First Halloween

Halloween has come and gone now, and it is November 1st around 6:00 AM. This is only important because Liam got an uninterrupted 11 hours of sleep last night, which counteracts the 4.5 hours of sleep I'm currently working with.

All weekend has been pretty great thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Torreano (my parents), who came all the way from Marquette, MI (about 8 hours) to see Liam for the first time in six weeks. That's about 20 years in baby time, so imagine their shock and amazement to see him smiling, laughing, and making eye contact. The last time they saw him he was a blob of humanity that vaguely acted like he cared we were around, but otherwise liked to eat and sleep. Reflecting on that last sentence for a moment, that description probably fits a lot of adults in our lives as well, but I digress.

Thursday was full of milestones, the first of which was me picking up Liam from daycare for the first time. I usually drop him off, so seeing the room full of babies with busy caretakers scurrying about was very interesting. I took him to our house to see my parents, who happily babysat for the next few hours while I went back to my job.

We got home and my dad SWORE that Liam was grabbing items and pulling them to his mouth. Since this would have been an enormous 3-month milestone that we were not around to see, we treated his statement in the best condescending "Sure, Grandpa." way we could muster. Imagine our shame when within the next day he proved that yes, indeed, Grandpa was witness to Liam's realization that those hands have an even better purpose than sucking on.

Grandma was diagnosed with alzheimer's disease in 2006, and thus the time she spends with Liam has a lot of meaning for all of us. She was having a really good weekend with both her memory and communication skills, and Liam was very generous with the smiles and laughs, resulting in plenty of heart-warming moments between the two. On Halloween proper she had him in hysterics, and that's easily going to be one of my favorite memories of his childhood.

Liam has had his fussy moments as well (we're almost positive he's having acid reflux issues) but Grandma and Grandpa took it better than us, especially Grandpa. You can tell that Liam has a special bond with him (I think it's his huge Cheech-style mustache) and it was really neat seeing the two of them interact. While Grandma had one particularly memorable moment making him laugh, Grandpa had an entire weekend of getting Liam to belly laugh uproariously.

As for the actual holiday, we managed to get some pics of Liam in his outfit, but he really didn't care too much about the carved pumpkin or the trick or treaters beyond catching his interest momentarily. We loved every second of it (Halloween to us is like Christmas to most people) but Liam's got to grow into the holiday. With me as his dad, he'll learn.

So now I sit, 6:30 in the morning, with a fussy baby demanding my attention. I'd love to explain to him that Grandma and Grandpa babysat him last night while mom and dad stayed out late at a costume party, but I think his sympathies are limited on non-Liam events. Oh well. Still the best Halloween ever.

--Brad