Boo! It's Halloween! (Big news announcement, too!)

"Trick or treat!" "Thank you!"

We were at Boo at the Zoo on Friday night. Lucy and 7 adults strolled through the zoo on a search for animals and candy. The animals were few, but the costumes and candy were all over! Both sets of grandparents, Aunt Christy, and Eric and I watched Lucy watch everything around her. She appeared rather grumpy and slumpy in her ladybug costume most of the time, but the rest of us had fun!

Yesterday we had the first Freund Fall Festival. Friends and their kids came over for a big pumpkin carving party! Lots of bees, lots of eating, lots of fun! Eric made the scariest pumpkin carving ever! Others made storm troopers, smiley faces, and scary houses. We were lucky the weather was absolutely gorgeous.










Finally...a big news announcement! Lucy took her first official steps!!! And by some miracle, I caught it all on videotape! She took about 5 steps right over to me, a slow sort of balanced wobble. Aunt Christy saw it too later that day, just so you know Im not lying!! I can't believe it! No teeth..but walking at 9 months!

Little Pumpkin

Yes, we were all sweating in our tank tops and wearing sun screen, but the calendar doesn't lie... it is October. So, naturally, even in very unnatural weather, we headed to the pumpkin farm yesterday for some fall festivities! Lucy was able to meet in person some of her favorite characters from her story The Barnyard Dance! She clucked with the chickens, strutted with the ducks, bowed to the cow, twired with the pigs... all of it!

Some highlights of her day were splashing in a box of corn, running her fingers through some sand in the sandbox, swinging on a tire swing, and taking a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. We found a little Lucy pumpkin and made her feel like she picked it out all by herself. She was more interested, though, in sitting in the dusty dirt and running her fingers through it, making pretty line designs on the ground. After literally running all over the farm grounds, it was time to go home. It was the easiest nap in the world for her to take on the car ride home.

Outdoor Adventures in September

Lucy closed up September spending most of her weekend outside. She and her dad came out early Saturday morning to watch me and her Aunt Lori run by during the Akron Marathon. She was sitting with dad in a chair a little beyond the 6 mile marker watching people dash by. I ran over to her and picked her up, kissed her as many times as I possibly could before feeling guilty about holding up my running partner. As we ran off, Lucy flashed her open mouth smile and shook her arm as best as she can to wave us goodbye. It literally was tear-jerking.

As for filling in the majority of the

weekend hours, Lucy works very dilligently at collecting leaves. She thoughtfully scans a 12 inch radius and spots the perfect leaf for that moment. Sometimes it's the crunchiest leaf, other times it's the biggest, and yet sometimes it's the brightest leaf. Very carefully and even more slowly, she bends at the knees, gracefully opens her palm and swoops in on the chosen leaf, gripping the life out of it. Then, we/she stands back up, and once she's chosen her next leaf, her whole body jumps and moves forward as if she were going to take off sprinting. What ends up happenening, though, is she has become smitten with a leaf about 3 inches away, so we all stop suddenly and she begins her slow decent down toward the leaf. This whole process repeats itself until she has two fistfulls of leaves. It's very time consuming, and it never gets boring!

We did venture out for a family hike on Sunday afternoon. We wore Lucy in a backpack that Grandma Freund had given us. She is able to look around and bounce along. She spent the whole hour leaning to one side so she can see around Eric's head and see where she's going. We did stop for 10 minutes to let her walk around, but it was more like leaf collecting as opposed to walking. She discovered wet, muddy gravel and wanted a nice collection to smear all over her hands and her face. "The making of an outdoorsman!" claimed one passerbyer.

Show some RESPECT

Lucy is starting to work for praise and adoration.
"Look at me! Can you believe how amazing I am right now? Are you seeing what I'm doing?!" her eyes and wide open smile will say to me. She is standing up, holding onto a small ottoman with one hand. Meanwhile, she has trapped a big bouncy ball between herself and the ottoman. She looks up with her bright eyes and wide smile and without looking down, kicks the ball over and over and over... and apparently this deserves some
serious recognition!

Dress Rehearsal

We got our little bug's halloween costume in the mail last week and had to try it on. It looked huge! But somehow she fits into it okay. Maybe it's because she's a chubby baby? Anyway, had to share. I guarentee as Halloween approaches there will be more pictures of little Ms. Lucy bug. I just couldn't wait that long....

Teething?

8 months old and still no teeth! I hate to say goodbye to her toothless grin, but I look forward to the teething stage to be done with. It was obvious two nights ago she was uncomfortable...waking up hourly throughout the night. Her nose is stuffy (a sign, the books say) and chewing on everything. A few doses of baby painkiller helped all 3 of us catch some good shut-eye last night. During the day, Lucy's so busy trying to walk everywhere and touch everything that she forgets about her drooling discomfort.