Lily-o-ween!

Resident Native American Reagan from across the street (Lily's future best friend) came over to see Lily tonight. Lily was intent on trying to eat the fringe.

Candy overload...Lily had one too many Three Musketeers.

In response to the Scully pumpkin carving skills, I tried my hand at it. I was able to carve "Lily" into the pumpkin and only lost my left thumb. I think I'll let the Scully's win this one. To see their blog, CLICK HERE!

Halloween Week Trivia...

"Phasmophobia" is the fear of ghosts.

A cup of candy corn has fewer calories than a cup of raisins.

It's illegal to sell a haunted house in New York without informing the buyer. (We weren't informed?????!!!???)

Eighty-two percent of children take part in Halloween festivities, as do 67 percent of adults.

The first jack-o'-lanterns were made of turnips.

"Samhainophobia" is the morbid fear of Halloween.

Halloween the biggest holiday of the year when it comes to candy sales estimated at $1.93 billion. One quarter of all the candy sold each year is purchased between September 15 and November 10.

The word witch comes from the Saxon word wicca, which means "wise one."

Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green.

In France, more than 30,000 werewolf cases were tried between 1520 and 1630.

Trick-or-treating is an Irish tradition, based on a custom where wealthy landowners would give food to the poor on Halloween night, believing ghosts would look favorably on them for doing so and spare them from mischief.

In Romanian, Dracula means "Son of the Devil."

The Scots believed in "Samhanach," a goblin who came out only on Halloween and stole children.

Halloween costume sales are estimated at $1.5 billion.

Eighty percent of kids say their favorite Halloween candy is either chocolate or gum.

Pumpkins are fruits, not vegetables.

There is a poisonous mushroom called a jack-o'-lantern. These mushrooms are a bright orange-yellow in color and on rainy nights they appears to glow in the dark.

Fifty-one percent of all American adults believe in ghosts. Nine percent of Americans claim to have been in the presence of a ghost during their lifetime.

Americans consume about 20 million pounds of candy corn each year.

Ghoulish Greetings from Lily!

Some Halloween Action...

We went to the Halloween Dance at school Friday night to see the kids. (As I'm back to work on Monday!)

Beowulf audition, or milkmaid in training?

Lily channels the ghost of Buddy Hackett.




Lily and Daddy...

Some New Videos...

The Good:

The Bad:

And The Funny:

Lily has started doing this thing with her tongue now that she has a little tooth in there. It looks as though she tasted something really bad, but it looks hilarious!

Cutesie Tootsie...

Ridin' the range...

Mommy bought me a new hat for our Autumn outings.

Sometimes, backward is better!

Constant Entertainment!

We took a couple of new pictures in the last few days featuring our little ham:

Crawling? No. Scooting? Absolutely, but only backwards. She's a lot like a crayfish now and scoots herself into spots like the one above, and then is pretty proud of herself.

We were going for a sweet, precious Halloween picture, but a little certain someone took umbridge with her costume and the scratchy leaves. So, we stuck the dummy in, decided the red eyes weren't too bad, and took the picture anyway. Parenting is so much more difficult when your child will not pose appropriately for pictures.

Did you see this?

I feel so sorry for Ellen today...I can't believe the shelter folks repossessed her dog. What a world we live in!

First Tooth!

After a couple of months of crying and waking up again in the night, we finally have confirmation of an actual tooth pushing through:

Just kidding, here's the real picture...if you look closely beside the arrow, you can see the little toothette popping through!

New Tricks from the Baby...

Rolling around on the floor.

Still playing around.

After the bath with Mommy.

Getting some love from Mommy.

Just lookin' cute.

Reading Daddy's Get Well card from the kids at school. (Just after this picture was taken, she also licked the card.) Anna, if you are reading this, Lily is starting to lick stuff almost as much as you used to, but we're not going to punish her just yet.

Lily has started shaking her head in a negative, but funny, manner.

8 Months Old!

Guess who's 8 Months Old?
(Hint: it's not the one on the left.)

Disappearing Act...

Well, I went to the doctor on Thursday for my post-op appointment. Everything so far is going pretty well. I'm on the pureed stage of the diet and have been able to have things like mashed potatoes, refried beans, and chicken salad (in the blender.) I lost quite a bit of weight the first week and half and since my initial appointment in June with the doctor, I've lost a total of 36 pounds.

I'm still a little sore, and sleeping on my side is tricky, but things are getting slowly better. I appreciate all the cards and emails from everyone, they've been very uplifting. (Including the CD I got from Debby and Andrew Smith in Kannapolis...it's awesome!)

I hope everyone is well, and I'll update again soon!

Take care,

-Mike

New Pics and Video

Lily and her grandfather have a conversation.

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