November 2

I can't believe it is already November and John is coming up on 6 months! That is half a year! He has his 6-month doctor's appointment with immunizations on the 17th, and he may actually get the flu shot then since he'll be old enough! Of course, I already got my flu shot (Kaiser gives them free), so he's getting antibodies from me, so I don't know if he'll actually be getting his own shot or not. Bill has a physical on Wednesday (because he's 40) and will get his flu shot then.

Last Tuesday was Moonlight Madness at the Kroger near my school- they are one of our Partners in Education and they have a bunch of different activities for kids to do. Since it is always the week of Halloween, kids get to dress up in their costumes. Taking advantage of any and every opportunity to show off Johnny Mac, we put him in his Monkey costume and went over. Everyone, people I know and strangers alike, commented on how cute JohnJohn is. We know he's cute, but it is nice to hear it from other people, too, because honestly, who wants a striking baby???

Friday, being Halloween and all, Bill and I put Johnny into his Monkey costume again so he could be dressed to answer the door. He enjoyed it at first but got cranky after awhile, so we changed him into his jammies and new Ghost Hat that our friend Jim got for him. Before that, though, while he was still a Monkey, I took him across the street to see Ann and Jack. Ann was thrilled to see him and hugged and kissed him, and again offered to babysit whenever we need her!

Saturday, Bill left us! But just for the day and overnight! Nana/Mom, who has season Carolina tickets, was going out of town, and James, who she usually takes to all the games, didn't have anyone to go with him to see Carolina whoop up on Tennessee (Carolyn didn't want to take him), so Bill left around 11:45 yesterday morning (the game was at 7). JohnJohn and I had a good time. We went shopping yesterday afternoon, and John, being the easy baby that he is, was wonderful. He really is so easy going and laid back, and we are truly fortunate. Bill will be home later today, and I plan on taking a nap- nobody told Johnny we were supposed to get an extra hour of sleep last night, so he never took his. Actually, I think he's taking his hour now, he is sleeping (after getting up at 6:30 and not wanting to go back to sleep).

In case you haven't noticed, we haven't decided yet what we're calling the little man, so I thought I'd try all the nicknames out here and see what everyone thinks. I usually call him JohnJohn or John, or Monkey, but he can't grow up being called Monkey. I don't mind Johnny but I taught a student who went by JohnJohn and our favorite NICU nurse called him JohnJohn from his first week of life, so that has kind of stuck. What do y'all think? (Not that we'll do what other people think, but I'd like to know....)

Today's pictures: Our little Monkey; John in his Halloween jammies with his Ghost Hat; JohnJohn Saturday morning- he pulled the lion mirror off the arm of the bouncy seat and was chewing on/licking it, and then he fell asleep like that- it was cute so of course I took pictures.