halloween sneak peek

Last night my mom came over for a fitting of the boys' pirate costumes (she made them herself). The boys were so excited at the chance to hold their swords that they got a little carried away and were happy to ham it up for the camera (which, believe it or not, rarely happens).

Don't worry, ye'll be feelin' the point
of me blade before too long!

Shiver me timbers!

Arr, who goes thar?

Ahoy, mateys! Who is this handsome
devil? It's the Dread Pirate Max!

Swashbucklin'

That scurvy dog Liam got me!

In fighting form again

Yo-ho-ho! We'll make Loni walk the plank!

did someone say push?

space number one

back to it

Despite working too many long hours this weekend, we still managed to have a pretty good time. On Saturday, Max and I took a break from the work to go watch cousins Cole and Brady win their last football game of the season in convincing fashion. Liam would have gone with us, but he was busy throwing a giant temper tantrum, so he stayed home and napped instead.

Sunday, I took another break from the becuter so Mike and I could carve pumpkins with the boys. It was kind of exciting for all of us. We sat around the table and dreamed up what we wanted our jack o' lanterns to look like, then drew their faces on paper and transferred them to the pumpkins. Then the fun began. Liam was totally willing to dig into his pumpkin and remove the innards. Max tried it tentatively, but proclaimed it "yucky" and "sticky" and decided he waned nothing more to do with it. Liam did pretty well with the carving, too, but after his pumpkin was done, he lost interest. The boys went off to play with their toys, but Mike stayed behind to carve his own masterpiece.

The other big news around here is Legos. Mike has a ton of Legos from when he was a boy, and we've saved them in a box in the basement all this time, just waiting for Liam to be old enough to play with them. On Friday, Mike brought up the box and they put together some spaceships. Liam has taken to the Legos like crazy. He loves making new things. Max likes them too, but mostly for their ability to scatter all over the floor, causing pain to anyone who walks in the area.

Max has something to celebrate, too: potty training! He's just getting started, and for right now, I'm just taking him first thing in the morning, but he's used the toilet every morning this week. We're very proud of him, and he's very proud of himself. He gets a sticker on his calendar every time he goes, and this morning, he earned enough stickers (5) to pick out a prize (a new jet).

watch this space

I've got a very big deadline early next week, so no blog posts until then (unless Mike decides that he wants to step up to the posting plate). Since we last talked, we celebrated Mike's birthday with dueling cakes, an electronic pepper mill, and a really nice visit to Chicagoland. Max has moved from the "little kids" room at daycare to the "big kids" room, and is really doing well. (Today, their teacher told Mike that Max is very smart, just like his big brother, and that we must be doing something right, which is really nice to hear.) The boys are gearing up for Halloween and can't wait to be pirates. They're practicing their pirate-speak every day. Saturday night, Mike and I had the rare opportunity to go out sans children. So, sorry for the blog interruption, but next week's posts will hopefully be good enough to make up for it.

return of the [redacted] chipmunk!

Liam shows off his chipmunk-hunting prowess.

The boys and I were upstairs putting away laundry. We started in Max's room, put all his laundry away and made his bed with fresh sheets. So far, so good. Then I noticed that the vacuum cleaner was still out. I say "still" because Mike got it out over the weekend, intending to vacuum the boys' rooms and the stairs. I was feeling ambitious, so I enlisted the boys to help me move chairs and stuffed animals around so I could vacuum. Looking back, I can see that that's where we went wrong.

Not to be outdone, Max shows us what a tough guy he is too.

We were innocently going along, vacuuming toward Max's rocking chair, when a [redacted] chipmunk ran across the floor! It hid under Max's dresser, but then I kicked the dresser and the little [redacted] popped out, only to run and hide beneath Max's (freshly made) bed. [Redacted!] I looked around for something to trap it with, and came up with two options: a small pink grocery basket, and a slightly larger white wicker basket with a fabric lining. I chose the wicker basket.

Thus began the Great Chipmunk Chase of 2008. For 45 minutes (literally!) the boys and I chased that [redacted] critter around the room, leaving chaos in our wake. We pulled up the mattress and box spring and used them to block the doorway so it couldn't leave the room. We moved the dresser out, built book blockades around the bookcase, and generally ran around like some (even more) madcap version of the Three Stooges. Every time I turned around to pounce on the thing, one of the boys would suddenly be twisted around my ankles. Finally, the [redacted] thing stopped to catch its breath, so I waited at one end of the bed and had Liam kick the other end of the bedframe. Aha! I caught it! We were so excited. But then I tried to take off the liner and turn it inside out to have the chipmunk truly, well, in the bag. And it jumped out (but not before crapping all over the box).

By this point, we had somehow moved the box spring, so there was a gap in the doorway. And though we searched high and low, we couldn't find it. Great! It managed to get out of the room. So we took a flashlight and started looking under the furniture in Liam's room. I thought we would find it under his bed, but no. We did, however, manage to find a couple of other useless critters under there:

Dora

Greta

Eventually, I gave up. I was totally creeped out by the thought of the boys sleeping up there with a wild chipmunk running around, so I went back to Max's closet to get their sleeping bags to have them camp out downstairs...and the [redacted] [redacted] chipmunk raced out at me! I chased the damned thing down the stairs, boys in hot pursuit, through the dining room, through the kitchen, and finally I cornered it under the dresser in the bathroom. I had the boys searching frantically for a box in which to trap it, and finally I got a bright idea and had Liam get the cake carrier. Then we began a delicate operation. I held the top dome, while Liam thrust the bottom tray under the dresser to get the chipmunk to come out. Success, again! And this time I wasn't going to lose it, so I used a lifeline and phoned my dad. On his advice, we shoved a cookie sheet under the dome, then turned it over and pulled a quick switcheroo with the cake carrier tray. Then I took the whole mess out to the porch and weighted it down with a potted plant just to be on the safe side. Mike will have a nice surprise when he gets home, and I can sense a new cookie sheet and cake carrier in my future.

Yuck!

Oh, and might I add that Liam knows a few redacted words of his own? To be fair, I called the chipmunk a bastard during the heat of the chase ("Come here, you little bastard!"). "Mama, he's a bastard!" Liam repeated. He then added, "You know what, Mama? He's a frickin' douchebag." I definitely DID NOT say that, though young Liam had a point.