Sydney's First Halloween

Halloween was Sydney's last "first" holiday. Although there are still many "firsts" to come in her life, it is weird to think that her first year, with so many monumental "firsts", is coming to a close. I truly can not believe that it has been a year since she was born.

We had a fun Halloween! As my family has gotten older Halloween has become less exciting, and we have adopted new traditions like sitting around talking to each other and having Taco Soup. Taco Soup is by far my favorite Halloween tradition. I even carried it on in college, making it for my roommates and friends on Halloween. It was one of the few recipes that I contributed to the many greats of Kelli, Chelsey, and Stacie's. Needless to say, Taco Soup was available this Halloween.

Halloween was a bit more exciting for me this year because I got to dress Sydney up! We dressed her up as a puppy dog. Brett actually wore the costume as a baby, and I borrowed it from my mom. Sydney is fascinated by dogs, so we were excited that she could be a puppy for Halloween. Every time she sees a dog, she says, "oooh, ooohf" in a deep dog like voice (at least deep for her little voice) imitating their bark. It is so funny! She even loves dogs that do not like her. The dog at the house I tutor at, does not like her, and will growl at her, and she just loves her. It is very funny. Anyway, we taught Sydney to say "ooohf, ooohf" when we ask her what a puppy says. She says it, without fail, every time, unless someone is watching, or we are video taping it. Typical I guess. So, she was very prepared to be a puppy, but of course, never said "oooh, ooohf" when she was actually wearing the costume. Even without the bark, she was an adorable puppy!

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins with Allie and Brett at our house. Sydney enjoyed touching the pumkins and exploring them. It was fun, but did take a long time. . . pictures follow of our night and our masterpieces.

Notice the Yankees pumpkin...we have one every year!

On Halloween, Matt got off early, and we visited his grandparents and Jonne at their house. They got to see Sydney walk a little bit, but she is pretty shy and doesn't perform tricks very willingly, which is why we don't have any video of the "oooh, ooohf." Then we went to my parents house, hung out a little, had Taco Soup, made cupcakes, took Sydney trick-or-treating, and took lots of pictures. We only took Sydney to one house, just to say she went trick-or-treating, and she picked out a couple of suckers. So she had her first sucker and loved it! It sure was a sticky, drippy, drooly mess! She enjoyed carrying it around, along with her bone, and actually loved wearing the puppy costume! It was a fun night!