Happy Halloween

Apparently her super-power is the power of cute.

Mail call

Kaylee received a card in the mail with a "cute pickchur" and a "dollar beel" from GG. (Who apparently looks like George Washington, because Kaylee declared it was GG's picture on the money.)

Needless to say, she's mostly interested in the pickchur.

Crazy day

It's CRAZY hair day at school. So we just did pretty much what we do
every morning.

At least it's out of her eyes.

From the Desert Museum

Kaylee prefers her dogs cornless.

HUG TIME!

I couldn't get a reading photo where one of the girls didn't have her
eyes closed or her mouth slack-jawed.

So we'll settle for the big finish.

A long update

Not so much long in what I have to say as it is long in the number of times you'll need to scroll down to view all the photos of my monkey. (Not to be confused with HER monkey - which is stuffed and also pictured.)

For some reason she decided she wanted to do her hair at the dinner table. It started with taking out her pony tail.

Then she wanted to put her pony tail back in.

So, of course, she needs a comb.

And if you're going to style your hair, it has to be wet.

So you use your drinking glass.

Then she had to style the monkey's hair too.

Now picture all of this with her saying things like "I cute?" and "Kaylee do pony tail" and "I brush Monkey George."

Now you can see why I had such a hard time editing down the photos.

Kaylee folds Mom's underpants

Underpants edited out for the comfort of those viewing at home.

(And because Rae made me.)

Pumpkin update

We're feeling a little oranger.

Gotta say, the weather is a little warm for this activity. Just seems a little wrong. Like trying to swim in a blizzard.

Just for fun

I picked up a new app for the phone today. It allows me to make my crappy iPhone camera look like a variety of old cameras.

So yeah, I spent all this money on a smart phone, plus the monthly plan, plus the cost of the app all to take crappy old looking photos.

But isn't it neat?!

Smile.

You've got ballons.

Now, spin.

Picky eater

I'm not sure when it happened.

She used to eat so well whatever we put in front of her.

But lately she's been eating less like Racheal and more like Roberta. (For the Rices out there - that's to say she's got a rather limited palate.)

I'm not asking for much. I just really wish we could get her to eat more than cheese, goldfish and yogurt.

Hug Time

Between this and "Art," we love our Patrick McDonnell books.

Why?

Why must

child bang on

floor with metal

rod when

Dad has a

splitting

headache?

Go to bed already ...

Tonight I'm going to do something a little different.

I'm going to destroy a piece of your childhood.

On the surface, Goodnight Moon is an innocent bedtime story. I'm sure you know it. It's been around for more than 60 years. So the chances are good that it was read to you as a child, you read it to your children, or maybe both.

"In the great green room

There was a telephone

And a red balloon

And a picture of —"

And so begins our tale. Seems simple enough.

There's a cute little bunny child laying in bed – and he (or she) takes a count of everything in the room and then proceeds to tell everything goodnight.

Sweet, huh?

Except it isn't. It's a story about the pains of putting a small child to bed. It's all right there on the page if you're willing to read between the lines a little bit.

See, the baby bunny starts off our tale tucked into bed. The next time we see him? Still wide awake – despite the "old lady whispering hush." The next time? Standing on the bed looking at a painting. And again a few pages later – sitting on the covers, arms crossed in defiance. And still again – this time rolling around and kicking his legs. Finally – after more urging from the old lady – the child is back in the bed, bleary-eyed but still awake.

But Mike, I can hear you saying, you're obviously reading way too much into this beloved bedtime tale.

Really?

Have you looked at the clocks? That's right. There are clocks in the background of the illustrations. And what do the clocks tell us?

Well, it's 7 pm (I'm assuming it's PM – the title of the book has "night" in it after all) when baby bunny is first seen in bed. And then 7:20 by the time he's done looking around the room. And we still have to fidget around the bed and play the "say good-night to everything" to avoid going to sleep game.

It's 8 pm when the old lady has finally had enough and tells the brat to lay down already. At 8:10 the kid has finally passed out – but the old lady has already given up and is probably on her way to the pantry to fix herself a stiff drink.

That's more than an hour of fighting this child before they finally pass out from exhaustion. Does this still sound like a cute little bedtime story to you?

Now take into account that if your child loves this book (and kids love this book – at least mine does) you have to read this story EVERY night. Which means you have to relive this old lady's anguish over and over and over again. That's right, the author knows the pain you go through every night and she is mocking you.

I don't know about you, but I think that Margaret Wise Brown was one sick lady.

OK, yeah.

Apparently she CAN get cuter.

Seriously ...

Is she going to get cuter?
I don't know if I could take it.

Golf pro

First of all, let me tell you how great it is to be able to update the blog from my phone. (Even if the formatting is off and I have to fix the text wrap later from a browser.) Now I can do quick updates from wherever I want. Usually with pictures.

Spent the afternoon mini golfing (Kaylee's first time duffing) with Mel and Kaylee's favorite person, Johnny.

There was a little putting, a little kicking, a little throwing - but the favorite way to get the ball down the green seemed to be just picking it up and running with it.

And it seemed to work. Kaylee was the only one of us who finished under par.

And again

I'm not sure who the second child is, or why Rae is kicking the baby.

Also didn't realize until JUST now how disturbing chalk outlines of the entire family could be. It looks like a happy crime scene.

And more

The mural keeps growing. Too bad it's supposed to rain today.

Email update

Coming to you live from the very edge of my wifi coverage (the driveway). We decided to break out the Manman sidewalk chalk - only about three months late.