Happy Halloween

Our first real Halloween went very well, I'm glad to report. Dora had a costume, Dora the Explorer of course, and she did about two blocks worth of trick-or-treating with her Mommy. She was a bit shy at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea. Julia didn't care for her lamb costume (which was much too large) so we took a couple pictures and got her out of it.

We got a decent number of kids by the house, although as always we bought too much candy. No real slacker teenagers either, which is nice. I can't quite recall how old I was when I stopped trick-or-treating, but I was far too old, I think.

Dora raiding the candy bowl. 

Ready for Halloween! 

Dora in her Halloween costume. 

The Big Sleep

Last night Julia went an incredible amount of time between feedings, from about 6:00 pm until 4:30 am the following morning. I think it was a fluke, but we'll test again tonight. If we can get her to go from about 9:00 until 7:30 am, our lives (read: Margrethe's life) will be improved immensely.

We have moved Julia into the crib in her own bedroom and it has gone very well. It's hard to belive how much easier she is to take care of than Dora was. This morning we went in to check on her and she was awake and quietly chewing on her hand (her new favorite activity.) Dora would never have done that; as soon as she woke up everyone knew it. Before Julia, we used to read about babies that would lie quietly in their cribs and laughed at such ridiculous lies.

Zoo Trip

We all went to the zoo today and had a great time. Sorry, I forgot the camera so no pictures.

We basically saw every baby animal in the zoo, which includes a gorilla, rhino, giraffe, and a polar bear. Dora's favorite was the baby giraffe. She shouted, "He's so cute!" She also got a big kick out of the baby polar bear, who was throwing his toys in the pool and jumping in after them.

Julia giggles!

Yesterday Julia laughed out loud for the first time! Dora was ripping paper next to her and Julia seemed to think this was the funniest thing ever. Margrethe says that she giggled and giggled.

I just wish I could have been there to see it. Further attempts to get her to laugh have failed. I'm sure we'll hear a lot more in the days to come.

Bottle Breakthrough

We've had Julia going to daycare for just over a week now, and we were very anxious, as you might imagine. Not only were we trusting our baby to another person (granted, one who's been taking care of Dora for a year) but we were having significant troubles with the bottle.

We had been giving a bottle or two every week since she was about six weeks old, and things had gone well. But at some point we went about 10 days with no bottle, and that gap proved to be crucial. When we tried the bottle a couple weeks ago to get ready for daycare, Julia acted like we were trying to poison her. A solid week of trying got us nowhere.

Needless to say, we Googled every website related to bottle-feeding and got a variety of advice, none of which helped much. The good news is that after last week, which didn't go very well, Julia has turned a corner and drank down two bottles today with no problem. Keep your fingers crossed!

Isn't she cute? 

Dora's first haircut

Dora getting her first haircut

Birthday Party Report

Dora had her first real birthday party Saturday, and it went very well. We originally invited seven kids, and we had four show up. Afterwards, we were glad that only four came. Five three to five-year-olds can be quite a handful. Pictures are on Ofoto.

Dora told us several times that she had a lot of fun at her party. Her Aunt Sophia was a big help keeping the kids entertained. They played some games like Hot Potato and read stories. Daddy did the catering, and Mommy kept Julia occupied.

All in all, I'm glad birthdays only come once a year. :)