It's beginning to look a lot like...

Halloween. 

And May is very very excited to be a Snow Queen for Halloween. I'm going to be making her dress tonight. Pictures to come, I promise.

However, about five different people have asked for Christmas information, so here's a quick update on May's sizes, preferences, and whatnot.

She wears a 3T or a 4T -- go larger if it's a dress or anything where the length of her torso is important. Like her daddy, May has a lot of her height in her torso. She wears a 3T in jeans. (Unless you're at Children's Place, in which case she's 4T.)

In European sizes, like Hanna Andersson, she wears a 100 cm. 

Her shoe size is currently about a 9 1/2 or 10, so 10 should fit fine for a while.

Her favorite color is blue, which is good because it looks so good with her eyes. She likes warm clothes because she goes outside a lot at school. (Lined jeans, sweaters, that sort of thing.)

As for toys -- May loves to build and create. Even her preschool teacher has commented on it. Pretend play is fun and all but really what she loves best is all things to do with building. For example:

• Blocks. Especially wooden ones
• Modeling beeswax in different colors or other art supplies
• Construction vehicles! She LOVES trucks and whatnot and especially likes Plan toys
• Sadly, despite my best efforts, May has developed a taste for making music and I'm afraid she really really wants some musical instruments. Sigh. Anyway, Melissa and Doug make a lovely (if wincingly loud) set. I won't link to them, though, out of stubborness.
• Puzzels are always welcome. Melissa and Doug, again, make some really nice ones.
• And, of course, books, books, books. Especially books about building! (If I never have to read a book about trucks again... If you buy her a dino book, maybe she'll fall in love with dinosaurs. I really like dinosaurs...)
• May has been really interested in quilting with Mommy and there are some nice kids' kits out there. She really WANTS to quilt but I don't know that she'll be able to do any, really. Still, if you're interested (and mommy would love it!) you could get her a kit.

As always, I refer you to the APA's guidelines on what toys are good for kids. Things to avoid: licsened characters, plastic, anything with batteries, anything that can only be one thing. 

And now for some photos:

First - Apple-picking!

Then, Here's May at the Honk! Festival.

Here's May at the Children's Museum high-up in the climber there.

May May Day 1K

On Friday, we celebrated May's 1,000th day upon the earth.

We had over for dinner some friends who have been a big part of May's life. Her godparents -- Steve flew in for the occasion -- and David and Jen and Denis and Mary.

Jen took many many pictures as well as some video. I'm including just one snippet of video right now. More will follow:

May's very first sick day

So, three weeks into preschool, May has a cold that's sufficiently nasty that I called her in sick to her fifth day of school ever. If she isn't drastically better by tomorrow, she may be getting called in again!

She loves school, though, and is a little upset at missing it.

Her only complain is that the students don't get to see the animals every day. And I can't take her after class. If I do, I've discovered, I wind up sitting in traffic on Route 2 and the 15-minute ride home becomes an 90-minute ride home. And then she gets pizza for dinner, which is not very good.

Other than that, things are fine up here. Uncle Steve is coming to visit this weekend, which is good because it's been almost a year since May's seen her Godfather. Our autumn is filling up fast, as it does every year, with parties and outings. We think she'll really enjoy the apple picking this year.

Auntie Jen has finally moved into her new house and has had time, again, to take up the duties of Ferry Family Photographer (I'm going to have a t-shirt made or something), so please enjoy these lovely photos of May in Auntie Jen's new house!