Fright Night

I love Halloween. Love the crafts (like this pumpkin Rosie decorated with her nanny). Love the costumes. Absolutely can't wait to see Rosie dressed up in her poodle costume tonight. Love the colors. Love the candy. Love it all. Well, everything except being scared. I was a super scaredy cat growing up (still am, actually). Do NOT love haunted houses. The Children's Museum once had to turn on the lights and escort me out of its Haunted Museum...when I was 12! A Children's Museum!

Well, Halloween fright night came early for Mommy this year.

On Tuesday I was pre-treating stains from the day's nanny share adventures in Rosie's sink while she ran around her room. I suddenly became aware that she was no longer in eyeshot. Since she's quite the adventurer these days, I figured I better check on her.

Walking down the hall toward my bedroom, I saw an image that my brain couldn't compute.

Rosie. Bed. On top. Jumping. Running. Tiny girl. By herself. On bed. Cackling with delight.

Once the firing neurons could make sense of it, my brain filled with Mommy red alerts. I'm proud that I didn't scream in panic. I actually tried to downplay the whole thing (though I did move at lightning speed to grab my little monkey jumping on the bed so she didn't fall off and bump her head).

How did she do it? I didn't have to come up with any wild theories because she immediately did it again.

Jon and I hadn't made our bed that day (I know, shame on us). She'd climbed the pile of pillows and comforters at the end of the bed like a downy hillside. Once within striking distance of the footboard, she held on for dear life (literally) and swung her tiny foot up over the side. With all her strength (and tongue stuck out for extra oomph), she catapulted her 17.5 pounds onto the bed in a triumphant faceplant.

As I told Jon when he got home, we've entered a new millennium in this whole parenting thing.

My little girl is a pygmy mountain goat - scaling everything within sight. Metal scaffolding (high chairs), rocky peaks (staircases), tall trees (crib rails), cliffsides (bookcases) and whatever she decides to tackle next. We're going into hypervigilant mode. My mom's given me some tips to help teach her boundaries and the importance of being safe. But still...it's a scary thought that she can actually CLIMB stuff.

This Halloween, Rosie's putting the BOO in peek-a-boo. Be afraid, Mommy. Be very afraid.

Visits

This weekend we had the pleasure of hosting friends from California and Indiana. We enjoyed showing off our Rosie and watching her bask in the attention of her guest audience members.

It was especially fun to watch Rosie interact with Mikayla. When Mikayla and Rosie were last together, Rosie was 10 months old and Mikayla was 20 months old. Rosie was a wobbly pre-walker who hadn't yet said, "Mommy," and Mikayla was running around in circles talking up a storm. They were more interested in taking each others' toys than playing together.

That was not the case this weekend. Cut to high fives and hand holding. And that was just in the car where they both reached out from their car seats and giggled with excitement when they made contact. Rosie, who normally protests during long car rides, finally had some good entertainment back there. She literally watched every move Mikayla made and tried to mimic every sound she uttered. And since Mikayla is pretty verbally advanced, that was a lot of sounds.

We had a blast watching the girls together. Jennifer and I took them on the metro together, and you would have thought they were at Disney World. We pretty much could have just ridden the metro up and down the red line all day, and they would have been happy campers. But we also took them to Union Station for lunch, the National Building Museum for playtime in the kids' room, and a family farm with hayrides, slides, animals, cider, pumpkins, and climbing structures. These kids were in heaven.

With Auntie Aja in town, Rosie also got some 17A spoiling. Aja brought the pink poodle Halloween costume that has been handed down from the Mounts and Rabuck girls. Can't wait to see her in it! We got in some good Eastern Market time, and Mommy even got some ladies-only time at dinner and brunch with Aja and friends.

What a great weekend. Sad to have it come to an end. I'll post pics when I finally get them uploaded. The best news is that more visitors are on the horizon! We're looking forward to seeing Nana and Papa Blake in just a couple weeks!