chillin' in the big bed

the boy loves his big-boy bed.

he's not too big for spider-man jammies, though.

some post-groundhog day bliss

look what my little rascal made at school.

it's a groundhog on a popcicle stick that pops up from inside the plastic cup.

hand-painted, of course.

super cute.

he doesn't have a christmas shirt so he wore this

yep, it's his halloween shirt. and a stocking cap.

he hates wearing a coat and it's turned into quite a struggle. the big winter coat, which is necessary now that the weather has gone cold and sleety, just does not suit him at all for playground time.

i even took him to the store and he picked out a new coat last year that he said he loved and promised to wear, but once again, my coat-phobic child is resisting.

luckily his teachers are making sure he bundles up whether he likes it or not.

i'm finally ok with the bouncy party.

a while back i mentioned how unready I felt to take the boy to the requisite birthday bouncy parties.

those of you who are moms know what i'm talking about. they're held at places like pump it up and bounce u. the kids bounce like crazy, eat cake and then collapse from exhaustion and sugar overload. i was pretty sure this could lead to no good.

i declined most of the invitations until recently. the boy was invited to a bouncy party and he was keen to go. he looked at the invitation every day on the way to school and back for two straight weeks.

in short, he was very, very excited about it. so, we went.

to date, we've been to a grand total of two of them, and you know what? they're not so bad.

the boy played well. there were no tears. no blood. no vomiting.

no heads knocked together. no eyes poked. no pinched fingers.

in fact, not only did the boy have fun, but i did too. either he's growing up or i'm getting more comfortable with this whole mothering thing.

maybe both.

he dressed himself

not much more i can say. orange and black halloween shirt, green shiny shorts, blue monkey socks ... i think it's called "toddler chic."

it's halloween eve day

and the boy has a new shirt from target.

not pictured: his sparkly orange jack-o-lantern socks.

happy day before halloween, y'all!

and then there was this guy in the elevator.

it's going to be a weird day at the office.

luckily i'm leaving at noon to fly to sunny naples, florida, to see my sis for the weekend.

the boy and hubz are planning a fantastic weekend together.

i'm sure my little guy will stay up too late and eat more candy than he should, but that's the fun of having daddy-and-me time.

have a great one, everybody and be safe!

no place like home

i adored the city, no question about it. but i've got the best reason ever for coming back. this little guy has stolen my heart away. for permanent. home again, home again. in my baby's arms.

big boy haircut

yes, i realize the quality of this photo is ridiculously bad. but this is the best i could do this morning. the point is, the boy got a "big boy" haircut and i almost can't keep myself from crying when i look at him. it's very short and spikes up on the top. he's always been a big boy but he really looks like one now. *sniff, sniff*

PS look at those pointy ears. how did i not know my little boy has elf ears? precious!

another party

the boy's dear friend ryan celebrated his fourth birthday on saturday. it was a sports theme, which all the kids loved. the cookies and cupcakes were divine.

it's official: the new car is trashed

to be honest, the clean car thing only lasted about a week. now it's trash-ville usa.

this morning on the way to school the boy was eating a sack of chocolate cashews (don't judge me) and he was sucking the chocolate off the nuts instead of eating them whole. you can imagine the mess that made, and it tells you how far we've come since the fleeting days of "no eating in mommy's new car."

what's next? slurping mcdonalds apple dippers caramel sauce straight from the container? Oh yeah, we've done that too.

i'm good enough, i'm smart enough ...

on the way to school today the boy was watching a berenstain bears dvd. sister bear was having a bad day because she was teased for having big ears.

I took this as an opportunity, in all my motherly wisdom, to give the boy a little lesson on self esteem.

"sweetie, sister bear is just fine the way she is," I said. "She shouldn't let anyone tell her she's not good enough. Even if she had big ears - which she doesn't - she should be proud of her features and be confident. We're all different and that's what makes us special. do you understand?"

he gave this some thought.

"yes, mommy, I understand.

and I'm so glad I don't have big ears like sister bear."

Doh! Try again.

"sweetie, when I was a little girl, sometimes the other kids teased me for having red hair. i hated my red hair. but now, i'm proud of my red hair. i love my red hair. because that's who i am and it makes me special. do you understand what i'm trying to tell you?"

"yes, mommy. it's really good that you don't have red hair anymore."

oh well.

more spidey stuff

auntie dawn sent spidey stuff and boy was the boy thrilled. note the excited expression.

not only did he get a spider-man car that shoots rockets, but a handheld web shooter that shoots, you guessed it, real webs.

sick boy

the boy is home with daddy today, watching spider-man and eating loads of ice cream i'm sure.

he has a fever, but is getting better.

the doc says it's probably not strep but we're waiting on a throat culture to come back.

at least it's not swine flu.

or monkey pox.

or the sars.

the sars is bad.

boy wonder

Another great garage sale find. This cape lights up and makes whooshing sounds. $1.

arrrrrgh, mateys!

the boy and I agree. a pirate party it is. I bought a ton of pirate stuff, as you can see.

we have pirate plates, napkins, tattoos, hats, gift bags, treasure chests, table cloths, balloons, centerpieces, banners and more.

the best part will be decorating the pirate hats for the boy and his two best mates with foam letters, feathers and glitter glue.

this morning he asked for one additional essential: pirate beards for all. *argh*.

Footnote: I found this beard at Party City's Web site. Caution, it may be disturbing.

there's a new superhero in town

his name is ... wait for it ...

BOX MAN!

yes, this is what the boy announced yesterday. box man does good, helps people, and of course, fights his enemies with this trusty sword.

doesn't get much cuter than that.

i've created a monster

i decided to take the boy garage-saling on saturday and he immediately found a brand new remote control car for two dollars. can i have it mommy? sure.

at the next sale he found some kind of superhero watch thing that makes noises and lights up for 50 cents. he was over the moon. can i have it mommy? of course.

he loved perusing the tables of stuff, his ziploc sack of quarters in hand.

when we ran out of sales, we went to red tree coffee for our usual saturday morning feast, where he fired up the car on the sidewalk. big fun.

he is now IN LOVE with garage sales.

in. love.

for the rest of the weekend -- and this morning too, i might add -- he asked when we could go to another garage sale.

the boy is hooked. and you know, it beats taking him to toys r us and blowing 50 bucks on something he may or may not play with more than once.

the weekends just got a whole lot more interesting. and economical.

my boy is all tatted up

i know they are just wash-off tattoos, but it's still a little disturbing to see how excited the boy was to get some ink last night. (thanks, a lot, hubz.)

classic reading

i stumbled upon these books at the doctor's office last week.

"a hole is to dig," and "open house for butterflies."

both are by ruth krauss, with pictures by maurice sendak. what a tripped-out delight.

can't believe they were completely new to me.