Recap of Lolli's visit & Halloween

We've had a lot of fun since last week. My mom (aka Lolli) came in for a long weekend and we had lots of fun. There are so many cute pictures from the last week I had a hard time picking the best. You can go out to Flickr to see the rest.

This is us down on Tennyson Street for the vendor's Halloween fair. We ran into some friends who live around the corner from us.

Roan made friends with another little froggy.

Arwen and I actually went to a Halloween party. Can you guess what we are? I'll give you a hint: We're a popular band. Notice the black eyes... and then the letters on our shirts.

Jen and Micah's costumes need no explanation. They looked fantastic!

We took a short drive to Red Rocks and had a look around.

Roan was in an unbelievably good mood day after day. Gee I guess it just takes having a half dozen people giving her constant attention all the time...

We also made it out to Estes Park one afternoon. It was a perfect, beautiful day.

Roan dipped her toes in the chilly mountain stream that runs through Estes Park. She not only didn't cry; she seemed to enjoy it!

Now it's back to regular life with regular old Mom and Dad.

Getting ready for Halloween

Roan is getting ready for Halloween. She has a new cute little onesie (courtesy of Aunt Bunny) that goes so nicely with her cool black velour pants (courtesy of Ashley and Kayleigh). You probably can't read it but it says "Baby's First Boo" on the sleeve.

I am also working on her costume. I figured we might as well make use of the froggy hat & booties I knit her last year. The hat needed some pizazz though, so that's what I've been working on. I've been re-doing the mouth, which is almost done, and then I think I might add some buttons for the nose.

I think I hit a bit of a rough patch last week. Some weeks just feel like a struggle. But then you get past it and all is well again. I do consider last week a victory though, because I managed to go to the gym twice, vacuum the house twice, and meet up with mommy friends three times. It's been a little bit of an adjustment getting used to Roan's more active days (which I know not long from now when she's running around the house throwing things and shrieking I will look back on and laugh at how easy I had it). She is such a happy little gal, sometimes I wonder why it is I can't always just smile along. The up side of these changes are that she's showing more personality, and as a bonus she's been sleeping better. And for sleep, I've gotta remind myself, I must be grateful!

Snow!

Can you believe it snowed in Denver this morning? Last night we were sipping margaritas on a patio and enjoying the mild weather, and this morning we woke up to a fresh clean blanket of snow. It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
Jen and Micah ran out and got hot cocoa and apple cider. Then Jen made us the most fantastic omelets for brunch that we've ever had the pleasure of enjoying. And I lingered in the kitchen late, baking an apple pie with apples from a friend's trees and a recipe from my Granny.

Then this afternoon we broke down and bought Roan some new toys. She's been driving me crazy the past couple of days wanting me to hold onto her hands so she can "walk" around the house. I'm turning into the hunchback of Notre Dame following her around. So here she is at her new activity table pulling herself up. Enjoy!

The new face of determination

It's been a busy week around our house. Roan has gotten her crawling into high gear. She can easily make it across the room and back. And she's started this funny cute thing where she sticks her tongue out as she's concentrating on something.

Lately she's turned her attention more acutely toward pulling up. Whether in her crib, on furniture or using the nearest grownup as a prop, she seems to think it's even more fun than getting around on hands and knees.

The autumn weather is upon us here in Denver. The leaves on the trees are turning all kinds of gorgeous colors and starting to fall. We've even had some sweater weather in the last week! And up in the mountains they've already gotten snow. We are looking forward to winter.

Work is keeping us both really busy. And so is Roan. She is into everything these days. Don't know why I can't seem to remember that if I don't want her in it, I've got to put it out of her reach. One of these days I'll learn. She has been a lot of fun and very happy lately. But she's also been more of a challenge as well. She is without a doubt a sweet little girl, but there are times now where I see this little mischevious spark in her eyes and can tell the wheels are turning.

Sometimes it seems like she cries just to see how quick she can get a reaction out of us. And the other day she bit me twice - and the second time was intentional. She is throwing objects on a regular basis. If I can't keep a toy clipped to her in the stroller, it's going overboard. She won't stay put at all, not even in the tub. She crawls all around in the bath grabbing one toy and then another. And she gets grumpy when (for safety's sake) I won't let her hold onto the edge of the tub to pull up. She has been feisty lately! Good thing she's cute, I tell ya.

In all fairness I gotta give my little lady some much-deserved props. She has been sleeping through the night for the past week and a half. We started this routine while visiting in Houston 2 weeks ago, but when we first got home she was back to waking up several times a night. Now I put her down faithfully every night at 8 pm and she sleeps straight thru till 7 or 8 in the morning! It is heavenly. And she's been napping shorter but with much less grumbling. A good night's sleep makes all the difference in the world.

BTW, I've posted a few new pics on Flickr for your viewing pleasure. Remember, you have to login to see them.

Happy 6 Months

Last week while we were traveling I didn't have the wherewithal to remember that October 2nd makes 6 months for Roan! So much has happened this week, I hardly know where to start.

Roan is crawling a little. She doesn't get very far at a stretch. Instead, she likes to take a few knees forward and then plop over and sit for a while. She's quite proficient at going from being on all fours to sitting to lying down and back again.

Today was her 6 month checkup and Dr. Bacon was impressed by all of Roan's locomotive and cognitive abilities. She said she acts more like a 9 month than a 6 month old. Not that we're trying to engineer some super-baby over here. It's just comforting to know that she's developing well.

This past week or so she's grown out of a ton of her clothes. Today she measured 26 inches and she's 16 pounds 10 1/4 ounces. Roughly in the 70th percentile. In the last week or two she's gone from sitting with a boppy (support pillow) to sitting fine on her own to crawling to now... drumroll please... pulling herself up. Last night just before we put her to bed she pulled up in the crib, and then again this afternoon she did it again. I wasn't even watching at the time. I was busily reorganizing all of her clothing bins (putting away all that she's grown out of and pulling out the next size) when Arwen came in and exclaimed, "Honey! Look at the baby!" Sure enough she was standing in the corner of the crib with a big ol grin on her face. And then just to show off, she let go with one hand.

The other thing I thought I'd mention is that I have uploaded a ton of photos to my new Flickr account. I had thought I'd be able to store all my Roan pics at the site I'd previously directed you to, but that would far exceed their paltry storage limits. My Flickr photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vaughans/ but it requires a login. I will send out a big email. If you don't get one just let me know and I'll send you one.

Notes from Houston

Here are a couple of photos from last week. We're in Houston this week, partly for business and partly for fun. I haven't had a chance to upload any photos from my camera from this trip yet though. Things have been going remarkably smoothly so far. Roan did pretty well on the airplane. She only cried briefly a couple of times, even though she didn't nurse during takeoff or landing. And she seemed to really enjoy the parade of people past her down the aisle. She had this look on her face like "Wow! Look at all the people here to see me!"

Since we've been in Houston we have been *so incredibly fortunate* to have both Jim and Beryl and my mom and Stephen volunteer to watch her during the day so that I can work. And Roan has done pretty well, given that she's in a different environment and inevitably on a somewhat different routine, and away from Mama all day long. Not that she hasn't had her cranky or challenging periods, but all in all she seems to like the change of scenery. She'll probably be bummed when we go home to be back in her same old routine again.

Arwen and I aren't used to all the waking up early to drive in to work. Heck, we're not even used to having to get up and shower, shave and dress nicely every day - since we work normally from home. So we've been feeling a little groggy. And Roan has had a couple of tough nights where she's woken up multiple times. But even when she wakes she has let us lull her back to sleep without a feeding. And then last night she slept for 13 hours straight! I didn't get to see her before I left for work this morning, but my mom assured me she woke up happy as a clam.

She is not quite crawling yet, but she works hard on it every day, getting a little closer all the time. She can sort of launch herself forward before she splats back down on her tummy. But I'm guessing we'll see her crawling for real in the next week or two.