Happy Halloween!

Audrey had a fabulous 3rd Halloween as a Bears cheerleader (with her sidekick as a football). Though not exactly surrounded by Bears fans, Audrey got lots of compliments on her costume and all thought she made an adorable cheerleader. Similar to last year, she was a little confused initially about the concept of Halloween, but by the third house, she was pulling me up to the door and was commenting on whether it looked as though someone was home at the next house. She typically gets very little candy but she does have some experience with suckers, most recently receiving one following a really rough flu shot. I'm not a big fan of suckers but of course Audrey wasn't trick-or-treating for me (!), but, she started to search thru the various candy bowls for a sucker. By the end, she was commenting to the kind person offering her some candy whether or not they were offering a sucker, and would excitedly yell back to Eric when she had successfully located a sucker. "Dadddddy! I got a sucker!!!"

She was so excited when we arrived home. And she looked so grown up sitting on the kitchen stool, thoughtfully choosing two pieces for herself, and two perfect pieces to share with Eric and I.

A Happy Halloween it was.

Pumpkin Carving

Audrey had a great time helping to carve the pumpkin yesterday and even loved cleaning out the 'guts'! Leave it to her to request the jack-o-lantern also have ears!

Pumpkin Patch

Dressed in shorts and a straw hat for this 87 degree day in October, Audrey had lots of fun on her second trip to the pumpkin patch. She made sure to choose the best pumpkins for our front porch and two little pumpkins for hers and Ian's rooms. She walked the whole way to get the pumpkin and never lost steam. I'm thinking maybe we should walk that route more often as we didn't hear a peep out of her last night after she was tucked in, she slept in this morning, and took a 3 hr nap this afternoon...

It's hard for Audrey not to see her daddy on Monday mornings. She often isn't up before he leaves, and, well, he's her guy in the mornings. I mean, I'm okay, but she has in the past felt the need to explain to me just how things *really* work in the morning. This was particularly true prior to Ian's arrival.

It was a bit surprising today that she didn't ask what time he would be home until she was laying down for her nap. I told her that he would call on his way home, as he always thinks to do, but that he would likely be a bit later than usual as he was going to get a haircut.

"Well he better get his hair cut otherwise he will bonk into things!"

I'm guessing that Audrey had noticed he really needed a haircut, too?

I told her later to make sure to tell him that his hair looked nice.

In the midst of an unrelated dinner conversation, Audrey very excitedly, and very LOUDLY offered the following:

"Daddy, your hair looks soooooo nice and gray!"

I'd like to buy a vowel.

Audrey got to stay up a little later than usual last night since it was my night to put her in bed but I was busy prepping dinner for tonight. The television was left on following the evening news, and I heard only the sound of Wheel of Fortune. When I realized how quiet it was in the living room, I got suspicious, and asked Audrey what she was up to:

"I'm watching the news!"

I let her know that the news was over and that she was instead watching Wheel of Fortune. I figured I would hear some kind of pretend play or blocks being dumped out soon enough, but I still only heard Pat Sajak. I again grew suspicious and went to see what Audrey was really doing.

This was one of those times I *really* wish I would have had a camera on hand.

I found Audrey sitting on the couch, with one hand propping up her head and the other using two pillows as an arm rest. She had a cup of "coffee" on top of her arm rest.

"Say L! Say L!"

(Contestant says M)

"No, say L!! Now say Y!"

Needless to say, we *had* to wait until the next puzzle was solved before she would head upstairs for bed...

I'm not sure what the scarecrow did, but whatever it was, a redhead apparently decided a timeout was needed...

Little Ham

I vaguely remember a time that I couldn't get Audrey to take a picture for anything. Not so these days. She wants to open the camera bag. Clear things out of the way. Make certain there's a clean face. Lots of saying, "Cheese!" Such a little ham!