The Life and Times of the Kuykendalls: Harlow's First Halloween

We dressed Harlow up on final time yesterday for her first Halloween and took our last pictures. Unfortunately, it was raining ALL day here, so mama had to use the yucky flash and cheesy inside shots. I really was hoping to get her outside with the pumpkins in the yard. Oh well! We did some trick or treating at our neighbors and even got to see the little boy down the street, Peyton. He just learned to walk this week so he was showing off his skills to Harlow. His mom and dad are much cooler than us, they dressed up like cows.

Harlow isn't walking yet. She loves to cruise around on furniture or anything else she can get her little paws to hold on to. Including mommy's moving legs. She will briefly stand and balance but only when transitioning to another stable object. She loves to open and close cabinets and drawers so we have to watch carefully so she doesn't slam her little fingers. She uses her walker and runs into all kinds of things if we let her. She loves having the freedom to crawl around and get into all the things she is not allowed. She responds to "no-no" but as soon as you turn around, she goes right back to what she was getting into. She loves to crawl to the window and look outside into the yard. I used to have to clean the outside of the door because of Leyla, now I have to clean the inside because of Harlow's little paws. She is cutting 2 new teeth, numbers 5, and 6. She has the top two and the bottom two already. The news ones are on top and bottom, on the right side. They have been bothering her a lot lately, but I think both finally are cut through enough to give her a break. She has learned to wave and kiss, and will do it about half of the time you ask her to. She also knows the sign for milk and eat. She says Mama, Dada, Dad, Leyla (at least I think she does!). Her hair is getting longer and she even can wear pigtails now! I downloaded the pictures from my camera, but not surprisingly, I cannot figure out where they went now. Maybe by the next post, I will have fixed the problem.

Today, we made some more baby food. We made carrots, spinach, raspberries, kiwi, peaches and apples all from the Farmer's Market we went to on Saturday. Harlow is eating all kinds of new food now that she has some teeth. She eats eggs, pasta, pizza, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese, crackers, chicken and pork. We are still working on getting her to drink from a sippy cup. Soon, it will be time for real milk! The challenge will be getting her to drink out of something besides a bottle. She still has her pacifier, but only for sleeping times. She has one for her mouth, and one (or two) to hold onto. She sleeps from 8-8, sometimes later. She takes 2 naps, sometimes 3 if they are shorter naps. Lately, she has been taking very short naps, only 45 minutes at a time. When she is up, she is non-stop. We bought a large fenced in play pen for the corner of the living room, but that little turkey doesn't like being inside alone. Go figure. She is very spoiled for my attention, but I love being able to give it to her every day. We visited two day cares last week, both of which we were not too impressed. We are still not sure what we are going to do but the main priority is for Harlow to be in a safe, nurturing and loving environment. As she gets older, it will be more important for her to be exposed to other children and other people so that is something we are working on. Hopefully, when the weather cools a bit, we can spend some more time outside going for walks and playing at the park. Some things I am lining up for us to do next month include getting a zoo pass, visiting the local Children's museum and attending the library book readings. We will also be staying busy from now until Christmas-shopping and also planning for Harlow's first birthday party. Finally, here are the most recent picture of the little angel!

Oh, we wanted to say Thank You to Reta for Harlow's First Halloween card and gift! Thanks Reta, we love you!