Sweet tooth

Early last month (like, the second day of school), Z lost a tooth at school. His teachers discovered this because apparently one of them noticed something in their pocket that hadn't been there a moment earlier; Z had decided to bring his tooth to the faculty rather than keep it himself. At least it wasn't thrown away -- it came home in a cute little envelope (and within that, in a little tooth-shaped pouch on a string necklace). Yesterday, a second tooth fell out - alas, this one was not recovered. But the lost tooth was perfect timing for a gap-toothed Halloween smile for Z, who did reflect on the holiday in the daily journal sheet he brings home.Z had declared many months ago that he wanted to be the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz -- and he was super pleased with the excellent version mommy devised; my favorite part was the silver spray painted funnel oil can hat.

Meh kicked off the holiday in style, with excellently ghoulish green chocolate chip and eyeball pancakes (as well as orange jack-o-lantern ones) for the boys this morning. During the day, Z reportedly had fun at his class parade (as per the journal above); I managed to entertain coworkers and trick-or-treaters alike at work with my costume. And in the evening, it was time to take the boys out to trick or treat -- everything was indeed awesome, as proven out by our costumes.

For those who haven't been watching The Lego Movie on a loop, that would be Emmet, Wyldstyle, and then the boys as Tin Woodman and the Red Power Ranger. She'd already gone to bed at this point, but here's a picture of our cute little winged fairy L as well.

It only took 7 years, but both boys successfully traversed the entire neighborhood - and with daddy solo to boot, while mommy stayed home to pass out candy to the other neighborhood kids. I was so proud to be able to stop at the foot of the driveway and watch the boys scurry up to the houses. Sometimes they even remembered to say 'trick or treat', and once I may have even caught them saying 'thank you' afterwards (despite me prompting them nearly every time -- manners, people!). We returned home to count the candy hordes and have one piece before bedtime. Happy Halloween!

Band minus one

We really need to book family portraits at some point; alas, our favorite photographer has moved south to warmer climes. But in the short term, enough of the family was assembled on the couch today that I was able to grab the camera and get a few shots of everyone but myself -- again, with varying degrees of success with regard to blurriness, smiling, and/or looking at the camera. This is hard stuff!

Heavy lunch

No idea why this was the case, but today at lunch, a SWAT vehicle belonging to the county sheriff was parked out in front of the boys' burger joint of choice. Z and O were beside themselves and almost couldn't be bothered to actually go inside and eat. A sheriff did go from table to table and give them sheriff's badge stickers, so that was another bonus. We'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to sort out what exactly the sheriffs do for rescues that utilizes tactical armored vehicles -- but the boys certainly weren't complaining.

Halloween is just around the corner, and while Z is talking about it nearly constantly, O has been living it even moreso, existing in full try-on-your-costume-practically-every-day mode. Actually at one point he decided he wanted to change costumes, but tough, we already picked yours out kid -- you can make your own if you really think a late audible is the way to go. Anyway, this morning, he was in full dress up mode. First he cobbled together bits of his Jake and the Never Land Pirates props, plus his British soldier pajamas, and declared, "I look like a soldier pirate. But also a bit like a captain."

Then, and I do not exaggerate here, not five minutes later, he'd done a full outfit change to his official Halloween costume, to imposingly stalk around the house.

Granted, he still hasn't actually seen these Power Rangers in any form, but that doesn't stop him from loving this costume -- until of course he decides he really wants to be a Transformer (which he also hasn't seen).

Poetry reading

Z loves to write, spell, fill in the blanks, work with bananagram tiles, read, and come up with creative sentences. He loves doing the portions of his "table work" (homework) that involve words, interestingly strongly preferring them over math (though he does well with arithmetic as well). When there isn't school work to do, he will often fill pieces of paper with words or sentences. This has occasionally generated what I can only really describe as poetry; an excellent sampling from yesterday: "One night I dreamed above the moon. I see your favorite day because I love you. It was a busy day of writing."

This past week I took a trip to LA to speak at a few conferences (and while in town, I was also thankfully able to stop off and replenish our tea supply in addition to meetings and catching up with some friends). I returned home just in time to help greet friend M arriving from the east coast, who after many years of threatening to visit finally found the right combination of airfares and schedule -- yay! We've been having a lovely time; she's become an immediate favorite with all three of the kids, and it's been great to catch up with her and also show her some of the boys' favorite stomping grounds.

Faculty dining

Getting pictures of all three kids together had to this point remained an impossibility that scientists hyptothesize may be related to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. But somehow the stars aligned for this rare shot of all three of them, more or less in focus, more or less smiling, and (gasp) a few of them even looking at the camera. I'll claim victory where I can.

The pumpkins have been picked out for what Z reminds us is 'almost Halloween'; we did trips on two consecutive weekends to the same farm/pumpkin patch for corn maze running around, hay rides, picking apples, jumping on a huge trampoline, sliding down slides on burlap sacks, and yes, picking out pumpkins to carve.

I'm afraid to tempt fate, but somehow it's still warm enough to sit outside to eat dinner in October. So tonight the boys and I did just that. O was so pleased to be having a civilized al fresco meal outdoors that I'd prepared that he commented, "Thank you so much for the yummy dinner, daddy. You're the best in the whole wide university." Flattery will get you anywhere, as will picking up new words (seemingly out of nowhere) slightly incorrectly and using them adorably.