Trick or Treat!

For her first Halloween, Leila was, quite appropriately, a circus monkey. This perfect costume was made by David's mom. Below, she debuts the costume at the weekly playgroup we attend.

Proud of our little monkey...

Despite no bag of sugar goodies, Leila delighted in cruising the streets to scope out the kids, the costumes and the spooky decorations.

Popo tries out his circus act.

At the Pumpkin Patch

We took Leila to the pumpkin patch last Friday. She has an odd fear of spherically shaped objects, so you can imagine our trepidation in embarking on such a bold adventure to an oasis of orange-colored spherically shaped objects. Sure enough, she balked at the tour of the pumpkin field. "Leila, do you like this one?" resulted in frantic cries. Needless to say, she wasn't keen on sharing a wagon with a pumpkin, but we did manage to capture one tearless wagon photo and a few others.  

Moving on Up

Drumming

Leila has been developing a real appreciation for music lately, both as a music maker (drumming and rattles) and as a dancer... she really likes to wiggle around and settle into her unique groove. What you can't hear on this clip is the happy sing-song lyrics from the drum that go something like this, "We sing, we dance, when we play the drum. We dance, we sing, let's have some fun..."

The Crawl and the Beginning of Upward Mobility

Leila has moved on from the army crawl and is officially cruising on her hands and knees, scooching all over the house and seemingly honing in on the off-limits zones like she had a radar to detect them. You'll also see her "hey, what's up" head bob, which she has been using a lot lately. And at the end you'll catch a glimpse of her getting a bit impatient with the "next step" in this whole ordeal of becoming a biped.

The October Haps

Leila is fully mobile now. No obstacle deters her progress. She'll crawl over and under everything on her path, regardless of size. She's the prettiest little bulldozer you ever did see. 

Below is a picture of Leila donning her new girlie bows and attacking a water bottle (one of her new favorite "toys"... all of her own toys are waaayyy too boring now). This pic was taken at the Visalia Breastfeeding Awareness Walk. David was the only brave daddy to attend the event and received heaps of praise and props for doing so. 

And mommy got away for a whole 3-day weekend for Katy's wedding (unfortunately, the beautiful bride is not pictured below). It was a stupendous event, but I missed my little girl and her daddy so very, very much. 

Ready for Fall Weather

Leila is ready for the changing of the seasons and has been proud to show off her new fall duds. Mommy had fun shopping for these and kinda wishes that they made matching adult pieces. 

Under the Weather

Leila is just now getting over her first ear infection. As Leila would surely testify if she could, it was a yucky experience. Looking back, it was likely the product of a cold that she had about a week prior to the onset of fever and fussiness. Her fever was all but gone after three days of Tylenol, but she wasn't her usual self. Alas we took her to the doctor who prescribed some antibiotics and now she's on the mend. And as you can see below, her self-imposed treatment plan has been to double up on some much needed rest. 

Gainfully Employed?

There's no doubt about it... Leila is very good at what she does. And today, during a visit to Nana's office, Leila debuted her secretarial skills and wowed everyone in sight... taking calls, tallying sums on the calculator, and just being her usual charming self.

Too bad she's not on the payroll.