November 2005

11/30/05

I forgot one of Tommy's favorite phrases yesterday.  When he hands us something he always says "Here. Take."  He says this very emphatically.

We've lost Tommy's Dash toy.  It's always been one of his favorites, a real friend who is good to clutch when things are worrisome.  I think we left it at the beach.  I knew we didn't have it when we packed up to fly home, and it wasn't anywhere in the condos.  Tommy realized it was gone for the first time yesterday.  He asked for Dash and Dog (two toys that go together in his mind).  He found Dog but couldn't find Dash.  I let him look for a while and then tried to explain that Dash was lost.  I don't think he understood.  I bought him a replacement at the Disney store, but I'm not sure that it will work.  The original was a Happy Meal toy, so it isn't really replaceable.  The new one will be a Christmas present, along with the other action figures from the Incredibles.  Maybe he'll be excited to have a new one after a month of absence.  Or maybe I should call Bigos Restaurant on South Padre Island to see if they've found it.

11/29/05

Tommy is 22 months old today!  He'll be two in just two more months.  Scary.  I think he went through his version of the terrible 2s from 15-18 months.  So far, that was his crankiest age.  It's entirely possible we'll reach another difficult stage, but for now he's remarkably patient, calm and easy-going for a toddler.  Being able to talk really helps.

These are my current favorite phrases...

• "Let's see!"  Uttered when he is looking at the bookcase or inside the fridge or inside the toy box, trying to make a decision.  His pronunciation makes it sound like "Nasty!"
• "Of course!"  His favorite response when we ask him if he wants to have, eat or do something he really likes.
• "Help Tommy!"  He says this whenever he is stuck or when we're making him do something he doesn't like (drying him off with a towel, clipping his fingernails, strapping him into his carseat)
• "Diego Zoooooooo!"  He picked this up from the movie Madagascar.  When the animals land on the island they discus where they might be.  One suggestion is the San Diego Zoo.  Tommy believes that when they enter the jungle and find the dancing lemurs, they go to "Diego Zoo."  He always juts his bottom jaw out to the side after he says this because the giraffe in the movie does this.  It's unbelievably cute, but impossible to capture with the camera.

No.  I'm not going to say "Diego Zoo" again.  I just said it.  You should have taken the picture then.

11/28/05

Here are the Thanksgiving pictures that I took.  I forgot my camera on the best beach day, but we think Mel got some good pictures.

This is what we did when we gave up on bedtime temporarily.

David, Uncle Terry and Aunt Amy

Playing at the park on one of the cold days.

The beach

  The zoo

Tommy's Thanksgiving dinner.  He didn't eat any of it, but ended up having leftover pasta and meat sticks instead.

The family (minus David who was playing with Tommy on the couch.)

11/26/05

We're home!  It's great to be home and sleep in my own bed.  Not that I did much sleeping last night.  Tommy's all kerflunkled from the trip.  I was hoping he'd sleep really well because he was just exhausted, but he didn't.  Oh well.  Maybe he'll sort himself out by tonight.

I have to say that the good parts of the vacation were even better than I expected.  Tommy was cheerful and friendly and mostly relaxed about 80% of the time.  He had lots of fun playing with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Terry and Aunt Amy.  There was enough space for him to get away when he was feeling overwhelmed, and even David and I got a few chances to sit and chat or read.  We went to the beaches on South Padre Island twice and by the second trip Tommy had decided that the ocean is super fun.  We got to eat out for lunch three times, which is a really big deal for David and me.  We went to the zoo one day.  We had Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday so we'd have enough days to eat the leftovers.  We took Tommy to his first movie in a movie theater on Thanksgiving day.  We saw Chicken Little and he loved it.  He sat mesmerized the entire time, blindly reaching for popcorn and sprite.  The same cannot be said for some of the older kids sitting near us.  When they got too loud Tommy would glare over at them as if to say, "I'm trying to watch a movie here people!"  He also got to ride a carousel for the first time, but he only enjoyed it for about 4 minutes until he discovered that David was with him but not me.  He got to eat lots of ice cream and we took him to a local playground a few times.  All in all, the good parts of the trip were very, very good...maybe the most enjoyable of the six trips we've taken with Tommy so far.

The bad times - trying to get him to go to sleep each naptime and bedtime - were really, really bad.  Each consecutive attempt to sleep just got worse and worse.  Luckily both Tommy and I recovered quickly and managed to cope really well during waking hours.  This fact saved the vacation for me.  I don't think I could have handled it if he'd been cranky all day every day.  At one point I was very close to giving up and going to sleep by myself at another hotel, but I got over it.  Why was it so bad you ask?  Well, I think the problems started because he just didn't know how to lie still and go to sleep in a bed that he could get out of.  He'd be drowsy and ready to sleep, but as soon as I moved or tried to leave him alone he'd pop up and come out to see what was going on.  This meant the only way to get him to sleep in this hotel environment was to nurse him until he was as deeply asleep as possible and then stay next to him until I was absolutely sure he wouldn't move.  A few months ago that wouldn't have been a problem, especially since I could lie down next to him in his travel bed.  All my efforts to slowly and gently wean him the past two months turned out to be my undoing.  I now know that I can't go from nursing about 15 minutes a day to nursing 2-3 hours a day, especially when his teething pain causes him to bite down for counter-pressure even though he tries not to.  By the third day nursing became excruciatingly painful and there just wasn't anything I could do to get him to sleep without forcing myself to endure for as long as it took for him to fall asleep.  I didn't manage to do this successfully very often.  It just hurt too much.  Every time I had to stop he'd pop up or get really upset and we'd have to start all over again.  Eventually, when I just couldn't take it anymore, I'd make him stop nursing and leave the room to compose myself.  My exhausted boy would completely lose it because he thought I was mad at him, or he didn't understand why I was waking him up by leaving when he was almost asleep, or even worse he'd be upset because he knew he was hurting me and he didn't know how to fix it.  (He did say "sorry mama" frequently which just broke my heart because it wasn't his fault.)  Eh.  We survived.  I have to say that this experience was probably one of the worst situations I've ever been in, so it's a good thing the rest of the trip was so wonderful.

That's about it!  I'll post pictures later.  I didn't actually take very many.  I'll post what I have and then post the ones other people took when I get them.      

11/17/05 - even later

Behold!  Our new master plan for airplane survival!

Tommy now knows how to watch a movie on David's laptop with earphones.  Hee!  I'm going to get to READ on the plane tomorrow.  Hopefully.

11/17/05 - later

Here's an update.  Dan & Cindy's baby is named Duncan Conrad Sinars.  He was born at 11:20 AM on Wednesday, Nov. 16.  He weighed 8 lbs 14 oz and was 21.5 inches long.  He's off the chart for length and weight.  For comparison, Tommy was the exact same length but weighed more. (He was 1/2 an ounce shy of 11 lbs - remember? - Of course you do.)

11/17/05

We had an exciting day yesterday.  

Cindy Sinars' midwife called me yesterday and asked me to go over to Cindy's house and take her to the hospital.  She was 9 month pregnant and had started bleeding and couldn't reach her husband Dan.  I grabbed Tommy and went over there.  I must say, Cindy and I managed to remain remarkably calm considering all the blood and the worry and the hurry and our two busy toddlers.  The most stressful part, for me, was getting Claudia's car seat out of their car and into our car.  It took us 25 minutes and in the end Cindy (!) had to do part of it because I just couldn't figure it out.  (I guess this proves I should occasionally change a tire, mow the lawn and hook up the car seat instead of letting David do it for me.)

So we drove to the hospital and I got the people at the front desk to come out with a wheelchair and take her to triage.  I hated to leave her there alone, but taking Tommy and Claudia home was a better solution than taking them into the hospital.  She had her baby boy by emergency C-section about an hour after I dropped her off.  Poor Dan didn't make it to the hospital until after the baby was born.  Cindy and baby Duncan are both healthy and recovering well.  He weighed a few ounces less than 9 pounds (I can't remember exactly).

Claudia handled driving away from her mother at the hospital really well.  "Bye mommy!"  Tommy did not.  For some reason, he completely freaked out as we drove away.  I couldn't figure out what was upsetting him - probably just his teeth and fatigue.  His hysterical babbling included "ice cream" so my best guess is that he thought we were going to the mall again and that I was taking them away without letting him have any ice cream.  He almost upset Claudia, but she eventually decided to ignore his crying.  He cried and screamed until I went through the McDonald's drive through to get lunch (with ice cream) and calm him down.  I would have preferred to make them a healthy lunch, but Tommy just wouldn't stop crying.  Claudia had a good day with us.  She stayed until Dan picked her up at 8 pm.  I even managed to get both kids to nap, although David had to come home to help me manage this.  

Needless to say, we didn't get any packing done yesterday.  I have lots of work to do today to get ready for our trip.  We're leaving really early tomorrow morning.  I probably won't post at all while we're gone, so I'll see you the day after Thanksgiving!      

11/16/05

Both of Tommy's bottom 2-year molars are now poking through the gum.  Just the tips of the icebergs are visible, so he still has a lot of teething to do before he's finished.  So far, he's handling it better than last time.  I think having more language helps.  He's still much more easily over-wrought than he was a week ago though.  We're relying heavily on Children's Motrin.  It's amazing how he changes when the medicine wears off.  I think the distractions on the trip MAY help him to ignore the pain, but we're going to have to be sure he's well-dosed at least 30 minutes before any attempts at sleep.

I took Tommy to the mall yesterday, for the first time in about a year.  I haven't taken him since he learned to walk for a variety of reasons.  However, he's gotten really good at holding hands lately, better about keeping me in sight and remaining calm, and he can now understand the art of stroller/walking compromise.  He did really well.  I told him we were going for ice cream, since that's a positive thing he understands.  He wasn't at all interested in putting on shoes and getting in the car for this unknown mall-thing I kept talking about.  I've since explained that the place we went to was a mall, but he's still calling it ice cream.  He even said "Bye ice cream" when we left.

So the first thing we did was get ice cream.  "Yum!  Mmm!  Ice cream good!  Brrr...cold ice cream.  Mmm!"  Then we went to the Disney Store.  He was in heaven.  He didn't know such a wonderful place existed.  I wanted to get him some sort of bag or small suitcase to carry toys in on the plane.  Walmart and Target had lots of options for girls, but nothing for boys.  The Disney Store had a small Buzz Lightyear rolling suitcase.  I would have preferred something small enough for him to carry himself, but I think he'll figure out how to wheel it around.  While in the store, Tommy looked at lots of toys, but seemed fixated on an Incredibles soccer ball and a Chicken Little doll.  I bought the Chicken Little for him and he's been carrying it around ever since.  He asked about the ball this morning, but seemed to understand that we didn't buy it.  

It's funny that he's interested in Chicken Little.  He got a small Chicken Little in a Happy M]eal a couple of weeks ago.  We let him watch the movie trailer on the computer because he was so enamored with the little toy.  As soon as he got into the Disney Store he went straight to the Chicken Little display and hasn't let go of the doll since then.  I guess we might try taking him to the movie sometime.  It's interesting to watch him absorb pop culture and advertising.  I always felt a bit disconnected from other little kids my age because I was so clueless about pop culture.  Hopefully, Tommy will be more knowledgeable but still learn to make good choices. 

11/14/05

Bed head is cool dude.

Getting new molars is not.

11/13/05

Tommy's balance has gotten extremely good recently.  He spends lots of time every day climbing on the couches and end tables.  We've started letting him do this because he doesn't really fall at all, and it seems like the more climbing he does the safer he becomes.  For example, he can easily balance on the arm of the couch while playing with toys or carrying on a conversation.  Then he'll suddenly say "whoa, whoa, whoa", grin and purposefully fall straight back onto the seat of the couch.  He'll also run the length of one couch, up onto the arm, across the end table, onto the other couch, down and across that couch, and end up balanced on the far arm.  Repeat.  He can even safely balance on the narrow back of the couch that's against the wall.  You'd think I'd be nervous about this, but he really is extremely stable.  

11/12/05

More Tommy Tidbits...

• A mom at the park said "Oh gosh!" at one point yesterday.  Tommy repeated this over and over for the rest of the park visit and during the entire walk home.  
• To balance the addition of "Oh gosh!" to his vocabulary, we watched Fantasia this morning.  He now knows "fairy", "thistle" and "dew."  His favorite segments are still The Nutcracker Suite and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. 
• When Tommy eats grapes these days he bites them in half, eats one half, puts the other half on his head, and says "Hat!"
• All of Tommy's dinosaurs are on his play table right now.  He's put them in a big bunch, all standing and all facing towards the center of the bunch.  He spent a long time placing them this way.  If any of them get bumped, or if he plays with any of them, he eventually puts them back into this configuration.

11/10/05 - later

I just have to say this or I won't be able to stop obsessing about it.  I do realize that my Pants Pillaging Pirate caption is all wrong.  A pirate who pillages pants would have lots and lots of pants - albeit ruined pants - instead of none.  I decided to go with the alliteration despite the title being technically incorrect.  Now it's really bothering me that many of you may think that I don't know what pillage means.  I do know what it means.  It's just a nice pirate-y word and I didn't want to sit here trying to think of another, better one.  Yes, I'm a bit of a language geek.  (This is not to be confused with a grammar or spelling geek, because I most definitely do NOT fall into those categories.  As you can tell by reading this website.)  

11/10/05

My evil plan worked.  I suspected that if I complained about Tommy's poor sleeping on this website, he would immediately sleep longer to prove me wrong.  Yay!  It worked!  He slept 10 hours last night, from 7:40-5:40.  It's possible he slept longer because he was finally just too exhausted to get up earlier than 5:00 again.  It's also possible that the 8-hour dose of children's Motrin we gave him before bedtime alleviated the teething pain just enough to help him sleep longer.  All I know is that we both feel better today.

Tommy Tidbits...

• Tommy has a new favorite game that he calls "Dizzy."  He stands on the hearth and requests "dizzy" over and over until either David or I pick him up and spin him around.  We get tired of doing this very quickly, so Tommy has learned that he can get us to do it by asking for "dizzy one time peese!"  We're reluctant to start doing it because we don't want to do it over and over, but we will do it just one time frequently throughout the day.  He's on to our tricks.
• When Tommy is feeling like he needs some attention or reassurance, he starts to do this fake whine.  He scrunches up his eyes and pretends to cry.  Then he'll walk towards me like that.  He can't see when he does this because his eyes are closed, so he'll take a few steps, peek, re-aim his body and scrunch up his eyes again before walking forward.  It's pretty funny to see him bumping into furniture trying to look pitiful.  Of course, I usually go to him before too long.
• He's become obsessed with his first computer game.  We start them out young here.  There's an Elmo game on the Sesame Street website called Elmo's Keyboard-O-Rama.  Every key on the keyboard makes Elmo do something different.  Most keys just make him laugh, but all of the letters and numbers do something different.  They introduce something that starts with that letter or count out the number.  His favorites are the "U" (umbrella!) and the zero (a balloon pops leaving 0 balloons).  Anytime I'm sitting at the computer, Tommy eventually comes over asking for his "Elmo 'Pewter."

The Pants Pillaging Pirate sees all. 

11/09/05

I knew this would happen right before our trip.  Tommy has started teething his 2-year molars.  I found the first edge cutting through his gum yesterday.  He woke up at 4:15 this morning.  He's nursed three times since then.  He had a 17 minute complete meltdown when David left for work this morning.  Mr. Potato Head couldn't even jolt him out of the screaming, crying, and flailing.  He hasn't slept later than 5 am since the first day of daylight savings time, and he's just getting more and more tired and cranky.  He didn't even enjoy the park on Monday.  I'm doing everything I can to help him rest, but nothing's working.  We'll be leaving a week from Friday and he'll probably have a sleep deficit before we even get there.

This will be our sixth trip with Tommy.  He's not even two yet.  I'm trying not to be pessimistic, but I have lots of travel experience with Tommy by this time.  Every trip was different, but they were all exhausting and very hard on Tommy.  He's been teething during every trip except the very first one.  It usually takes him about 4 weeks to calm down and return to his happy, rested self after a trip.  Why can't people just come and visit us here?  Yeah.  I know.  That's not a fair or realistic question.  Everyone's really looking forward to this family Thanksgiving at the beach so I should just suck it up, smile and not complain.  

This won't even be an issue in another year or so.  He'll be completely finished with teething after this set of molars.  Eventually he'll be old enough to understand why everything is different and unfamiliar when we travel.  He might not ever sleep well away from home (I never do), but at least he'll understand the logic of trying to rest more and eat well.  He's just not old enough to cope well yet.  In the meantime, we've decided not to do any traveling in 2006.  I know stuff will come up though.  For example, if my mom finishes her PhD we'll definitely go to her graduation.  I just don't think travel is avoidable in our family.

(P.S. If you're reading this and are a part of the upcoming family vacation, please don't be hurt or offended by this post.  I'm just really tired - 4:15! - and need to vent a little.  I'm sure there will be lovely, fun parts of this trip no matter how cranky Tommy might be.)  

11/08/05

Here's a Halloween family portrait taken by one of the guests at the party we went to.

I watched Claudia for an hour yesterday while Cindy had a doctor's appointment.  (Claudia's baby brother is due mid-November.) The kiddos played well together, although Tommy was a bit dismayed to find another child in the house when he woke up from his nap.  He adamantly stayed in his crib for 15 minutes until he decided she wasn't scary.  You'll notice that in both pictures, my child is the one with no shirt (a trait he inherited from his Great-Grandpa Howard) and has his mouth stuffed full of graham crackers.

11/07/05

One of Tommy's current favorite phrases is "I fly!"  It isn't enunciated properly, but I can't figure out a good way to write it phonetically for you.  When we pick him up he'll stretch out, point his toes, extend his arms and shout "I fly!"  He also does this when he's lying on his tummy on a chair or footstool. (He looks pretty huge in this picture doesn't he?  He's still only 21 months old people!)

11/05/05

Tommy has a new, more difficult shape sorter.  He loves it.  He has a particular series of steps he follows when playing with it.  1. Take off lid and dump out shapes.  2. Replace lid.  3. Insert star on the side.  4. Insert flower on top.  5. Insert triangle on top.  6. Turn box and insert oval.  7. Find both the pentagon and hexagon.  8. Insert pentagon and hexagon on the same side, one at a time.  9. Turn box and insert octagon.  10. Try one of the remaining difficult pieces (all 4-sided with different angles and side lengths).  11. Ask me to help him.  12.  Get frustrated.  13. Open lid.  14.  Drop remaining shapes into the open box and replace lid.  15. All done!

He was either hiding or tired.  I couldn't tell, and he wouldn't tell me.

Curse you McDonalds!  Your cheap Happy Meal toys become beloved, yet require "Mommy help!" every 30 seconds.

Mommy gets tired of helping.

This was Tommy at 4:45 this morning.  He woke up crying at 2:30, yelling "Jamas off!  Ow, ow, ow!", settled back to sleep by 3:00, and then was up for good at 4:30.  We never could figure out what was bothering him.

11/04/05

Announcement time!  It's not particularly exciting to anyone but us, so don't get all worked up.  Over the past five weeks I've been weaning Tommy.  It seemed like time.  He's been in a really happy mood, not teething or sick, and he's been less interested in nursing.  We're consistently down to two times a day now, just before naptime and bedtime.  This is a big deal for us!  I used my newly-invented DBB™ technique (Distraction By Bribery), which involves lots of ice cream, Monsters Inc. Fruit Snacks, Toy Story Fruit Snacks, and trips to the park.  It worked amazingly well, probably because we were both ready so I wasn't forcing anything.  He doesn't really ask anymore, and has started figuring out that he can get lots of snuggles out of me even without nursing.  

The naptime and bedtime ones are going to be harder.  They're part of his normal routine, and toddlers are all about routine.  If we didn't have a trip in two weeks, I'd start weaning him off those now.  He's using it more to delay sleep than for comfort these days, so I think he'd figure out the new routine pretty quickly.  We'd probably have less than a week of protest for each one.  However, travel is a huge disruption and stress for Tommy, so it's not worth doing the work now if it's going to make the trip even more difficult.  Besides, he sleeps horribly when we travel.  I'll do anything I have to do to get him to sleep, especially since he no longer fits in his portable crib and will be free to roam about at night in the hotel room (shudder).  It's going to be hard enough to stick to twice-a-day while we travel.  If he too miserable and whiny, I'll just go back to nursing him on demand during the trip and start over when we get home.    

So that's the news!  I didn't want to mention it until we saw some success.  I'm actually quite proud of myself.  This is the first difficult thing concerning Tommy that I've decided to do all on my own without pressure from any outside source or guilt.  It's amazing how much easier it is to do something when it's completely my decision.

11/02/05

When Tommy woke up from his nap yesterday, he came out in to the living room and started looking for something.  He peered onto the kitchen counters.  He checked out the computer desk.  He looked under the coffee table.  I eventually asked him what he was looking for.  "Candy?  Where Candy?  Tommy's Candy?"  I laughed and laughed and then let him pick one piece out of his trick-or-treat stash.  He chose a Tootsie Roll.  I guess he figured out what Halloween is all about.

Last night was David's volleyball night, so Tommy and I were on our own.  We usually have something easy for dinner when David's off playing sports.  Last night we were having Macaroni & Cheese with peas.  This is a very familiar dinner for Tommy.  On a whim, I decided to stir the peas into the macaroni & cheese instead of serving them separately.  Big mistake!  What was I thinking?  How could I forget we have a toddler in the house?  I set Tommy's bowl in front of him and he immediately started crying.  "No peas.  No peas.  No peas."  He was hungry and looking forward to macaroni & cheese and there were PEAS in it!  I thought about doing the whole "this is what we're having for dinner and you're going to eat it" routine, but I just don't think it's worth the drama.  So I started spooning out the peas.  Tommy thought I was spooning up peas to feed to him.  He got more upset.  I was separating peas and macaroni as fast as I could, trying to explain what I was doing.  Eventually, he had a pea-free bowl, cackled happily and began to eat.  I ended up eating a lot of peas because I was spooning them out of my bowl and eating them so that I could have more pea-free macaroni ready each time he emptied his bowl.  That boy can eat a lot of macaroni & cheese.  He didn't eat any peas at all last night.  Stupid peas.

11/01/05

A Halloween Timeline...

4:30  Tommy is starving.  He eats 1/2 a bag of microwave popcorn, a handful of candy corn and a big glass of orange juice (not the most nutritious snack ever).  His body tells him it's dinnertime even though daylight savings time says it isn't.

4:45 We get our first trick-or-treaters.  Tommy runs screaming into his room and hides behind the La-Z-Boy.  I've spent days talking about what we're going to do on Halloween, but I forgot to tell him that other kids in costumes would be coming to our house.

5:30  Dinner is ready.  Tommy's still starving but we have to wait for David to get home.  Tommy snags bites of cut up tomato and grated cheese off the kitchen counter.  Boy howdy, he's tall.

5:40  David's finally home.  By this time Tommy isn't really hungry anymore.  He eats 1/2 a burrito and then runs into his room to play behind the La-Z-Boy again.

5:50  We wrestle Tommy into his costume.  We let him go out into the courtyard, but refuse to open the gate until he has shoes.  We go back inside for the camera.  We go back inside for the pumpkin flashlight.  Tommy finally lets us put his shoes on.  He starts to get excited about ringing doorbells and getting candy.  "Ding dong...candy!"

5:55 We observe the pungent aroma of a poopy diaper.  Costume and shoes come off.  Diaper is changed.

6:00  We wrestle Tommy into his costume.  We let him go out into the courtyard, but refuse to open the gate until he has shoes.  Tommy finally lets us put his shoes on.  "Ding dong...candy!"

6:05  Tommy is super excited to be taking a walk in the dark.  He loves his pumpkin flashlight.  We get to the house of Neighbor #1.  He refuses to walk to the door.  David carries him.  He refuses to ring the doorbell.  I ring it.  He refuses to go inside.  We take him inside.  He freaks out.  He calms down when they give him candy.

6:10  We get to the house of Neighbor #2.  He refuses to walk to the door.  David carries him.  He refuses to ring the doorbell.  I ring it.  He refuses to go inside.  We apologize and make the neighbors and their grandkids come outside to see Tommy.  He's excited about the candy.

6:15  We get to the house of Neighbor #3.  He's excited!  He understands!  He rings the doorbell!  "Tickle Tweet!"  "Candy!"

6:20  We walk to Eric and Karen's house.  Tommy rides on David's shoulders.  He warily eyes the big kids roaming the streets in their costumes.  He talks about "tickle tweet", "candy" and "ding dong."

6:25  Tommy is so excited to see Eric.  We should have gone to their house first.  Eric sets the bowl of candy on the ground so he can go get his camera.  Tommy starts to take candy out of the bowl one at a time.  I stop him after three pieces.  We don't get to stay long because there are lots of big kids crowding up behind us.

6:30  We walk home.  Tommy's really happy about Halloween now.  "No home!  No home!"  As we walk up to our driveway, our slightly odd next door neighbor tells us we'd better get over there.  We do and their many loud dogs freak Tommy out.  We listen politely to a long story about how we should treasure these memories because eventually all our kids will be gone and we'll be all alone on Halloween.  Tommy runs home while the neighbor is still talking.

6:35 We hang out in the courtyard.  Tommy runs around the yard in excited circles and eats Reese's Pieces.  He tries to keep trick-or-treaters from taking our candy.  He tries to hug one little girl in a witch costume.

6:45  Karen walks over to see Tommy.  She just got home from work.  Tommy loves Karen.

6:50 We take Tommy inside and look over his loot.  He's especially excited about the gummy vampire fangs.  

7:05 Bath time

7:20 We start our normal bedtime routine.  Many doorbell rings interrupt.  Tommy runs to the door every time.  Eventually, David goes to hand out candy while I continue to try to get Tommy in the mood for sleep.

8:20  Tommy is finally sleeping like the dead.

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