Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Wow, I have so many pictures to share so I'll just get right to it.

This year I am co-coordinating the 2012 Sellwood-Westmoreland playgroup association for babies born in 2012.  We hosted the inaugural event, which meant that we had 16 babies and their parents over!

It was fun, surprisingly low stress, and nice to meet some other new parents.  Clara is one of only 3 or 4 girls out of the 16, so we are encouraging her to be picky.

Afterwards, like last year, we went to the Westmoreland Monster March.  The event is a lot of fun - lots of kids dressed in their Halloween finest go for a short walk through the neighborhood.  This year it was very rainy and cold, but we still enjoyed ourselves.

Heading over

Rainy march

Puddles! 

Puddle face-off

Sleepy baby

Next up, Jack-o-lanterns!  Grady and Clara both "helped" scoop out the pumpkins this year.

Clara lasted about 3 seconds before attempting to eat the pumpkin goop

Daddy's so funny! 

What's Grady doing?

Pretend Clara's not blurry and this is a good picture! 

Grady then drew what he wanted to carve out on the pumpkin, and I carved it.  This resulted in a surprisingly spooky Jack-o-lantern!

On to the big event - Halloween!  For Halloween this year, Grady wanted to be a "construction worker concrete mixer guy fireman."  I interpreted this as meaning we should get him a safety vest and a hard hat.  After making Grady dress up in a huge, unwieldy Grumpy Bear costume his first Halloween, and realizing how much babies hate being put into huge, unwieldy costumes, we put Clara in a simple skeleton costume that she could easily move around in.

Clara went to bed before trick-or-treating, but we let Grady go to half a dozen or so of our neighbors' houses for trick-or-treating.  He was so excited, and did a great job saying "trick or treat!" and "thank you!" after picking out his candy.  Except at the last house, where he proudly proclaimed "CANDY!" when our neighbor opened the door!  He was most excited about the lollipop he received, and, upon being told he could eat it once we got back home, proceeded to book it up the stairs to the house, take off his costume, and kick off his boots faster than previously thought humanly possible.

The haul

What else is going on.

Grady recorded his own album!  I wrote a review of it on PKC - you can read it here if you're interested in hearing about it, seeing the pictures, and hearing some clips.

Grady has pretty much officially stopped napping, his last nap being over a week ago now.  The first week or so was pretty painful.  Although he clearly thinks naps are no longer necessary, Matt and I beg to differ.  He gets pretty manic and out of control by the end of the day from being so tired.  For the past few days though he has been more like his usual self, so his body may be getting used to his self-imposed sleep deprivation!  I am still making him rest for an hour or so even if he doesn't nap, which is really as much for me as it is for him.

Grady is also now pretty close to completely potty trained during the day.  He has been consistently using the toilet to pee, and in the past few days has also started to poop on the toilet.  He occasionally still wants to wear his diaper, but even then usually stays dry.  Definitely not there quite yet, but the end of daytime diapers seems to be in sight for him. Next up - learning how to put on his underpants correctly....

Clara is a complete wiggle worm, and is getting very close to crawling.  She moves her butt all the way up in the air and then propels herself forward - she just needs to learn to go up on her arms and she's got it.  She definitely has the strength, and has been enjoying crawling up on platforms, blocks, and even a book when sufficiently motivated. 

Although she is not officially crawling, she is fast and is now confident enough to move anywhere.  Before she self-contained herself to a circle of about a yard, but now she has no limitations.

See ya, Mom!  

Here's a short video.

Today marks my last week of maternity leave.  We had a nice slow transition with Clara starting daycare over the past two weeks, which I think will help with the sadness of going back.  In some ways I'm looking forward to going back - it will be nice to start using my brain again in a non-mommy way.  It is very, very hard to leave my joyful little girl though.