Anyone know a good baby-manicurist?

For the first 6 weeks of Ava's life I couldn't bring myself to clip her fingernails. I was terrified I would cut off the end of her fingers, effectively ending her future as a famous fingerpaintress. Or at the very least, make us both cry really hard. But I've gotten progressively braver, and can now clip all ten in record time. I was pretty proud of myself until yesterday when all I apparently succeeded in doing was turning her nails into little weapons. She now has a nasty self-inflicted cut above her eye. If the next picture you see is her wearing an eye patch you'll know why.

It's Ava's first Halloween! Her Grandma Sally bought her this adorable tiger costume, and we actually managed to get a picture of her flashing a little smile in it! I may be biased, but I think she looks pretty darn cute.

There was another first in the Lundstrom household yesterday. Drum roll please.....we left Ava with a babysitter for the very first time! Ok, so maybe the drum roll was a bit much, but it felt like a pretty big deal to us. Andy and I had tickets for Wicked (fabulous, by the way) and were really lucky that the couple that went with us has a terrific babysitter that agreed to watch all 3 girls. Terrific, and very patient. She didn't seem to mind at all that I made Kristi text her half a dozen times to check in. Hey, I may be annoying but I'm a great tipper.

Happy Halloween!