(everyday Is) Halloween

Rach had a great time going trick or treating with her daddy!  I stayed home to open the door for all the little trick-or-treaters from OUR neighborhood... Because we have the witch living a few doors away, and decorates her place to the hilt, we usually get a big crowd... this year was no exception... I bought 700 pieces of candy and gave out all but around 100 pieces!  so we had quite the group!  I was very disappointed that I didn't see even one Twilight related costume!

My way too cute bunny... and yes, I realize now that the ears were WAY too big for her tiny little head, but they looked a lot smaller on the cardboard LOL... 
As for the "outfit", well, I just told her she was a bunny hiding in the flower garden!  lol...

 

My G-d daughters & their kids!

Tommy carved this freehand... not a bad job, right?

 Rach spent a good part of the day today hanging out with her best friend.  She followed her everywhere, hugged her over and over, gave her HUGE kisses, and just couldn't get close enough to her, snuggling whenever she could...

Belfast to Boston

What an insane day...  Woke up at 4:30a.m., out the door by 5:30 a.m., drove to the airport and caught a flight to Boston to go to meet with the surgeon that is going to be operating on my spine.  Got thru the appointment, got back on a plane and came home... INSANE?  absolutely!  The hardest part was not seeing my baby all day!  I left before she woke and got home after she was asleep!!!
BUT....

It really was a good thing I did this now.  It was a crazy day, rushed, painful, slightly scary (still amazed I found my way taking Boston mass transit to & from the airport!) but really informative, and I'm closer to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this whole back thing.

I arrived at the hospital a little early for my appointment, so I went to Whole Foods to grab some lunch.  Walking back, I stopped a guy dressed in Dr garb to ask for directions, since I was a bit turned around.  He asks me what Dr I was going to see and I told him Dr Coumans... his reaction was VERY reassuring...  he said "Wow, you went straight for the best, huh?"  VERY glad to hear that!
Anyway, brought all my old MRI disks with me, thank goodness... met with Dr Coumans, and discussed the problems with my Thoracic spine as well as the other problems.  Basically, he said that I am not a candidate for the surgery on the Thoracic spine right now.  It's too risky and he doesn't think that the bulk of my symptoms stem from that ruptured disk.  He is convinced there are still issues with my cervical spine that are causing a lot of the pain & problems.  So he ordered a new MRI of my cervical spine.  Once he sees those results, we will schedule the surgery he DOES think I need right now... definitely the Lumbar spine needs help.  He even thinks that once the surgery is over and I recover, I may even be able to feel my leg again!!! WOOHOO!!!  No guarantees, since the nerves have been compressed for so long it may be permanent, but he said it really was possible!

And then, I come home to find that my dear, sweet friend Margie not only took GREAT care of my little munchkin while I was gone, but she also cleaned all the knick-knacks in my entertainment unit, washed my windows (! ! ! ! ! ! ! !)  AND straightened the family room!  Holy COW!  What an AWESOME friend! 

 Had a really nice afternoon meeting mom's cousin Arlene & her hubby Mark at Olive Garden for lunch.  Rach had a great time playing with her crayons on the coasters... more fun than the coloring book!  She also had lots of fun posing for all the pictures that Mark & Arlene were taking!  I can't wait to see them!

Her favorite though, was the RAVIOLI!  She finally decided she likes ravi's like her mom!!!  YAY! Of course she didn't eat very many of them because she was so busy chowing down on the unlimited breadsticks!  my carb junkie!

Lollipop

It was a banner day!  Rachel FINALLY went poop on the potty!!!  We are trying a new technique (which is not really working well yet) but if she tells us she has to go and then actually GOES, we are giving her a little treat.  Well, for pooping, she gets a lollipop (the first time it was a tootsie pop... all subsequent rewards will be those little tiny DumDum pops!)
I know that she will surely be out of diapers before she goes to high school, but in the meantime, we had agreed not to force anything on her... She HAS been showing an interest, and actually tells us when she has to go at night before bed or before bath time... the problem we have is she does NOT tell us when she needs to poop, no matter what time of day, and hardly ever tells us about having to pee during the day.    So when she actually did everything she was supposed to this time, I was ready to have a party!

She came close to having to share her lollipop with her best friend!

Despite the obvious grin on Penny's face, she never did actually get a taste of the lollipop!