I have no idea

I was told to post this. So I did. This is Mike, he works with Chris and apparently has been doing some research on what goes on in a Mason initiation and I'm guessing this is his interpretation.

My new magic trick

Yes, my broom is standing on it's own! I got this from my friend's blog and here's the blog that explains the science behind it. Pretty cool, huh?

Halloween 09

The most perfect Daphne I've ever seen!

Now, strike a pose.

Sydney and Savanah at the Halloween party earlier in the afternoon.


Games were played, although not by Sydney. She didn't want everyone looking at her.


But she was up for the great pumpkin hunt!

Our crafts from the party. A Native American pumpkin and a picture frame.

After the party, it was home for a very brief time to rest, then we went to a trunk or treat at a church by mom and dad's house.

Chris's mom and dad met us there, and brought a surprise visitor, Cali! Sydney was super excited of course.

So, we completed the trunk or treat, then went to my brother's neigborhood to go door to door. Here's the front of my brother's "haunted" house.

The gang at my brothers. There's the neighbor, Mark, aka "Jason", their friend Emily, my brother, his wife, her two kids, and Sydney.

Mom and Dad took Sydney trick or treating last year, since we were in Miami Beach, getting ready to go on a cruise and they took a pic last year by the same skeleton, so they wanted to get another one this year.

The evening concluded at my grandparents house. It was a very busy, tiring day and I was ready to crash before I got home! Sydney had a blast and of course, fell asleep on the car ride home. I think we'll have enough candy to last us until Christmas at least!

Glass blowing and our trip into the city!

Yes, yes it does say that. And they make t-shirts too. So, this weekend we went to a local glass blowing shop to make glass pumpkins.

The colors to choose from. So cool!

The professional handled all of the glass and performed all the tricks of the trade, all we got to do was blow into the tube and pick the colors of our pumpkin, but it was still really cool.

Chris, blowing his pumpkin.

I think this one may be our buddy Oz's, not sure. This is where they put the stem on.

My turn!

This has to be my fave horse I've seen so far!

Don't do it! It's not worth it!

A wedding party getting their pictures taken outside of the museum. I'd love to have seen how those pics turned out.

Random poles on the street. I couldn't resist.

I just thought this was cool. They tore down the building, all except the facade. Neat.

Our finished pumpkins. Mine is on the left. Chris's actually broke in one tiny spot and they are letting him make another one at no charge this weekend. He asked to keep the broken one and they let him, so, why not? If you turn it around, you can't even see where it's broken.

After the glass blowing and gorging ourselves on Italian food, we hit up a local museum that was doing a Titanic exhibit. I really liked it, I found it very informative. They gave you a boarding pass at the beginning of the exhibit. This was an actual person aboard the Titanic the day it sank. It had their name, age, what class, and why they were traveling. At the end, there was a list of who lived and who died and you got to see if you lived or died. It was so cool! I lived! Our friend Robin was my mother and she lived too, but Chris and Oz both died (they were men, so it's more likely they would, given the women and children first rule.) All in all, a good day.

More random pics from Syd

This first one is a drawing Sydney did of a butterfly. With legs, so he can walk, I guess when he gets tired of flying.

Baby doll shot #1

Sorry Chris, I couldn't resist, this was just too funny! All pics taken by my budding photographer, Sydney.

Baby doll shot #2

Sydney's doing well in school. Aside from all the times she gets her name on the board, but oh well. She gets in honest I guess. We took her in for her last checkup on her leg and he said she's doing fine. Still limping a bit, but he said the muscle in her calf is still atrophied, so that could be the cause. She's started swim lessons again, so hopefully that will help. Now we just have to be on the lookout for growth abnormalities, namely her becoming knock kneed on that one leg. He said unless we see that happening, he won't need to see her again! Yah!

The clinginess that seemed to have come along with this trauma is in some ways getting better. I can now go downstairs to do laundry without her following me. Sometimes. But she still wants to know what room you're going to be in while she's in the tub, or in her room, or whatever. So, I'm hoping this passes. I'm sure it will.

Another lost tooth!

I realize she looks scared to death in this picture, but I couldn't get one where she didn't look like that. So, this is tooth #3 now. Tooth #4 is on it's way, maybe in another couple of weeks. My mom also taught her how to spell Halloween, which I was pretty impressed with, given it's such a big word. She's walking so incredibly well I still can't believe it! So I'm very happy about that. My life has returned to some semblance of normalcy. She's all the time calling my name from another room, and when I say "what?", she just says "I love you." It's so sweet! And I know it won't last! And that's why I'm documenting it here, so when she's a teenager and screaming "I hate you!", I can look back at this and remember my sweet baby.

A new fear

Badgers. That's her new fear. I have no idea why she's scared of them. We read about them in her High Five magazine and the next day she asked if "they were real in this world." And if they were scared of humans. (Like we've told her coyotes are.) I've tried to assure her that I'm sure they're probably not aggressive animals and they'd probably run from her if she ever encountered one. However, after reading this, I'm thinking I may have misled her...

"Badgers are capable of fighting off much larger animals, such as wolves, coyotes, and bears. Badgers can run or gallop (gallop, really?) at up to 16-19 mph for short periods of time."

So, now I'm envisioning my child running for her sweet little life while this fat badger "gallops" after her. It takes on coyotes? Bears? Seriously? I can't tell her that. NO WAY! This little thing sounds pretty vicious. I think she has good reason to be scared!

I'd like to say we've moved on from her fear of coyotes (or kye-dotes) as she pronounces it, but that fear is still there, we've just ADDED badgers.