I'm walking in a spiderweb...

Happy Halloween! Since the British don't so much do Halloween, today was pretty low-key. Jack dressed up as a baby spider, and I was his spiderweb. I told Jack all about Halloween in America, but it was obviously a bit hard to demonstrate. We had to settle for trick or treating around Ben's office after bringing him dinner. Then we visited our friends on the third floor, Judith, Sophia, and Jon. Phia just returned from over two months in Rome, learning Italian and working for her British law firm, and I had hardly seen Judith, Phia's mom, or Jon, Phia's boyfriend during that whole time either. Honestly, they just collect fascinating people--they always have someone interesting around, and tonight was no exception. Their former neighbor Simon, a caricature of a British partner in a law firm, arrived shortly after Jack and I did. They all of course, loved Jack's costume and oohed and aahed over how happy and well-behaved he was.

We started the day with Stacy and Kaia coming over for an American breakfast. While we were chatting yesterday, Stacy let it slip that she had never tried Lucky Charms. Since we currently have a bevy of American cereals from Skyco.co.uk (an American food importer), I insisted she come over and try a breakfast with a noticeably higher sugar, preservative, and additive content than Wheetabix. When confronted with Froot Loops, Froot Loops with marshmallows (which are too much, even for me), Apple Jacks, and Lucky Charms, Stacy took the prudently cautious choice of Apple Jacks. Must start slowly when you're going from chunks of unflavored shredded wheat to thoroughly processed sugar cubes, after all.

We spent 2 hours this afternoon at the NHS well baby clinic waiting to see a health visitor, who's sort of like a pediatric nurse who specializes in child development. When I brought up Jack's eating and sleeping problems, she realized we needed to have a much longer conversation than she had time for, so she made an appointment to come by our flat tomorrow at noon. Yes, you may have to wait in a long queue for health care here, but the service factor can't be beat in some respects. I mean, seriously, house calls? Didn't those go out in the US around 1950?

Jack's daytime naps were amazing today. He slept for an hour and a half this morning and an hour and a half this afternoon. Yesterday evening I discovered that I could unscrew the self-closing chain on our doors so that they close slowly and quietly now, a fact that might really help Jack's sleeping. I hope.