November 6, 2010
Halloween

Last weekend was Amelia's first Halloween.  Puter made the whole family a set of KalaSPOOKA costumes.  We enjoyed wearing them and passing out treats to the neighborhood kids.  Amelia is still a little too small for trick-or-treating this year, but we got to show off our costumes anyway.

It has been a busy week.  Amelia is still sleeping like a champ.  Most nights from around 7:30 pm until after 6:30 am.  Sleep training has changed my life.  I've got a lot more energy for her during the day when I'm not up rocking her back to sleep all night.  I highly recommend the book "Sleep Solution."

Amelia has also been eating a lot more solid foods.  It's fun to go out to dinner now, because she will sit in her high-chair and eat cheerios, goldfish, and little bites of meat and cheese, in addition to her regular baby food.  She also loves little bits of fruit and her puff snacks.  We are going to try to enjoy this stage before she decides that she wants to get down and run all around the restaurant.  I'm sure that won't be too far in our future.

Amelia is still not walking confidently, but she will turn loose of one piece of furniture and take a few free steps over to the next.  This morning, while "helping" me fold laundry, she walked on her own from the ottoman to the couch when she thought I wasn't looking.  I'm determined to catch her on video, but she's determined to only sit and stare at me when the video camera comes out.

This week's photos are just some fun shots.  The first shows the KalaSPOOKAs in full costume (along with some of the neighborhood kids).  The others show Amelia wearing Bill's costume hat and then eating her lasagna tonight.  After that particular dinner, I thought that her shirt was going to be ruined forever (she has recently started yanking off her bib as soon as I put it on her).  Thanks to another wonderful tip from my sister-in-law, Ashley, however, the shirt was saved.  Oxi-clean is the miracle cleaner that has even worked on the white shirt covered in lasagna.  It looks like new.  Thanks again, Ash, for all of the tips (and especially the ones on sleep-training and the miracle of Oxi-clean).

Okay, that's all I've got.  Until next week . . .

(Click on the thumbnails below to view a larger version).