Halloween and More

As you can see, we all dressed up for Halloween, and Lydia kept sneaking more candy. After trick-or-treating here in EV (Escondido Village), we stopped by Steve Young's neighborhood (although I didn't see him and wasn't sure which house was his, but I did put my 49ers helmet over the chicken costume), and then went to Tom Cover's house (my advisor). This picture was at the Blakemore's annual party. The chicken costume is my brother Michael's, and it was a hit.

Keeping up with Lydia's vocabulary is difficult, so I'll have to give up soon. She can say pretty much anything now. It's funniest when she says stuff that sort of should be correct but isn't, like when she asks "are you sleep good?" And similarly, when she wakes up she always tells us "I sleep good." For a long time she's been expressing her preferences with the phrases "I-o wannit" (meaning "I don't want it") or "I want this/that/chicken/pizza/etc". She really picks up things fast, and she's always enunciated her words well. And lately she's also learned to be insolent, telling Mom "Stop!" and "Get out."

Lydia's been singing several songs loud and clear for a while, even some that we didn't know she knew. Her rendition of twinkle-twinkle is our favorite:

Twinkle twinkle little star
How I wonder what you are
Up a whoodee whoodee high
Like a diamond in the sky.

Her bedtime routine isn't really improving. She hasn't managed to sleep in her bed very often. We threaten her with the crib if she keeps getting out of bed when we put her down. So after three tries we put her back in the crib. It happens most nights. Her longest successful run was about four days in a row during the first week that we tried.

Oh. Lydia used the toilet for pretty much the first time today. She frequently wants to sit on the toilet, especially to stall going to bed, but never really does anything. One time I found a little mess after her, so I know she's used it once before without us realizing it, and she's used her pottie-trainer one time. But tonight she actually went peepee in the toilet.

Tyler is a joy to everyone. It's so easy to get him to smile. All I have to do is hold him up over my head. He also full out laughs sometimes, and he's very ticklish.

We just took a trip last weekend to San Diego. Laura had her baby Zack, so we got together for some baby blessings, including Tyler's. A lot of people ended up being there. Grandma Olga and my Oregon parents were there, so Uncle Ron and Uncle Bill (with his family) ended up coming too. And of course Uncle Eric and Aunt Sheri live there, so we spent a lot of time at their house with them. It was a great trip. We also got to see the little shack that Laura and Spencer are living in on his uncle's property; however, they've spent the summer building onto it and they've done a great job. It pretty nice and looks like a fun project.

There were some serious fires in San Diego, right near Laura's house, starting on Laura's due date (she ended up delivering Zack a week late). In fact, bushes right next to their house burned, and they were pretty sure their house burnt down. They had to evacuate for three days. By a miracle, their house is fine, and so is their uncle's, even though several neighbors' houses burned down. We were all praying for them, although I have to admit I didn't have much faith that their property would survive.