The Lost Photos

Some of you may know that I've just heard back that the files on my old PC's hard drive, which apparently imploded about a month or so ago, was not recoverable. (I'm hanging on hope that a second company might prove them wrong.) I was extremely upset since being the moron non-backer-upper that I was every picture that I had ever taken of Baeleigh resided on that hard drive. Spare me the "Crissy, what were you thinking?" I wasn't, clearly. Every moment in Baeleigh's life, every trip we've ever taken, all my files from my master's work....gone. Since then, I've been trying to scrape together what few photo albums I have, skimming Snapfish.com and Facebook to find what I might have uploaded onto the web. (Turns out this blog has another perk to it...if I had only done it five years ago.) In digging through the few photos that I happened to have on Facebook, I hit the jackpot. A picture that I took of Baeleigh in the hospital. One of my most treasured pictures of the lot. You can bet I've backed this sucker up a few times in several places by now.

Any pictures that I might have sent you over the years that you may still have, please send'em my way. Meanwhile, I'll be furiously saving all files that my mom's saved over the years on her computer. I think Baeleigh's photos might require a safety deposit box...

Monkey Princess

In typical Crissy fashion, I managed to make it to Baeleigh's Halloween Parade at her daycare about five minutes before it started. I raced into the school to find her, sad face and all, already lined up with just a bag in hand to begin parading through the office park. As soon as I saw her, "MOMMY!" she shouted and pointed at me. I've never done a changing so fast in my life. She made it just in the nick of time to join her friends in line and roll out the door! Sheew!!

She had the trick-or-treating deal down this year. And, with one more under her wing, she turned into a pro at it, running from one door to the next to get more candy. She had a ball! And, as you can see, it was difficult for me to get her to stand still long enough to take a picture! "Mommy, I gotta trickortreat!". Ok, sorry.

It was hilarious to watch her in that monkey suit. She had this way of walking, sort of leaning forward with these big heavy feet. Hiney sticking out. The added padding around the middle of the suit didn't help in trying not to laugh as she walked. Other parents were commenting, "Look at monkey, isn't she funny? Too cute!" Of course, few of them recognize me as her mom. So, I feel a little like I'm eavesdropping, but I get the impression that she's the social butterfly with all of them. The few that do know who I am have told me that Baeleigh hands out hugs every day when they come to pick up their own child. Only Baeleigh.

Anyway, with the majority of the girls dresses as princesses, I was worried that making my daughter a monkey for Halloween wasn't very feminine. When she saw it at Old Navy, I thought, "How perfect!" I mean it's her nickname afterall. I asked her in the car, "Baeleigh, would you have rather been a princess or a monkey for Halloween?" "A princess, Mommy." I can't win. Maybe next year. But she's my Monkey Princess.

We finished up the night trick-or-treating in my parent's neighborhood. Sitting on my mom's lap, we went down a few of our neighbor's long driveways. Although she probably only went to about five or six houses, she made out like a little bandit. Mainly this is because not many trick-or-treaters come around anymore in this neighborhood, yet they still all have bowls of candy awaiting the masses. Baeleigh, in turn, gets the motherload since she's the only one showing up. My parent's house included. I've got enough candy to stuff ourselves until Christmas! Some will have to go to the office!