Happy All Hallow's Eve!

It's the bestest holiday ever! (Please don't take me to the carpet on Christmas. We've thrown Christmas completely out the window and turned it into the backbone of the American retail industry. But that's a whole other post. Or two posts.)

Little A and I will be going over to my mom's school later today to watch the parade of the costumed kindergarteners. I hope he finds it exciting. He has crossed the nine-month mark and now has been dwelling outside of the womb longer than he did inside. Alastair has discovered a new vocalization: "Da, da, da, da, da, da!" When he gets going with it, is it ever funny. His little face all squints up and his tongue thrusts out. Especially spectacular is when he communicates with the Baby in the Mirror. Those discussions can get quite heated.

Other Little A milestones that seemed to have all occurred in the past few weeks:
-Top tooth is fully emerged. He's also gotten pretty savvy with eating things like cheerios and puffs off of the table.
-Going from tummy to sitting up. Once he mastered that one, he just keep doing it all day.
-Shimmying across the floor, military-crawl-style.
-Some hands and knees crawling.
-Pre-cruising: moving his feet while standing and supporting himself on a piece of furniture.
-In the past few days he's become totally enamored of things up high like trees, flags, lights in the parking lot, and tries really hard to reach them.

The way his motor skills are developing, the cats days are numbered and it's a low number for sure.

In honor of the great spooky holiday which glorifies all things frightening, I present my top ten scary movies. These aren't necessarily the scariest or goriest, but darn it I like them and I consider myself somewhat of a fan/connoisseur of the genre. Hopefully it will inspire you to celebrate Halloween the way it is meant to be celebrated with a scary flick, a costume, and lots of sugary treats.

Amanda's Top Ten Flicks for Halloween (In no particular order because I am just too lazy to mess with rating the movies.)

10. Lost Boys- Dude, it's a Gen X classic!
9. 28 Days Later- Is not a zombie movie. But still scary as all get out.
8. Aliens- The Director's Cut is the version to catch. The scene where the humans are all trapped in the command center and watching the robotic guns blow through all the ammo as the aliens approach makes my chest tight.
7. Black Christmas- I'm not a slasher movie fan, but this one's awesome. Margot Kidder is a total hoot as a bitter, boozy sorority girl. The killer's prank calls will give you the willies.
6. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original)- Balls-to-the-walls scary. It's like Deliverance in the Ninth Circle of Hell.
5. The Ring- The Japanese created the story; American filmaking perfected it. This film contains some of the most disturbing images, all without a drop of gore.
4. The Evil Dead- Shot in this totally low budget format, which in my opinion, makes it all the more scary. Plus, I think Adrian would agree that Bruce Campbell is The Bomb.
3. The Shining- One of the few times a movie surpasses the original material and in this case, the movie is way creepier than the book. Old hotels continue to give me strong sense of dread and unease, thanks to Mr. Kubrick's fine work here.
2. Night of the Living Dead (original)- I still can't sit through this movie in its entirety. George Romero is freakin' awesome.
1. The Exorcist- Seriously twisted. I still can't believe that this movie was made at the time that it was. Most of the film's serious creepy stuff is accomplished by brilliant sound effects.

Omitted from this list are several great films, while not entirely horrortastic, do contain some seriously scary scenes like The Blair Witch Project, Alien, Event Horizon, Signs, Silence of the Lambs, The Grudge, Pyscho... Oh I could go on forever.

Have a great Halloween everyone!