Halloween!

We're a bit ahead of the 31st, but today is Blaise's first chance to wear her costume (for the Halloween parade at daycare). The video below is just long enough for her to tell you what she is. Enjoy!

Darlin', don't you go and cut your hair...

A short post for tonight, but a momentous one: The toddler mullet is gone!

Blaise had her first haircut tonight (courtesy of our friend Kristine, who even did an in-home visit) and now she looks incredibly chic. We were all pretty impressed with how chill she was during the proceedings, but a lot of the credit for that has to go to They Might Be Giants for making such a bang-up DVD of music videos to go along with their "Here Comes Science" CD. Blaise would tolerate most things if you let her watch "My Brother the Ape" and "Meet the Elements" on my laptop. Kristine is also great with kids and I think Blaise had a pretty good time being her assistant and holding onto the hair clips and combs.

Of course, Blaise barely said a word while Kristine was there, but immediately after she left started in with: "Kristine. HAIRcut. Thank you, Kristine! Buh-bye. Haircut." We're still trying to communicate that parting words are best shared while the person in question is still in front of you.

Otherwise, mostly the usual fun stuff, but the end of the week brings something VERY exciting: A costume parade at day-care! Fear not, there will be pictures. Blaise is already a big fan of her costume and has taken to wearing it around the house in the evenings, so Halloween may last for a period of some weeks in our house.

Where have we been?

Hello, Blaise fans! You may have noticed that we went missing for a little while there. Anyone who wants to know why is presumably not the parent of a 21-month-old and not planning a cross-country move. Also, Blaise has been "hiding." (This is her "hiding" spot between her bookshelves and the wall.)

We announced it a while ago, but now the gears are really turning on our move to Fargo. We'll be moving in December, which we hear is the best time all year to move to the Northern Plains. We went out there a few weeks ago to rent a house and get day care arranged; both of those things worked out very well. The thing that did not work out well was the effect of the trip on Blaise. She's at an age where anxiety can run a little high and the strangeness of the whole situation (airplane, hotel, no other kids, riding in a car all the time, stressed out Mama and Dad) really put her in a less than fun state. She stopped going to bed well and became very clingy and nervous. It's gotten better for being back home, but it was a difficult week or two.

The nervousness/clingyness has resolved somewhat, although bedtime is still a little difficult. Blaise has been chattering, singing, swimming, running, asking to use the potty because she wants to wash her hands, peeing near the potty (not in the potty, but it's a step, right?), eating pumpkin custard ice cream at JP Licks, coloring, dancing, running and generally toddlering it up. She's very interested in new foods and still refuses to eat most meat. She's a lot of fun, if increasingly "independent" (parenting book code for "capricious"), and she's running in top gear pretty much all the time. As for Ben and me, we're doing well, too (parenting book code for "exhausted.")