A giraffe riding a horse?!?!?

Well, Bug had her first official Halloween. She was a giraffe, and she loved it!!! (she hated putting the costume on, but once it was on she was ready to go!)While waiting for the Trick or Treating hours to start, she proceeded to pull out every single tootsie pop sucker out of the bowl, and lick the stick of each sucker. Lovely. (it was keeping her happy while I made dinner, so I didn't care! Kids don't care--they just want candy!) We took her to visit two neighbors and she had a blast. I took her to one, and as soon as she got out on the sidewalk and saw what looked like hundreds of kids, she started running and screaming (happy screams!). It was the funniest thing ever!! Daddy took her to the other neighbor, then she played in the leaves in the front yard for a few minutes (still in her costume!). Her one piece of candy got lost in the leaves (and was found today when I went out to get the mail). When we got home from visiting the neighbors, she ran in the house and took a ride on Charlie (her horsey--get it? Charlie Horse?? That nickname was courtesy of Daddy!), thus the picture.

Adoption update: We had our consultation with an adoption lawyer. We are happy to say, we feel much more educated in this entire process. We also have determined we will be using this lawyer, and are extremely happy to check that off our list! It is amazing how much more relaxed we feel just knowing we have the lawyer part taken care of. Now, the next thing we are going to do is have a meeting with another local agency. Our lawyer works closely with this agency, and right now they have a shortage of adoptive parents. She strongly suggested at least looking into this agency. Ironically, I had just scheduled an informational meeting with this agency yesterday. We have that appointment set up for November 14th. We are going to hold off with signing with the other agency until we talk to this local one. Our lawyer said it will save a decent amount of money, time, stress, etc, if you could find a birth mother in the same state in which you live. You wouldn't have to deal with another lawyer, another states' laws, and the travelling (the list could go on). So, for now, we are going to take a breather from reading constantly about adoption, and relax.

Other than that, not much else is going on here. We are heading out on a road trip, so there may not be an update for awhile. There's nothing like being in a car for 11+ hours with a toddler that doesn't like to sit for long. I am going to get some new toys (and possibly some tranquilizers) to make this trip more tolerable!!! :-) Just kidding of course about the tranquilizers...it will be quite interesting, though.