Happy Halloween!  For his first Halloween, Toby went shopping for a pumpkin with Grandpa Royer and Uncle Jacob.  His good vibes helped me pick him the coolest pumpkin, and after he went to bed we got to carving.  I think it turned out nicely.

We're flying to Dallas on the 31st, and Toby will be wearing his elephant costume.  Okay, it's just a hat, but it's cool!  Thanks, Aunt Becky.

To finish off the seasonal enjoyments, Daddy took Tobers out in the yard to watch the leaves fall.  He COULD have watched Daddy hang diapers on the line, but leaves are way cooler.  He happily gazed at them for a long time... I caught the action through the kitchen window and had to join in.

In general 4.5-month-old news, our little fellow is doing lots of new things.  He went through a phase of only wanting to nap in arms.  This was really cute for about two days.  Thankfully, he's worked through it and moved on to fussing royally BEFORE falling asleep, but then consenting to be put down.  He's still eating enthusiastically, and has started taking breaks to look around or chat (still mostly vowels, with the occasional 'g' or coughing sound).  After he's done eating we sometimes get a long soliloquy.  I just nod and ask a few leading questions.  With all that eating, he's getting a lot longer (and maybe a little less chubby?).

Nice development: less spitting up.  Less nice: more drooling.  A LOT more.  And chomping.  But other than that, no sign of teeth as far as we can tell.  (Note intact double chin)

He still sneezes quite a bit - as he has since birth - but now after a really big one he says "aooooeeow!"  I think this means something like, "wowza!" or perhaps "bless me!"  He's smiling a lot more, and even laughing, but one of the funniest things is the open-mouth-smile.  It looks like he's surprised. 

I'm now convinced he's right-handed; he will sometimes roll halfway over to the left to grab a toy with his right hand.  On the playing front, he's getting better at sitting up and enjoying manipulating his toys, including his favorite book, Fuzzy Bee and Friends.  It has a crinkly first page, and is one of the only ones he's allowed to chew on. 

In other video delights, here are two new fun bath games: getting a shower and zerberts.  We were trying to get him to exhibit his new, full-blown laugh (I heard it first today), but he refused.  Getting tossed in the air, hearing silly noises, or diaper change capers can elicit it.  Maybe in the next post...

He's also recently enjoyed his new baby-safe mirror - thanks, Grammie!  I can almost hear him asking who that handsome, albeit noisy, baby could possibly be.

We look forward to telling you about our first big trip in the next blog post... for now, I'll leave you with fresh evidence of Hoosier brainwashing.  I'm sure this will be treated at some point in the future with a dose of Pittsburgh Penguin Onesie.