2004 :
60 Halloweens – Candy shortage by 6pm! / Manqué de bonbons à 18h!

2005 :
105 Halloweens

2006 projections:
120 candy bags / sacs de bonbons

7.427 kg of candy (divided as such:)
1 kg – Hershey minis (various)
0.908 kg – Nestlé minis (various)
1.4 kg – Caramels
1.4 kg – Rockets
1.169 kg – Eyeballs gum
0.450 kg – Tiger lollypops
1.1 kg – Standard lollypops
+ 11 skeleton parachute toys for the random lucky Halloween kid (would have been 12 if Frank and my brother Chris hadn’t wanted to play with one).

We’re proud to say we distribute only the best stuff! But how come we get 100 Halloweens on a 16 houses street?!

Happy birthday to Xavier, now 3 months!

Quick update on his development: Xavier can now spend longer on his tummy, working his head up (you’ll see in the new pictures). He doesn’t even need support now! He also started to grab everything he can wrap his tiny hands around… and bring those to his mouth. And since he’s entered a “lick everything within reach” phase, his fingers and knuckles are only dry when he’s sleeping. I’m also guessing he’s discovering new flavours – blanket, mommy’s hair, plush puppy dog. He seems to love all that new stuff, though, and continues with the smiles and sounds. I can almost hear the hint of the beginning of a start at syllables, which is way cool.

Aside from this, we started giving him just a tiny quantity of food (oat), because he’s regularly hungry every 2 hours, and seems to have trouble sleeping for a long time – maybe hunger wakes him up? We also started to apply my friend Geneviève’s trick for sleep – 5-10-15. (When baby must sleep but cries instead, wait 5 – then 10, then 15 – minutes before going to take him, comfort him and place him back in his bed.) These minutes are agonisingly long (poor little sad baby ) but we’re hoping he’ll learn to sleep on his own when he’s in bed and it’s time for sleep or nap; and stay asleep. Maybe his system will understand it’s easier to fall asleep than continue to fuss. I like that this system doesn’t “abandon” baby to his crying, but follows a structure that provides comfort… after having offered him the occasion to settle down on his own. Seems to work so far, and Xavier seems to adapt to it; the last few times, it took him less time to fall asleep: could it be he’s developing a new sleeping pattern? Before, we went to pick him up as soon as he was waking up, and spent long periods of time trying to calm him down and get him to sleep. Now, I often just replace his beddings, give him back his pacifier… and he quietly goes back to sleep. I hope full nights are the imminent next step.

Oh, and a new album of his third month. Go see!

Xavier – 3e mois

Thanks to Paul (Aurora Walking Vacation) for pointing out this internet holiday. One never has enough excuses to post cat pictures on their blog. P

Here are ScSi and Mrs.Wang, my copycats.