First Halloween in Ohio

I was very excited about going out for Halloween this year.  It was our first one in Ohio, and I'm old enough now where I could go to lots of houses!  We were ready to go right at 6 PM.

As Mommy stayed home to hand out candy, Daddy and I went way down our street, up a side street and all the way back.  I ran almost the whole time between houses.  Daddy couldn't keep up!  I remembered to always be polite and said "thank you" when I got candy.  I even got candy from a fire truck that was in our neighborhood!  Daddy and I were pretty sneaky too - we stopped about half way through and had a little "snack".  I said I wanted to keep it a secret from Mommy, and I did - all the way up until we got home!

On the way back up our street, as we got closer to home, Daddy asked if I wanted to go home or go down another street.  I just wanted to go home, so I could ring the doorbell and say "trick or treat" to Mommy.  She was pretty surprised!  Then Daddy and I sat on the stairs, waited for more kids to show up at our hosue, and ate some of our candy.  What a great night!

Trunk or Treat!

Tonight we went to a "Trunk or Treat" at church, which meant I got to wear my Halloween costume a few days early!  Mommy and Daddy had asked what I wanted to be, and there was no hesitation - I wanted to be a princess, just like last year.  I sure have grown though!  Last year my dress went almost all the way to the floor, but now it just goes to mid-calf.  And I decided to wear the tiara I got at the birthday party last week too!

Update on Mommy and flying with Daddy

After Mommy's surgery on Tuesday, Daddy took the next few days off to help her out, but I still went to preschool. I was a super big help to Mommy each day, got things for her, and even learned how to help put on and take off the sling she has to wear for two weeks.

Every night since I was born, Mommy and Daddy have sung "You are our sunshine" to me in bed. But this week I've often insisted that we go in their room and Daddy and I sing to Mommy! They both thought that was really sweet. I love Mommy and Daddy!

Today Daddy and I went flying to Cincinatti for lunch, which gave Mommy a chance to get some rest.  She took a nice long nap which will hopefully help her get better quickly.  As we were on the airport, someone said to Daddy, "I see you have your copilot there", to which I replied, "I'm his engineer!"  Daddy asked me about this later, and I said I can't be the copilot, because the copilot sits up front like Mommy.  Instead, I'm the engineer.  Well, yes, he thought, Flight Engineers did sit behind the pilots back when airliners had them.  But how did I know that?  We don't know, but now it's settled, I'm his Flight Engineer!

I've also really started to like it when Daddy does "roller coasters" in the air.  He'll go up super steep and then pitch over so that I feel light in my seat.  It's just like a roller coaster and I lift my hands up and scream just like I'm on one!  I keep asking him to do it again and again.  I love flying (one day I told him I made a wish, and that wish was to fly with him in a jet and go upside down - he said we might have to wait on that)!

Kid's festival and doggies in costume!

There was a "Kid's Festival" today down at The Green Town Center, and Daddy and I even picked up Shobhana on our way there (her mom need to get a few other things done)!  We were mostly really good girls for Daddy, and he definitely appreciated it.  They had some big inflatables, unfortunately there were some long line to get in them!

They also had a dog Halloween costume contest going on at the same time, which meant there were lots and lots of dogs around for us to pet.  I always asked their owners very nicely first, and only a couple said that their dogs really weren't good with kids.  We petted so many dogs, Mommy was really sad that she couldn't come!  There sure were a lot of silly dog costumes.  This one has a cowboy riding on his back!

And this one is dressed as one of the "Fruit of the Loom" mascots.

This one was a super big dog!

There was even a parade for all the dogs.  Kids were allowed to walk in it too, so Shobhana and I made sure to get right up front and lead the parade, right behind the wagon with the band in it!

It was a great day, and Daddy managed to not go crazy with us two girls running all over!

Princess Party!

A friend of mine at church had a birthday party this evening.  It was a princess party!  Daddy dropped me off and came back a few hours later.  When he came in, he couldn't find me at first - I wasn't wearing what I came in!  All us girls (about 5 or 6) got dressed up in princess costumes and did our hair and nails too.  Daddy thought I looked absolutely beautiful! 

I had to show Mommy and Daddy how well my dress twirls!

Mommy had surgery today

Mommy's right shoulder has been hurting a lot lately, so she's been seeing a doctor and they did some surgery on it today, involving reattaching a bicep tendon and shaving a bone spur. It went well, but she was pretty well drugged up the rest of the day!

Here is Mommy this afternoon. No pain yet, the nerve block was still effective!

Two kites at the same time!

It was so windy today that Daddy and I knew we'd have no problem flying a kite.  In fact, mine took off as he was handing me the line with it resting on the ground.  We didn't have to do anything!  After helping me let out all the string, we thought he should fly his own kite.  So he just stood there, held up the kite, let it go, and it was flying.  Easy!  He really had to work hard to keep the strings from getting tangled, though.

I have a permanent tooth coming in!

Look at my new tooth!  It's my first permanent, grown-up tooth.  I'm very excited about it!

Shobhana came over to play!

Today when Daddy came to pick me up from preschool he had a big surprise for me.  I was playing with my friend Shobhana and he asked both of us if we would like him to take Shobhana home with us!  At first we didn't really understand what he meant, but then as it dawned on us we both got super big grins on our faces - Yes!  He had called Shobhana's mom earlier and even brought an extra car seat for her.  So we got to ride home together, eat dinner, and play for a few hours until her mom came to pick her up.  It was great!  Of course now we ask Daddy almost every day if he can take Shobhana home with us again.  Maybe soon!

Car types and road names

I am getting really good at telling different types of cars from their logos.  Whenever I see a new car, I ask Daddy or Mommy what type it is, and I remember it right away.  Then as we drive down the road, I'll say the car types we see - "There's a Kia, and a Chevy, and a Toyota ..."  One time Daddy heard me talking quietly to myself - "There's a Chevy, and a Chevy, and another Chevy, and a Chevy, and more Chevies... Daddy, why are there so many Chevies?"  We were driving by the dealership!

I am also very interested in road names.  Every day I name all the roads leading up to our house as we drive by!

More leaves!

Daddy and I saw there were even more leaves on the ground today than yesterday.  So we raked those up into the pile we already had, and look at how big it was!

Even Mommy joined us and jumped in.  All three of us even jumped in at the same time!  I liked how deep the leaves were, and thought it was great throwing them around.

It was supposed to rain tomorrow, so Daddy and I went ahead and bagged all the leaves.  At first I thought we were going to keep them and spread them out later after it was done raining!  When I found out that wasn't what we were doing, I was a little sad - until Daddy reminded me that our tree out front is still green.  We'll get to do this again! 



Nature walk and raking leaves

Today was a holiday, so Mommy, Daddy and I all got to stay home together and had a great time.  We went out for lunch, then did a little shopping.  When we were done that we went to Steak 'N' Shake for their "happy hour" milkshake special!  I got a double chocolate fudge milkshake, but ended up liking Mommy's mint cookies and cream milkshake better, so I "helped" her a lot.

Later we went to a new nature walk area near our house.  We got to see some frogs, a beaver dam and some super big leaves!

When we got home, Daddy put me to work.  Look at all the leaves I had to rake up!

Actually, I wanted to help, and I did a super good job too, raking up at least 1/4 of all those leaves.  I even said to Daddy, "I'll rake some more so your arms don't get tired."  He liked the sound of that!

When we were done, I couldn't wait to jump in the big pile!  But I knew we had to wait so Mommy could come out and watch.  Hurry Mommy!

I knew I had to get a big running start!

After a ccouple of jumps by myself, I told Daddy I wanted to jump in with him.  So we held hands, ran super fast and jumped in.  Mommy got this picture right as we landed on the pile!

This is fun!

Playing at Tori and Alex's house

Mommy and Daddy's friends Heidi and Aaron invited me over today at lunchtime to play with their daughter and son, Tori and Alex.  That sounded like fun, and Mommy and Daddy were happy about it too - they went on a date!  We had a great time playing for a few hours.  Mommy and Daddy, of course, came back to pick me up right as we were making some cookies!  But that just meant they stayed and had some with us.  Daddy even sat at the table next to Alex!

They have three dogs, and it was fun playing with them too.  Later, I told Mommy and Daddy, "I like lickable dogs!"

Daddy swaddled me!

Daddy told me a story on the way to school today about how he used to swaddle me up in the little blanket I was using to keep my legs warm.  I told him I wanted him to try it when we got home.  Well, he knew he couldn't do it in that tiny blanket, but we used a bigger one, and sure enough, he remembered how to do it.  I'm just a bit larger than I used to be!

I also thought it was funny when he told me I always used to sneak a hand or a foot or both out of my blanket when I was all wrapped up.  So I did it again with a big smile on my face!

Almost flying a new kite

It seemed pretty windy today, so we all went outside to fly some new kites Mommy and I had bought a week or so ago.  I chose the fancy biplane kite.  We tried and tried, and I ran as fast as I could, but the wind kept dying right as we'd get it up in the air!  Oh well, we'll try again when it's a little less gusty.