Halloween decor

This year we decorated our house for Halloween. First, we carved a jack-o-lantern and lit it with a color changing LED night light...

Then we colored our porch lights with some gel that Tony had rolling around in the trunk of his car...

And we put a red gel on the light in our entry way. It had Christopher pretty freaked out...

The Berenstain Bears Visit Greenville

The boys and I drove up to Greenville on Sunday to have dinner with Tony on his break from tech. This weekend was Fall for Greenville, in which local restaurants sell samples of their food in tents along the downtown street. There are also kids' rides and live bands.
This time there was a special appearance by Mama and Sister Bear! Made my day!
I was so excited, I didn't even think about getting Christopher in the picture.


Here's the first attempt, where you can't even see John!

Phone

Evidently the cell phone gods are having a practical joke party with my phone number. A couple months ago, I got about 20 calls in a week from various staffpeople from a Nissan dealer in Vienna, Virginia, who were hot to sell "Alex" a new car.

This week, I am getting calls from "Grandma." I have traced the number to a rest home in Walhalla. The couple times I have answered, she immediately demands "Who is this?" I say "It's Juliet, you have the wrong number." I've stopped answering the number, now that I recognize it.

Am I a terrible person for not cultivating a beautiful and rewarding phone relationship with this lonely woman who stumbled on my number? I can live with that.

Maybe it's actually myself calling from 40 years in the future. I am coming up on the big 4-0.

Christopher Bobistopher

[These pictures are from our trip to the Happy Berry Farm in August.]





Christopher is doing well as usual. He seems to be starting to get over his separation/stranger anxiety a little. He has gone back to smiling at people who smile at him instead of just looking at me with a stricken look on his face. However, he does still assume that the default is for me to carry him around whenever he sees me. I'll be ready for that phase to be over. It is waning, possibly, maybe a little, because it's normally when he's tired. He definitely pushes me away sometimes to get to a toy or to investigate what John is doing...

He is enjoying communicating "Bye" with a wave and a "b-b-bye." He sometimes reciprocates when you tell him goodbye. The other day when John's Leap Frog computer said goodbye upon idle shutdown, Christopher said "Bye" back. He also shakes his head no when he feels strongly, either good or bad, about something, and often to let us know that he is done eating.

He is definitely getting more and more proficient with scooting and seems to be proud and happy with mobility. He often scoots around from the kitchen to the den to keep up with the rest of us going back and forth. Instead of dirty knees like John had when he was crawling, Christopher shows the dirt from my dirty floors on the outside of his ankles. After having read several authoritative sounding articles online about scooting vs crawling, I have made my peace with his alternative method of locomotion.

He knows me so well

Yesterday, John was finishing up playing with Play-doh when Christopher woke up from his nap. I told him that we would clean up and then there was just one more thing he needed to do before we could have a snack. John said "Unload the dishwasher!"
Of course, he was right!

"That's Why We Get Along So Well"

Just now, Tony said he was going to heat up some leftover frittata from last night's dinner for breakfast and asked me if I wanted any of it. I said "No, I'll stick with Cheerios." He said: "That's why we get along so well: we stay out of each other's food."

DENTAL ALERT

Christopher is sprouting tooth #5. I saw it this morning. Upper left canine.