6 months!

Lucy,

You're half a year old already! These posts are normally filled with a list of all your milestones and achievements but this one might be a tad more sentimental. My dad used to always joke that he was going to put a brick on our heads so we would stop growing but I never knew he actually meant it. It is exciting to see you grow and learn new things but honestly, I am a little choked up about you being half way through your "babyhood."

Another first this month was your first election party! (Notice the elephant)

You started solids which means technically, weaning has begun. And you've even put yourself to sleep three times this week. The last few weeks have probably been the hardest other than the first week of your life. I know you haven't felt good and you've been extra clingy so even one week ago, I would have been so relieved to have you be more independent but now I kinda have mixed feelings about it. I'd better stop dwelling on that now or I'll start crying.

It does make me so glad you are my snuggly little girl. I didn't realize how much so until the last few outings we have been at where other moms and babies are but you are really a momma's girl. You like to go places and see new things and new people for a little while but mostly, you like to be somewhere familiar, especially sitting in my lap or being worn and talking to me. You've started staring up at me when I wear you. You'll look around for a few minutes then stop, look at me, smile, then go back to looking around. It's as if you need to check in.

Mommy is teaching me the joys of catalog shopping!

Every once in a while I'll realize you are cranky but I can't figure out why when you should be full, dry and well-rested and then I'll realize that we haven't had face to face time. So we sit and "talk" and you love it! You'll often hear some random word and think it's funny so I'll repeat it and you laugh, I'll repeat it and you'll laugh over and over again. But if I say the same word the next day, nothing - which then makes me laugh.

The "kisses" I talked about last month are definitely kisses now. They are messy but deliberate. I can even turn my cheek to you and say kiss and you will lean forward and slobber on me. And you love getting lots of kisses too. A "smoochie attack" rarely fails to get a laugh.

But you love your daddy too. I can tell now that you really do respond differently to us both. If you are hurt or hungry, you want me but you've realized that this "daddy" guy is fun to play with. I love watching you light up when he walks into the room and I can't wait to see your relationship develop more and more.

I feel like this month was the calm before the storm, since mostly you've been developing in a slow but steady manner, pushing up higher and holding it longer, scooting backwards, being more direct in your handling of objects, etc. I think that any day now, you are just gonna take off.

Disappointed that he couldn't get any pictures of you in a pumpkin last month, Daddy stuck you in a kimchi pot for another fun photo op.

The one thing that you already have down is sitting. Overnight you went from sitting 1-2 minutes with me worried you would topple at any moment to really sitting. Today you played with a pot and spoon for about 10 minutes without needing any assistance from me to stay up. I would have felt unnecessary but you couldn't get back onto your tummy without my help. Normally, you just lean forward into a crawl position then collapse to rest on your belly but the pot was in the way so you were stuck! You stopped playing and I could tell you wanted down but I just watched you while you sat and thought for a moment, then you started screaming at me.

You can't say any words but you can definitely communicate! We call you our screamy mimi. You're screams aren't always mad, sometimes you just want our attention, but they are always loud. Speaking of communicating, I'm also pretty sure you tried to sign "change" back to me several times this past week when I changed your diaper but only time will tell if I am imagining that or not. You're just getting so big! (I think you are about 17 lbs but we'll find out for sure at your doctor's appointment on Friday then I'll update this with the official numbers)

Baby Led Weaning (and a cute baby video)

I mentioned baby led weaning in an earlier post but didn't really explain what it was. Some of you may know but for those that don't and might be alarmed by my reports, I thought I would explain.

I read a lot of foodie blogs and with my interest in nourishing traditions style/whole foods eating I had seen a lot of making your own baby food. While pregnant, I had great visions of making all my homemade baby foods, freezing them in ice cube trays and serving my baby nothing but the best.

But then two things happened. One, my life changed. The last 6 months have been a bit more unsettled than I was expecting and that doesn't appear to be changing. I'm away from home about 1/3 of the time and the other time is spent going back and forth between two homes trying to get ready to move. I wouldn't change that right now but it doesn't make it easy to be super-domestic. Luckily, I also started hearing more and more about baby-led weaning and the more I heard, the more I loved!

It goes hand in hand with waiting for solids because by the time your baby is ready to eat, they are actually able to eat. The basic idea is two-fold.

1) Skip the purees. You give your baby food in a similar manner to what you would eat yourself. Even without teeth, babies can do a pretty good job of managing many foods. She may gag a bit, but its important to know that choking and gagging aren't the same. Gagging is a normal and health use of a reflex as she learns to move food back into her mouth. If it isn't working right, she gags it back up so she doesn't choke.

2) You let the baby feed herself. No opening your mouth up wide or making airplane movements to convince her to open hers. You give her food, she eats - or she doesn't. And she may take a while before she moves past the smushing it to the eating it stage. That's fine.We are actually turning out to be a little loose with this "rule." Lucy likes to hold and play with the food and she likes to eat (some) of it but she doesn't like to do both at the same time. She likes me to hold the food in front of her, then when she wants a bit she will lean forward with her mouth open and take it. Since she is still in charge of eating it when she so desires, I don't mind.

There are a several reasons while I think this method is great. Lucy will be sitting and eating dinner with us. It continues on the same self-regulated feeding that breastfeeding allows. Research shows babies will be less picky when they grow up since they get used to a wider variety of foods and textures. And one great short term benefit is that babies don't always have the same constipation problems that purees can bring on (the theory is that they don't get very much at first and gradually build up, they give their inexperienced little system a little bit more time to adjust). That alone should make it worth it! And you can read about those and others elsewhere if you wish but more than that, I like this method because I can do this!

I can do this at home, at my parent's, my in-laws next month or wherever our travels take us. I just feed her what we are going to be eating, with a little adjusting. Her first meal is a perfect example. I made sweet potatoes for our thanksgiving meal but covered ours in butter, orange zest and brown sugar. For Lucy, I just reserved some before all that, cut it into thick fry shaped pieces that would be easy for her to hold and let her at it. I started with just one food but if she was another month or two into eating, I could easily have given her shredded turkey and a couple green beans too.

To learn more about it:

Babyledweaning.com talks about Gil Rapley's research and the theory behind BLW.

Baby-led-solids.blogspot.com chronicles little buttercup's journey into the world of solids and is great for serving ideas.

But by far the most fun way to see it in action is youtube. Search Baby led weaning and there are lots of videos. And since BLW is more popular in England, although it is gaining popularity here in the U.S., not only do you get to watch babies eat, you get to listen to their parent's comment about it in British accents. Even if you don't have kids or any desire to do BLW, it's a great way to waste time. Archie's first food is a fun one. But of course, I think our kid is the cutest of them all, so here is Lucy enjoying her first banana. (And don't stop early, the last 10 seconds is my favorite :-)



She had already tasted sweet potatoes at this point but wasn't convinced she liked them. She would lean in to taste them, make a weird I-don't-think-I-like-this face, then lean in again. Silly baby. And apples were a no go. She picked them up and threw them but wasn't interested in eating them. But she is a fan of the 'nana.

Thanksgiving

We are still at my parents' so this is just going to be a quick update, but I couldn't skip the opportunity to write in peace while Lucy is happily sleeping away. I think she likes my parents' mattress better than ours because she sleeps great here. Or maybe we've just spent the three weeks prior to this dealing with teething, a bad cold, and the unpleasant effects those had on her sleep pattern so anything other than up every hour seems amazing!

Back to the point, Thanksgiving was good here. My mom always kept our menu consistent throughout the years so my aunt and I were able to copy it fairly easily by making the pies the night before (two pumpkin and one apple, the same every year!) and assembling the casseroles first thing in the morning. I think we were a little too concerned about being timely though - the turkey was done by 11am! We all ate a lot so we must have been hungry anyway.

Lucy also got her first meal - sweet potatoes. She had a good time playing with them and did taste them but I don't think she actually swallowed much. She'll get the hang of it in time and until then, at least we got some cute pictures!

Lucy has been enjoying all the attention she gets from Grandpa and Bubbie. We didn't want her other grandparents to miss out though, so here's just a sample of the view from around here:



Note on the video: Her new favorite activity is playing with pots and pans and she had been sitting there for about 5 minutes playing happily while I ran around trying to find the camera. Then as soon as I did, she stirred it a little too hard and got hurt/scared. But 2 minutes later she was back playing again. Why is it so difficult to capture the good moments on camera?!

Airport Anger

You can count me among the people that think TSA has gone too far with its latest round of intensive passenger screening. What was once ridiculousness has now become abuse. Despite the fact that, as TSA backers say, "flying is not a right," nobody should have to ensure these X-rays or a grope-down as a primary screening method, without that passenger having raised suspicion first.

One might respond, "It's necessary to keep us safe." That would be a legitimate argument, but there's no reason to think that this stuff is accomplishing anything. While TSA reacts to the last attack (we had to take our shoes off after the shoe bomber, they "touch our junk" after the undie bomber), terrorists are working on other plots.

If we wanted to get serious, we would stop screening little kids, nuns, and people with colostomy bags. We have to admit that the people trying these attacks come from, or have ties to, certain countries. It doesn't have to be "racial profiling." Profile young men with ties to Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, etc. Sure, keep on doing random screening of other people, but let's stop bending over backwards to appear to be truly random by screening people who obviously aren't threats. Of course, this won't happen.

But on a personal note, I'm undecided over whether I should choose X-ray or pat down if I am posed with the choice when I fly at Christmas (if this system survives that long). I like the idea of opting out of the scanners as a form of protest, and thus slowing things down and creating extra work for TSA. But then I have to be patted down. So I'll have to think about it.

Find the Finale

Nobody puts

any food in my bowl

but I

don't mind!

Did you find it? Hint: Use your mouse.

Gearing up

The last three or four weeks I've been feeling someone watching me. Specifically, watching me while I'm eating. It can be kinda funny, you move your spoon back and forth and it looks like her eyes move too. So then you go up and down, in circles, back and forth and her poor littles eyes start going crazy. Yep, Lucy's watching.

Apparently, even though you all know where I stand on solids too early, she didn't get the message. And while I still didn't think she was really ready, I began to feel a little guilty eating in front of her. So I did what all women do when the feel guilty - go shopping!

Last weekend, Craig and I hit the road and went baby supply shopping. We got a neat hook on high chair (we look at the phil and ted's metoo but liked this one better).

http://trus.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pTRU1-2789178reg.jpg

Our wooden one is already at the new house since I thought we would be moved in by now - ha! This one is working fine for us now and will be great for when we are visiting our families over the holidays and at restaurants.

We also picked up a couple bummis bibs since they seem to be the favorite in my mommy circle, a table mat and a micro-steamer bowl to round out our purchase. We plan on doing baby led weaning so this whole eating thing is gonna get messy fast. But that should be pretty much all we need to buy.

For the last week, Lucy has been joining us at the table for our meals. But that doesn't mean she is getting any food. Nope, we sit her in her seat, buckle her up and give her an empty bowl and spoon!

See, I heard this theory that since babies are little humans and humans are social creatures, babies are surprisingly social. They want to be doing what everyone else is doing, go figure. (Why do I think this isn't going to be the last time she will be socially ready for something before she is developmentally ready? I don't think I will find it so amusing if she wants to start dating at 13 though.)

So I thought we would test it out. And it has been working. Instead of fussing in her swing and staring us down, she sits happily in her chair, waving her spoon back and forth and banging her bowl around - just like us. Okay, not quite like us, but close enough that she doesn't seem to notice the difference!

She's turning 6 months really really soon so actually food will be making an appearance any day now, but until then, don't tell Lucy she's missing out!

Bathroom bits

We bought a bathroom exhaust fan last night…and the crowd goes wild! After all that, we just went in to Lowe's, found one for under $100 that had a light with it and walked out. Easy peasy. It was a bit anti-climactic.

I never did respond to Rachel’s question about the need for a heater. The only reason we were considering it is about 17 lbs, bald and used to cry whenever she was given a bath. Yep, that is “used to” as in – past tense! I really do think it was because she was cold. Our bathroom is small and the vent in there won’t shut so during the summer when we had the air on, it was colder than most of the house. Now that we have the heat on, it is one of the warmest rooms. And she know likes baths again. Coincidence? I think not.

I’ll make a confession, until last week when we tried out baths again, I was only giving her a shower once every 14 days or so. I know that is a long time but even with showers, she would cry as soon as she got out of the (nice warm) water into the (mean cold) air. And not just fuss a little bit, cry so hard she would throw up, which would often mean she ended the bath messier than when she started out. She didn’t understand that it was only for a few seconds and then I would put clothes on her and she would be warm again. Since she wasn’t running around all day getting sweaty and dirty, I thought two weeks worked. But we have now moved back to bathing every other day and I must say, I do feel better about it. So why didn’t we go with the heated fan?

Well, Rachel made some good points about the negatives to a heater, then the electrician made an even better one – it would require its own circuit and add an extra hundred dollars to the installation costs (plus the additional cost to buy the heater/fan combo) so we said "no thanks". If we have problems with Lucy and the cold again, we’ll just buy a space heater. I would say go back to the bi-weekly baths but she might get a some sort of complex if her dad keeps referring to her as his “stinky feet baby”.

Lucy's favorite things: Books

Christmas is fast approaching and I know many of you have little ones in your life, either your own or nieces, nephews and babysitees. I thought I would share with you some of Lucy's favorite things. In return though, you have to promise to share your favorite items too since I am always on the lookout for awesome baby things.

We'll start with books. I've been reading to Lucy since she was a newborn although it took a couple months before she knew what was going on. Now she likes it and it is amazingly easy to see which ones are her favorites. Some books she will sit on my lap but be squiggling and wiggling and looking around while other times she is glued to the page. Repetition is one of the biggest LLL (Lucy likeability level) factors so I have to like them enough to read and reread them too. The ones I've listed below are the ones that when I start to read them, she immediately grins as if to say "Hey, I know this one!" while not causing me curl up in a ball if I think about having to read them again.

The winners: Sandra Boyton Books.

I had never even heard of Sandra Boyton until we were given Moo, Baa, La La La. I'm not sure who gave it so us, but I'm guessing it was a mom. It currently resides in our car for emergency baby entertainment purposes but I've also picked up The Going to Bed Book and Horns to Toes and in between at book fairs. The pictures are colorful and fun but not too busy. There are just enough words to keep us both entertained but the pages moving quickly enough. With a great rhythm without being annoying like Dr. Seuss can tend to be, I think they would be a great stocking stuffer or baby shower gift add-on. I plan on getting more (But Not the Hippopotamus sounds especially promising).

Runner-up: A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

This isn't the full version but a board book with 8 poems and vintage drawings and paintings to accompany them. Lucy likes it but it gets read mostly because it is my favorite - and I don't normally like poems. We read 2-3 every night as part of our bedtime routine. While we will probably get the full version later on, right now this is perfect because the 8 poems gives me enough variety while still allowing her to recognize them all. I had no idea when I got it for $1 at a book fair that it would be such a great addition to our library.

What about you? What books do you and your little ones enjoy?

Questions anyone?

I definitely planned to write this back when Lucy was just a few weeks ago but it wasn't until a couple days ago when I was reading some midwifery materials that I realized I never did! Better late than never, I guess.

When I was pregnant and planning a home birth, I was pretty confident in my midwife and the whole process but I still didn't understand how certain things would work. I just couldn't picture it all. I think that would have been the case no matter what type of birth I was planning but at least I would have known people I could ask if I was going to a hospital.

Now that I've been through it, especially since I know at least one mama who reads this blog and is planning a home birth, I thought I would open myself up to questions. Even if it seems like a weird question to ask, believe me, I probably wondered about it before too so don't be shy. I'll collect them all then post the answers in a couple days.

So if you are preparing for a home birth, interested in birth stories or none of the above but still curious as to what the heck we did with the placenta or why the need for all that hot water, ask away!

My dream fan

No, I'm not talking about the bathroom exhaust fan. We have narrowed it down but still haven't picked a final one. It's ridiculous and I don't want to talk about it.

I'm talking about my ceiling fan. I'm excited about my ceiling fan. You might even say giddy. And those of you who have not spent some time looking at them lately probably won't understand why but 95% of ceiling fans are ridiculously ugly. I tell the truth. Just plain ug-lee. And we were starting off with a number of pretty limiting conditions:

• We needed a hugger style. They don't work quite as well as down rod styles but our ceilings are only about 8 ft tall so anything that dropped down too low would be dangerous. Not cool (pun intended).

• We need a smaller fan. Most fans only come in 52 inches but that was going to be too big and a lot of smaller fans look like they belong in kids bedrooms. Despite Craig's insistence that we could make a plane propeller fan themed living room work, I didn't really think that was the direction we wanted to go.

That got rid of a large percentage of the fans out there. And aesthetically, I wanted something casual and contemporary but also slightly retro. Preferable chrome or silver colored although really anything other than brass would have worked.

So when I saw this

I knew it was the one. It fit all our needs and was very highly rated. And it comes with a remote and guys love remotes, right? Not so fast.

It took some convincing because it was a little more than Craig thought one should spend on a fan. But after seeing that I was right my selection really was the best choice for our space and that I didn't just pick an expensive fan for the heck of it, he agreed. Our fan is one its way home!

Progress

We haven't been posting these last two days - because we've been so busy working, and I have the battle scars to prove it.

When I got back from the trip, Craig had already finished most of the painting so all we had left was the living rooms and hall walls and those went pretty quick. We have now finished painting!

Craig had off today so we decided it was time to tackle the carpet. Wednesday afternoon, while I hung out in the car with a napping* Lucy, Craig pulled it and the carpet pad up. But of course, that wasn't the hard part. We spent that evening and most of today pulling up the tack strips and the bazillion staples that held the pad in place. I think we are about 80% done which is good since I've already gouged myself with a staple, scrapped my arm with a tack strip and given myself a big blood blister with the needle nose pliers. The staple was the worst, I saw the
two or three drops of
gushing blood and started to feel woozy. Now I've started wearing gloves so my hands are safe but after spending the day on the floor with all the dust from the carpet, my sinuses are killing me. Clumsy and congested - I'm so pathetic.

I also got started replacing the light switches from old almond switches with "fancy" 1960s plates to new white rocker styles ones. I have a fair amount experience with electrical work from my job back in Utah but not in a home setting so I've been studying lately. I was pretty confident in my ability to do some small projects although I think the thing I know most is when to let a professional do the job. Replacing some outlets and the switches now and changing out light fixtures later is doable but we had an electrician come out to give an estimate for a couple bigger things like installing a ceiling fan (the living room had no overhead lighting), bathroom exhaust, and grounding a couple outlets.

The funny thing is that it didn't take me long to pick out which ceiling fan I want but picking out the bathroom exhaust fan has been a big headache. There are so many choices, too many choices. Do I want just a fan or do I want a light and heater too? How quiet do I want it? I don't want it to sound like I'm sitting next to an rocket taking off but since the living room is pretty close by, I think there could be some benefit to a little noise if you know what I mean. We checked out a bunch of options at Lowe's today but still haven't come to a final decision and I've probably put 3-4 hrs into researching already. It's ridiculous because as soon as it is installed, I don't think I'll ever think about it again. Now I know why people who have built a house say they will never do that again - decisions are so tiring.

So that is what we have been up to lately. More to come soon!

*the 10 minute drive from apartment to new house is the worst, she always falls asleep just as we get there and if I wake her up, she thinks she has had a nap so she doesn't need on but is still tired and cranky!

Cleanup Duty

The main drawback of our new abode is that we are on a semi-busy highway. It's not so bad, because our backyard has plenty of play space, so we don't really need to use the front yard for anything. Plus, it has good visibility for my political yard signs. However, it does mean garbage ends up in the ditch in front of our house. I'm not really sure if I own the ditch, or if the state or county does, but I'm sure nobody else will pick up the garbage, so I get to do it. Here's some stuff I found the other day:

• Macaroni and cheese box. Maybe that person has a microwave in the car?
• Empty toilet paper roll. This is the only bathroom-related item I want to find.
• Beer bottle. Of course.
• Long-expired temporary license tags.

Simplicity

Simplifiying. Typically when you read blogs about making things simply, the posts are accompanied by pictures of cups of coffee or sunsets and conjure up images of calm and peacefulness. That is not my goal in simplifying. I'm not trying to free up time to sit back and drink a latte, take a leisurely stroll through the forest or sit on the beach and watch the sunset, I'm just trying to get by. So here are some easy and quick ways I've been simplifying:

• Decluttering my emails. Instead of deleting each day the emails I've signed up for but don't want to get anymore, I'm actually going to the site and unsubscribing. It only takes a minute or two for each one but hopefully it will streamline my email. (But don't "unsubscripe" from real spam, like "get a bigger *** in 3 days with our magic pills", that will only let them know you are real and send more your way.)

• Throw out magazines. I've come to the realization that I will never read them again and if I keep them all, I won't be able to find that one project idea I really did want to follow through with. Today I sat with Lucy and tore out the pictures/projects I liked, stuck them in a notebook, and threw the rest away. Lucy enjoyed tearing and drooling on the rest of the magazine while I worked so I actually got a lot done in just 30 minutes.

• I put a paper bag next to Lucy's changing table. Whenever I get her dressed in something only to find out it no longer fits, I just toss it in the bag. This happens several times a week and if the bag wasn't there, I would probably put it back in the dresser thinking I would sort through all the clothes later - but never would. This takes no time at all and when the bag is full, I take it downstairs to my storage system.

What little steps do you take to make life easier?

Happy Birthday Mom!

I love you even more than I did back then.

Brain dump

I'm still here at my parent's until this weekend. Craig is at home working at work during the day and working on our house in the evenings (but don't worry, I let him take a break to watch the election :-) I think he's making good progress and I'm excited to see it this weekend although he gave me some awful news last night - the previous owners were technically correct when they said that under the carpet was hardwood, they just neglected to say that in between the two was a layer of tile. It's only in the two bedrooms so it isn't the end of the world, just a more work. Craig kept telling me to calm down when I was ranting about it last night. It's a "safe" subject to get mad about though. If I get upset about other things I can't always turn it off so sometimes I just need to vent emotions other ways. I kinda thought that when really bad things happen, the smaller bad things in life wouldn't seem like such a big deal in comparison. Intellectually that is true but my nerves are a bit raw and I get upset over silly stupid stuff more easily because of that, even when I don't want to.

That said, things here are going pretty well. I have a bad track record when it comes to visiting my mom. The last two big visits I had planned both started out with a 911 call and my mom ending up in the hospital. It's a good thing I don't believe in "luck" since I'd hate to be considered my mom's bad luck charm. I think that God just knew I needed to be here those times and lined things up that way, but it does make me nervous so it took a day or two before I was able to relax and enjoy our time.

But we have been enjoying out time. We've just been hanging out in the living room with her, Lucy playing on the floor while we talk, watch tv or listen to praise and worship music. It's really great having her here at home and I know she feels the same way. The weather is great so we even went out of the porch for a while. They finished installing her ramp yesterday so that should be happening more frequently until it gets too cold.

Yesterday, she started getting really tired because her platelet levels were low. We got her scheduled to go in and get a transfusion this morning and I knew it was going to be okay but I still hate seeing her like that. I got upset and normally I try to hide it because too much is going on but this time I was able to talk to her and tell her how I felt. Her communication is improving, especially when it comes to telling us her needs, but she still can't just sit down with me and have a chat especially when she is tired so most of her comforting was a hug and a hand squeeze but she did say a few words and I know her well enough that I knew what she was trying to tell me. I feel guilty when she is the one comforting me but I also know she is still my mom, and that is what she wants to do.

We all stay pretty positive most of the time but sometimes you need to address the scary elephant in the room, get emotional, then move on so in an odd way, it was nice to have those moments with her. And they really can't last too long because Lucy is always there just playing away on her tummy. No matter how deep the conversation is, when it's interrupted by a baby "raspberry" everyone always has to laugh.

I didn't have much of a plan when I sat down to write but I think this post summarizes the week

well, life is all about ups and downs. I'm trying to focus on the ups.

Cutest chick on the block

We had a fun halloween this year. Lucy and I have been at my parent's since the middle of last week and Craig joined us over the weekend. He brought along the pumpkin from our pumpkin patch adventure and Saturday afternoon, attempted to carve it for Lucy to sit in. We thought that surely we had gotten on big enough but half way through the carving we realized that there was no way she was gonna fit...oops. She didn't seem thrilled with the idea anyway and Craig ended up carving the other side so it was not a big loss.

Trick or treating was supposed to be Saturday, from 4-8, which seemed like a long time to me. I don't want to seem like a old curmudgeon but I really doubt if any kids young enough to trick-or-treat have that kind of stamina and I hate giving out candy to anyone old enough to buy their own.

I put those feelings aside though, got out our ton of candy and finished getting dressed up so we were could be ready for give it out. Lucy was a little chick and I was her farmer. (Craig was a party pooper and didn't dress up.)

4 o'clock came - and went. No tricker or treaters. Finally at around 4:45 we had our first batch but they were really slow in trickling in. It wasn't long though before Lucy was done with the whole halloween thing so we passed off our candy duties to a willing uncle Ben. By the morning there wasn't much candy left, I'm not sure if we had a lot of kids show up later in the evening or if the hander-outer took his fair share of treats in the process but either way, fun was had by all so I'm going to call the evening a success.