Trick-Or-Treat 2011

Another successful year of trick-or-treating is behind us and we should have collected enough candy to get us through until next October. This year we had two mobile children running down the sidewalks, one of them being an overly-excitable 3 year-old who definitely had the hang of this whole- getting candy from strangers holiday- down pat. And I'm pretty sure our son could have a bright future in sales should he decide to go that route. He was persistent, banging on doors while repeatedly ringing the doorbell, bringing even those folks trying to hide in their dark houses sheepishly to the door to offer him some morsel of goodwill. He scored an unopened roll of Ritz crackers from an Indian woman who offered them to him as "cookies" because she felt bad that he had caught her empty-handed. He fearlessly negotiated, boldly asking for 2 pieces of candy when 1 was offered and 3 when 2 were offered.  He asked to trade candy he didn't care for and requested detailed descriptions from strangers of candy he had never seen before. He let himself in to someones house to pet a dog and then charmed the owner into a bonus pack of bubbles in addition to his candy. He made it his mission to "care" for his sister by always stating that he needed some extra candy for "Norah over there" and people chuckled as they threw a few extra pieces in. He pointed out a fake spider stuck to our neighbor's front door, asked if he could have it, and then shrieked with delight when she told him to go ahead and take it. Yes, he will do well in sales someday, I have no doubt about it. John and I were just laughing watching him race from house to house like his pants were on fire. It was just too much. And yes, we did have many little chats with him along the way about being polite and grateful and not asking for more candy or to trade candy, but his head was spinning way too fast to hear any of that boring parental advice. And he did bring home quite a loot for us to pilfer through tonight while he's sleeping so I guess we'll work on those little behavior glitches tomorrow...

Reason #116 why I love my husband...

He's willing to sleep in a tent with a 3 year old.

Yesterday evening I went to a party at my SIL's house and John stayed home with the kids. Instead of rushing the kids off to bed and ordering his favorite take-out to eat on the couch in his pajamas (which is what I usually do when he's away), he made it a special night for Eli by having a guys sleep-over in the family room. The tent was set up and they snuggled and watched guy stuff like hockey and baseball until late into the night. Eli is quite the night-owl and he can outlast us all when it comes to PM energy. I was snickering to myself from my cozy bed at 10:30 when I could still hear John telling a bouncing-off-the-walls Eli "no more talking" and "time to settle down buddy."

And that's about all it takes to be a little guy's hero and to create the event of his month...and maybe even his year.

You're a good daddy John, our kiddos are definitely blessed.

The 1 hour book-rack

For several months I have been oogling this hanging book-rack from the Land of Nod....

as well as this one from Pottery Barn Kids....


I wanted something that was a mix of these two pieces to hang in Eli's room in order to keep me from losing my mind picking up 50 books off the floor every single morning  have an organized area where he could display his favorite children's books.

So I recruited my handy hubby (multiple times) until he agreed to head to Home Depot (by himself please!) to gather the supplies needed to create the masterpiece I was imagining. Not to mention, we would be saving a fortune making this project a DIY.

John pre-cut all the 2 X 4's and dowel rods at Home Depot to save time and I think even he was surprised by how quickly he was able to whip up the shelf once he got home. A few nails, a little wood glue and it was  ready for me to start painting.

I'm so happy with the way it turned out and that John has the skills to turn my visions into reality. And Eli is pretty excited to have a library of books at his disposal at nap and bedtime. As are we, because a quietly reading toddler, is much nicer than a jumping on his bed, kicking the walls instead of sleeping toddler.
Here is the finished product:

Song of the Week

Every once in a while I hear a song that hits me right in the gut; one that God uses to change my perspective on a hard situation I'm walking through or a bad attitude I'm stuck on. I have been wearing out the repeat button in my car, on my ipod, and on my computer with this one. It is just that good.
Thought I would share it so you can all go and download it and then have a good cry with me over how generously, how fiercely, and how unconditionally God truly does love us.