Such is life.

There are days when it just breaks my heart to leave for work in the morning. Mondays are always hard, but today was heart wrenching. Liv did not want me to leave, and as I was walking out the door, she was reaching for me and asking me to read her a book. The half-hour commute to the office is a good time to cry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a happier note, we celebrated an early Thanksgiving with Grumpa and Bunny this weekend. They flew in from Denver to spend a few days with grandchild #5. We had a lovely visit. Friday, Cindy (a/k/a Bunny) and I went to A Christmas Affair while Sean and Tom (a/k/a Grumpa) played golf. Saturday, we went to the Botanical Gardens to have Liv's 18-month photos taken by the talented Ms. Lum. Unfortunately, Liv has the attention span of a fly and refused to stay still more than 15 seconds at a time. We were able to get some cute photos of her and one of the whole group. Saturday afternoon, we watched the very exciting Ohio State v. Michigan game (Bunny is a Buckeye alum). Sunday, we made a trip to Super Target (or, as I like to call it, Heaven) where they bought Liv's Christmas presents.

I can't wait until Liv's gets to see all of the Christmas lights this year. She was fascinated by the ones at Target and kept saying "WOW!" and pointing at them. It is going to be such fun watching her enjoy the holiday season.

So here are a couple of photos from the photo shoot:

And here are a few that I took:

This kid loves dogs

We went over to some friends' house last night. They have two small dogs -- Cosmo and Chuy. We were very curious to see Liv's reaction to dogs that aren't big enough to eat her. She and Cosmo were a little leery of each other, but she and Chuy really hit it off. She thought he was just the funniest thing ever. He thought she was a little too high-pitched.

And here's a photo of our little cheerleader from Saturday, when the Horns kicked some Cowboy bootie. (The BCS is a load of crap, by the way.)

Trick or Treat!

Amongst the ghostly ghouls and goblins, there lurked the scariest of them all -- behold the most terrifying, the most petrifying, the most evil Wascally Wabbit ever to walk the streets of Onion Creek:







I'll give you a minute to compose yourself . . .

Are you okay? Good. Sorry about the scare.

Liv's first Halloween went much better than expected. That was easy to accomplish since I was expecting disaster -- screaming, ripping off costume, etc. We started the evening off at some friend's house. Their two little girls showed Liv what it was all about, and she warmed up immediately. Then it was off to the neighbors. Our second house was Joe, who lives across the street. He is a very nice man, but quite chatty. One ring of the doorbell resulted in a full tour of his newly remodeled house. Twenty minutes later, we were out of there. Liv enjoyed ringing the doorbells (as all kids seem to do). Before the resident would answer the door, Liv would scream "HEY!" It was so funny. When they opened the door, she would retreat a little, but quickly learned that she could help herself to the bowl of candy. She very politely took one piece, put it in her bag, said "tank ew" and scurried away. Our final house of the evening was our new neighbors, who also invited us in to see their remodeling.

We spent the remainder of the evening sitting on the front porch handing out candy. Liv didn't seem to mind her costume at all, even though when took it off, she was soaked with sweat. She must have known just how darn irresistible she was in it.

"Hey! I want candy!"

"And I mean NOW!"

"That's more like it. Tank ew."

For pictures of the Wascally Wabbit, go here.