bucket with the candy we were to hand out. She loved the kids' costumes (most of them - a few of them made her lift her hands frantically to me to be picked up....however, she usually laughed as they walked away, so the freaky looking people must not have damaged her too much!) and had so much fun handing out candy. When we were fairly sure no one else was coming, we headed down to one of Daddy's co-workers houses to give them some of our leftover candy. The Mouse was just desperate to keep handing it out. I suppose she is one of the few children who started Halloween off with a full bucket and ended it with an empty one! Regardless, she had a blast, and so did we! I'll post pictures as soon as possible.