I am sitting here cracking up as we have had quite an eventful night. Lucy’s jammies glow in the dark. They glowed ALL night long, and were so bright, she highlighted our bed. I had no problem seeing her in the dark. I tried to take a picture of them, but my camera cannot pick them up for some reason. They look so cool.

Tonight we had round 2 of the Trunk or Treats. This time it was at the elementary school. It was pouring rain. I was not sure they were even going to have it. However, they moved everything indoors, and I have to say it was fantastic! They did such a great job!  

  Alex was so proud that he could walk to the car in his costume and not even get wet. 😄  Little Pumpkin Princess    Alex and his buddy Miles, from across the street.  The coolest Harry Potter display, outside of Harry Potter World. William and Mayes getting their treats. After we trick-or-treated the halls, it was time to head home. The rain was coming down so incredibly hard though. As we were getting ready to leave, Miles’ dad took my car keys and ran out into the rain to bring the van to the front of the school for me. It was by far one of the kindest gestures I have had in an extremely long time. Once we were home, everyone got cuddled into their warm jammies, preparing for Halloween in the morning. 

 Lu kept clapping for herself in her bones. 😂

This time of year always gets so crazy! So many things start to fill our schedules, I usually end the season begging for mercy. Lucy woke up gearing to go at 10:00 this morning. I took Nate out for breakfast, and she never even knew I was gone.  

Today, the boys had their fall parties at the elementary school. I am William’s room mom, so I went to help at his party. Of course Lu was there as my little tag along. I feel bad because I was not able to get pictures. That was too hard to do while holding her. There is so much stimulation at the school! It cracks me up because every time we go, there are always so many little girls that want to hold her. Lucy just soaks it all up. Mrs. Sommerfeld and Mrs. Albin took turns holding Lucy and she was actually happy. I was so glad. Lucy has such bad separation anxiety. I hope it is not a long term thing. When we came home from the school, she was exhausted!  After she woke up, I was so happy she was in a happy mood. Her playtime is much better when she wakes up happy. She is trying so hard to crawl. She gets so frustrated when she wants something and cannot get to it.  

She is getting kind of close, just needs to get those chunky legs under her a little better.
 

Tonight we had Trunk-Or-Treat at church. It was fabulous! The kids were so excited to finally put on their costumes! They looked great! 

 Natalie was Katniss, Lucy was Lucy, Alex was a Rapid Strike soldier, and William was a GI Joe Ninja. Nate chose not to dress up because her ran out of time. Lucy was totally impressed with all the amazing costumes, and by golly she looked pretty darn cute herself. 

It took a bit of work to get her costume just right. Unfortunately she was sick when I had to try it on her to make sure it fit.

 
  We bought this wig for $2 about a month ago to use for her hair. I quickly realized that Elvis was not the style we were going for, and the poor baby could barely hold up her head. 😂 We resorted to plan B.
  Alex loved the homemade root beer.   William had to help at the bean bag toss game station to pass off a requirement for scouts. I was so proud of him. He worked hard, no complaining, and had a great time.
  Natalie enjoyed her time with Amanda and Sophie. Sophie’s costume was impressive!   When it started to get chilly, we headed to the van. Lucy was going to drive herself home if the big kids didn’t hurry up. 😆
 

I was really not sure we would make it to story time today. With the way Lucy was yesterday, I was quite terrified to try. At 9:30, she was still sound asleep. 

 I figured I would try to wake her and see what type of mood she was in. She was super happy and all smiles, so I said, “What the heck. It is better than sitting around the house.” I dressed Lu up in her little Halloween outfit and headed over to the library. She was so excited to be at storytime. She loved looking at Mrs. Kelsey in her witch hat. She also loved their new book Peek-a-Who. 

    
 The librarians invited the babies to stay for their puppet show during toddler time. Since Lucy was doing so well, I thought we would stay and watch. Bad Mommy judgement call! Toddler time started close to 11:00. There were so many little kids packed into the storytime room, Lucy lost it. I immediately took her out. We had books that needed to be checked out, so I walked quickly to the check out counter. However, on the way we saw the sister missionaries. They smiled and said Hi, and that sent Lucy over the edge. She started crying so hard, she could barely catch her breath. The sisters kept apologizing, and I just assured them it was nothing they had done. Lucy was just tired. Indeed she was too. 

   She crashed out on me for 2 hours. When she woke up, she played for a while and practiced her new blowing spit bubbles trick, complete with clapping for herself when she was done. 😂 Silly girl! 
    
 

Our neighbor across the street from our new house is one of the kindest people I know. When we first moved in, she gave Lucy a TON of baby girl things that her little girl had grown out of. It has been such a huge blessing for us since we gave away ALL our baby things. Jamie has seen Lucy struggling with her teeth the past several weeks. Today, as we were walking to get the little boys from the bus stop, Jamie gave Lucy this precious teething necklace. Lu loved it! 

   
 Lucy had such a horrible day, screaming for almost all of it, this gave her a little distraction from hurting ears and teeth for a bit. 😊 

   
   Later on in the evening, you could finally tell Lucy’s antibiotics and Tylenol were beginning to help. Her smiles started to come back.

Tonight we carved our pumpkins for Halloween. Lucy was not very interested. I will upload pictures of the pumpkins tomorrow. After we were finished, we made s’mores in our fire pit and watched It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. Lucy had to add her own fright to the night. 

  

 Hopefully the neighbors did not think we were harming anyone. Boy this little girl can scream! 😆 (At least it is a happy scream though.)

Lu has been working so hard on clapping. Every time we go to an activity, storytime, swim, etc…, everyone is always clapping for her. You can tell she wants to do it too. Her hands have still been quite closed in her clapping up to this point, but today she has finally opened her hands. She was so proud of herself. 

Lucy has an ear infection. After sticking this out as long as we have, I kind of figured this was more than teething. Lucy has been having issues nursing on one side, and with her fever, I suspected this. Her right ear is infected, but the left is okay. She is also teething. Her doctor said her upper and lower gums were very swollen, but that means nothing for us until those darn things break through. I feel so bad for her though. It is a lot going on at one time for a little girl. She sure is a trooper though. She is happy most of the time during the day. Sleep has been the biggest thing affected. After she woke up from her nap following her doctor’s visit, Lucy had a fun time trying to catch the shadows of the leaves on the carpet. The wind has blowing a lot, and the shadows I guess are amazing to 5 month olds. 

   

Our weather is really changing up lately. Lots of rain, and now the temperatures are dipping. Made me realize that I am a bit underprepared for the winter for Lucy. I opened her closet and realized most of her clothes are for the spring and summer. I did find one of my favorite little dresses today though. It has a special little story. So when I found out I was expecting, I obviously had a little while to wait before I knew what the gender was. However, my annual shopping spree at Once Upon a Child’s 50% off sale was coming up. I really felt like I was expecting a little girl. So, I gave myself $25 to spend on baby clothes for the new baby. I bought ALL little girl clothes, and just told myself that they would make great shower gifts for friends if I was wrong and expecting a boy. I found the sweetest little Gymboree dress that I hoped so bad I would be able to put my baby in. Well, today was the day!  It fit Lucy perfectly, and just in time.  

    Such Big Smiles!
 “Now what?!” 😄  My amazing Sister in law made Lucy this fabulous flannel blanket, personalized just for her. It has been way too hot to use, but the days are finally changing. The whales totally remind me of all our fun adventures with their family. I cannot wait for Lucy to meet them. As I was walking out of Lucy’s room this afternoon, I saw the little elephant Sam’s work gave Lucy when she was born tucked into the corner of her crib. The girls’ room is still a disaster, trying to get it put together, so things are getting hidden and reappearing a while later.   Lucy was so fascinated with it!  At first…Then I remembered why it was in a corner of her crib. 😂 I guess it will go back there until she gets a little older.