Almost Halloween

It's been way too long since I've posted--sorry! It seems to have been a busy week, but I can't say exactly why it's seemed that way. I just haven't found the time to give an update on Molly. On Saturday we went to see some friends and carved pumpkins. The couple who hosted us and the other couple who came over used to live in our neighborhood, but they moved out recently. It's sad--we miss them all. We had a great time, and Bill took some pictures today of Molly and me with our very scary jack-o-lanterns.

On Saturday Molly and I went to a prenatal yoga reunion. We went to one a couple months ago, so it has been fun to see how the babies are growing.

Molly is continuing her fascination with her hands. She loves shoving them in her mouth and sucking. She recently decided she could get a better taste of those slimy things by using one hand to push the other one in further. It is pretty cute. She has also been sucking just her thumb, which is just adorable! Her giggling is much louder these days, and it comes with hardly any effort on our part. She will easily smile and coo when you make faces at her. She will also just laugh sometimes for no reason. It's such a pleasant sound, and it makes me smile when I hear her laughing at something she just sees while we're walking around.

She is still not quite ready to turn over, I don't think. She doesn't particularly like tummy time, but we keep at it to build her arm muscles. She is getting closer to sitting up, though (I think).

We finally got a new crib this week. Bill will be putting that together soon, and she will be out of the cradle. I can't believe Molly Z is so big! A week from Sunday she will be five months old!

Tuesday I got a whole lot of work done on my dissertation. It is really close to being complete. I know I keep saying that, but it is! I hope to send it out to my whole committee for comments within the week, and then it should just be a matter of final editing (knock on wood). Tuesday night I went to the movies with a friend. It was really strange being away from Molly for most of the day. Bill had her all day on Tuesday, as usual. I was here to feed her for most of the day, but he took her out a lot, and then I left for a couple hours in the evening. It was actually a little sad (though I know it's important for me to get out and do some things without Molly) to be away from Molly and Bill for so much of the day.

Bill and I got our pertussis shots today (thanks for the reminders, Aunt Cathy) so we will hopefully not contract whooping cough, which could be really hard on Molly if she were to catch it from us.

We have a pumpkin costume for Molly, but she is too big for it. She probably would have fit into it if she were less than three months, rather than her real age of almost five months--she is just too big! We could probably put some orange clothes on her and that would be enough to dress her as a pumpkin. (Okay, no more jokes about my chubby baby.)