The Latest . . . been gone too long!

Hello my friends and family! I've been gone, once again, way too long. I know it'll take everyone a couple of days to catch up to the fact that I'm blogging again. I just love keeping everyone on their toes, hee hee.

So, first things first. Today is Kurt's birthday. Zachary and I talked about Uncle Kurt today. Uncle Kurt likes to dive for Indian artifacts in a couple of rivers in Florida, so I told Zachary about the Indians and how they liked to paint their faces for important occasions such as this.

"Did the Indians paint their faces like this, Mommy?"

I suggested to Zachary that we make Uncle Kurt a card (we already wished him Happy Birthday via cell phone). Zachary had an alternative suggestion . . .

He thought a human card was a better choice. He knows his uncle is slightly quirky and might appreciate a human card more than a handmade one. I agreed.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Kurt!!!

Now for the update. Zachary's sleeping issue has resolved itself. He now happily sleeps in his big boy bed! We still haven't moved the crib out of his room despite the fact that he hasn't slept in it for over a month. Ah, well . . . inertia.

Preschool is an entirely different ballgame now as well. I now drop him off and leave him with nary a whimper. He actually enjoys school now, it's amazing watching him walk in with a huge smile on his face. He does, however, have some behavioral issues and a slight delay in his speech development. Ryan and I are looking into different options right now, one is changing schools. That saddens me greatly, I like things the way they are now. However, we will do what we feel is best for Zachary.

My hafla, the bellydance gig that I personally hosted (along with my troupe) was a huge success. It made over $1,000 for the theatre (double our goal) and I got a little safety net for future ventures. Our "Bellydance Superstar" was wonderful. She gave a great workshop and an even better performance, plus she was very pleasant and down to earth. Here I am backstage with Tamra-henna, Bellydance Superstar.

After the hafla it's been a whirlwind of activities. Ryan and I went to Annapolis for our annual trek to the U.S. Sailboat show. We've been the last 8 years (I think). Zachary stayed home with my Mom (who spoiled him beyond recognition). Ryan and I partied with our friends, decided we were going to buy a new boat, sobered up and decided we really prefer the one we've got. I shopped 'till I dropped, another annual tradition!

I have made one of three trips to Miami for more Pilates training. This time it's on the Reformer, an apparatus that takes the matwork into multiplanar movement. It's WAY cool and so much fun to work on. I actually sweet talked Ryan into buying me one (my early Christmas present) so I can start working on it. I'll start seeing clients on it by Christmas. Woo hoo! Santa came early this year! I will go again next weekend then again for the last time the weekend after Thanksgiving. I invited Michele to go with me for the last weekend because I'll only have classes for 2 days the last weekend and those classes will be a review of postural analysis and the exercises, so I can have more fun and not just study. Not that I haven't had fun already!! The group of ladies in the class are just wonderful and very cool. Miami is such a hip place. But I digress! Michele has agreed to go, telling me via voicemail that I was the only person on earth who would invite her to come to Miami with me to hang out while I was in class. The converse is true also, she's the only person on earth I know who could drop everything and fly to Miami to hang out with me. For those of you who don't know, Michele has 3 1/2 year old triplets and a 2 year old, so she won't have any problem just hanging out for the 5 hours a day I'm in class (she plans to catch up on 4 years of sleep deprivation, I believe). It's going to be such a blast!!!

Halloween was another big event around here. Ryan, Zachary, and I all carefully shopped for the perfect Halloween costume for Z. He decided he wanted to be a skeleton. So we found him the cutest little skeleton outfit. Imagine my anxiety as we approached Halloween and Zachary suddenly became very particular about what he was wearing. So for Zachary's Halloween party at preschool (the day before Halloween, mercifully) he wouldn't wear the skeleton outfit. He elected, instead, to wear his Elmo costume from last year. Okay. No problem. He did the same thing on Halloween. Geez, kid, what about this very cool skeleton outfit? Where did he get such strong opinions about his clothing? Hmm.

On Halloween I let him try some candy. He was like a crack baby . . . candy candy candy!

He was so into it this year. After we would "trick-or-treat" at a house he would turn to me and say, "let's go to a different one now!" It was so sweet. He really didn't care about the candy (not too much) he just liked going to different houses. He much preferred the candy Mommy had at home. Here he is with his best "trick or treat" grin:

And finally, last night I had my highest paying (to date) professional gig. It was for six of us. We did several of our dances from the hafla and Jamie and I did a dance with fire fingers. It went so well. I have been terrified during rehearsals that I was going to set myself on fire and be permanently disfigured, but fortunately that did not happen. There were around 700 people at the party (many of my neighbors, quite interesting) and we were quite the hit. I should have some pics to post early next week. Only Jamie and I had danced for pay before, the others made their pro debut. I was quite proud of my little troupe!