Saturday, November 22, 2008

What Kind of Dr. is This?!

Yesterday Dana went to the doctor for a ruptured ear drum. Upon her return, Beckett and she had the following conversation:

"Mommy, did you get a lollipop?"

"No, I just had to pee in a cup."

"They didn't have a bathroom?"

I still laugh just thinking about!

Friday, November 7, 2008

Defensive Driving

This morning, Beckett saw a car accident on the news.

He said, "Look at that bad car crash! Is it John McCain?"

"No, it's not John McCain," I answered.

"Oh. Is it because John McCain's a great driver?"

This made me laugh hysterically! I have no idea why Beckett though McCain was driving that car that crashed into two other cars. It seemed awfully metaphoric.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Election Day!

Wow, what a cool night! I have to say, I did not expect the race to be called at 10:30. I thought we were in for a long haul, especially since the networks were shaking in their boots to even say whether either candidate won a state, in fear of a 2000 repeat. It was really quite exciting to watch and actually feel good about the world in the morning! Dana got a bit teary-eyed. I stayed stoic; I don't cry happy tears, not even when my children were born. Don't know why.


I must say, I am very disappointed in the CA Prop. 8 vote (as it's the first time in U.S. history that a right has been taken away by majority vote), though expected, and that Noriega lost the Senate seat to that corrupt bigot, John Cornyn. (It was a close race here in TX) . I was excited to see Obama carried Dallas county by 61%. It made me feel like my vote didn't get lost in the red tsunami that is Texas. He also carried the counties where Houston, San Antonio, and Austin are, which means he carried all the major metropolitan areas.

Beckett's teacher held an election in class today. Apparently, he first voted for McCain. His teacher said she didn't question him, but was surprised given the Obama sticker on my car (his teacher's also an Obama supporter, and we often talk politics when I pick Beckett up). But, she said he then decided to change his vote to "Myrock" Obama. Obama won the 3yr old vote, 7-1! At home, when I'd ask Beckett who he liked, he'd say "John McCain. Wait, is he the blue one?" Then I'd say, "No, that's Obama." "Oh, I mean 'Myrock' Obama," he'd say. This went on most of the night. The next morning, when I told him Obama won, he looked so sad and said, "But my friend will be sad. He likes John McCain." Beckett is blessed with a level of empathy about this I do not possess. I responded, "Well, Mama and Mommy have been sad for 8 years. He'll get used to it."

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Boo!

Happy Halloween!!

This was our best Halloween, yet. The first Halloween that we took Beckett trick-or-treating, I spent the entire day sewing his costume with him sitting on my lap and feeling horribly nauseous with a throbbing migraine. (I was pregnant with Kyler.) I finished the costume about 15 minutes before nightfall. Then we proceeded to walk the neighborhood in freezing temperatures. I had to explain to several suspicious candy-givers that when I rang their doorbell with pumpkin in hand that, yes, I did have a child with me, only he was too cold and tired to climb the 24 steps to their house to ring their doorbell. The next year, Kyler was the cutest little ear-infected pea pod. Again, it was freezing. Kyler was so bundled in his stroller no one got to see how cute he was. Since we lived in an apartment, we decided to walk to a nearby neighborhood. It seemed like a good idea, but the walk was about 20 minutes each way and uphill (each way). Oh, and, it was freezing. This year, no one was sick and it was 70 degrees!! Though, I was still sewing Beckett's costume the morning of Halloween. Oh well. One of these years I'll be prepared!



Beckett was upset Kyler wasn't going as an ant. He had a bug theme in mind, I guess. But, we had the scarecrow costume leftover from Beckett. I tried to tell him it was scarecrow's job to keep the ladybugs out of the garden, but he didn't buy it. I guess he's informed that ladybugs are actually beneficial to agriculture. Interestingly, the scarecrow got tons more compliments this time around. We were told by several houses it was the best scarecrow costume of the night. Maybe folks in Wisconsin are just too used to seeing real scarecrows to be impressed with my costume-making skills!


Ladybug, Ladybug fly away home! My mom says I've ruined the nursery rhyme since I informed her that male "ladybugs" have spots and the female ones don't. This is absolutely true and was my best attempt to masculinize Beckett's costume in the eyes of my mom. (Dana and I, of course, did not care. He begged to be a ladybug). My mom's response, "Then how do you know how many children the ladybug has?" Seriously?

The kids had SO MUCH FUN trick-or-treating. Beckett raced to each door while Kyler trekked behind, carrying his pumpkin all by himself. After EVERY house, Beckett would exclaim, "They gave me MORE candy!" with utter astonishment. At one house, there was an odd lady whom I overheard tell the mom in front of us, "No candy for babies" as she reached into the toddler's bag and actually took the candy back. Then she shooed away the mom. I was shocked! The baby looked just slightly younger than Kyler. When it was our turn, the woman asked how old Kyler was. I exaggerated and said he's almost 2 hoping she'd let him have the candy. He did afterall walk up the walkway carrying his pumpkin all by himself. How can you deny a kid candy?! And just because you "own" the candy, is it really right to discriminate who can receive it? Kyler came home with a full pumpkin of candy, but it's not like we're allowing him to eat it all (the same goes for Beckett). But, even if we were, it's really no business to the person who gave us the candy freely. That woman really irritated me. If I hadn't been in such a darn good mood and had the boys there as witnesses, I probalby would have given her a piece of my mind. Or, maybe I wouldn't have. I did warn the families behind us, though. I felt a little better after that. Oh, and Kyler did get the candy!

Since we live in the neighborhood where my mom grew up, we trick-or-treated at her old house. The current owner let us come inside for a quick tour. It was very cool! It seemed so much smaller than I remember (my mom said the same thing). They had done some odd things to the kitchen, like turned the breakfast nook into a home office with built in cabinets, so there was no kitchen table. But the rest of the kitchen looked identical. It still had the tile floor my grandma had installed in the '80s, and the backsplash, counters, and cabinets were original from 1959 (except the cabinets had been painted white). My mom and I hadn't been in that house since '87 when my grandpa died. I'm really glad we got to see it again. Now, I'm on a mission to tour all my old houses. There were a lot of them. I wonder how the current owners would take that?

As upset as the mean candy lady made me, my good mood was preserved by the Obama pumpkins in the neighborhood. We have some talented and political neighbors. I would have never thought to carve Obama's face or "O" symbol onto a pumpkin (nor do I possess the skills), but I'm sure glad people did. In hindsight, we should have carved a big "W" on our pumpkin instead of a toothy smily face. But, that might have been too scary!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Mad Memory Skills

One of Beckett's favorite pasttimes of late is flipping through the many, many toy catalogs we get in the mail this time of year. Each page has at least one really, really cool toy that he really, really wants for Christmas. And, isn't Christmas in the morning, yet?

This morning he was looking at a Fisher Price catalog, ooing and aahing at all the cars, trucks, and trains he wants to add to his Christmas list (oh, yeah. he's keeping a list). Then I hear him say to Kyler, "Only from Fisher Price. Play, Laugh, Learn.", in near-perfect pitch. Should I be concerned he's watching too much TV?