All Hallow's Eve

I slept in until almost 7 this morning. Chloe dog had settled down beside me on the top of the blankets and licked me awake. Oh boy. It was still dark outside but we stumbled out of bed. It was pouring down rain. So much for the "chance of showers" forecast the weather people have been teasing us with all week. The little Prima Donna barely ventured off the porch for her potty walk. She doesn't like to get her paws wet. Brother!

After her potty 'walk' I headed out to do my grocery shopping. In the rain. I have a pick up truck without a canopy on back so I have to cram all of my grocery sacks into the cab with me. Gets kind of cozy. But before I did that I dropped off a bunch of stuff at the Goodwill. A huge box of toys, an infant play mat, two sacks of outgrown clothes, and a traveling baby swing. Yesterday Dylan had emptied out all three of the storage bins that are loaded with his toys -- he's been busy 'rediscovering' them all since he's come back from Texas -- and they were scattered every where. At first I thought about picking some of them up but, no. He'd just want to dump them back out again. So I waited until my daughter-in-law picked the boys up and I sorted thru everything once she left. There are still enough toys for 10 kids, I'm sure, but I did get rid of the ones he never plays with. I've got a wicker basket full of infant toys for Cooper that I keep near his Fisher Price play center. Dylan's trucks and cars and table with his Fisher Price gas station are all lined up in the living room. A bin of 'people' -- even his Daddy's old WWF wrestling figurines -- are by the TV. Two other bins full of stuffed toys, balls, shape sorters, keyboards...oh, what can I say?! The boys are spoiled, spoiled, spoiled. One of Dear Hubby's coworkers stopped by a few weeks ago right after the boys had left and I hadn't gotten the living room picked up yet. He's a grandparent too and he laughed when he saw the living room. One of his grandchildren lives with him and his wife and he said, "I see your grandkids are like ours...they have more toys than our kids EVER did!" Well....not necessarily. My in-laws used to shower our kids with toys and clothes, God bless them, in the days when we were struggling young parents, and our kids had oodles of toys, too. That's why our house was the favorite play place in the whole neighborhood. Before an extra bedroom was built down in the basement, the kids had the run of the whole place down there, even riding their Big Wheels around. But they had fun!! Lots of fun! And, in my book, that's what childhood is all about.

I'm not kidding, I think Dylan grew 6" while he was away. He's as big as some of the 5 or 6 year olds who walk by coming home from school. I don't know what he weighs now but I think my days of pushing him in the double stroller are quickly disappearing. He's so tall now that when he sits in the front seat his knees are practically up to chin level. He accidentally dragged his foot the other day and almost flipped the whole thing over. Yesterday I decided to try a 'big boy walk', having him walk alongside the single stroller with Cooper in it. No marathon distances for him yet, but I asked him if he'd like to walk to the fire station and look at the fire engines. Yes, that sounded good to him, so we headed off in the middle of the morning. As luck would have it, the big ladder truck was just leaving the station so Dylan got the thrill of having all the fire fighters on the truck waving at him. Then we stopped at Burger King to pick up a Chicken Tenders meal for him to have at home. But along the way there were some big trees dropping leaves on the sidewalk for close to a block, piles of them, and I introduced him to the joy of shuffling thru and kicking leaves every which-way. He knows just about every porch in the 5-mile radius we usually travel that has pumpkins or jack o' lanterns on them, no matter which route we follow. There is nothing as sweet as taking a walk and seeing everything thru the eyes of a 2 year old.

I bought the boys their trick-or-treats. No candy. I bought a back hoe for Dylan, who's been super-intrigued with them since Dear Hubby was working nearby a while back and we went to visit him. He was operating a back hoe and Dylan got to sit on the seat and put his hands on the levers. He has a tiny Fisher Price back hoe that he'll show to me and say "Papa DIG!" That's right, little boy! This one that I bought is somewhat bigger with levers that work. Oh boy! And for Cooper I bought a rolling ball with ducks that spin. He's almost crawling and he loves to push things and chase them across the floor. I'm such a killjoy. For our Halloween treats I bought big bags of Halloween Pretzel Treats at WalMart this morning. After working in a middle school for several years, I know what it's like to have 1000 kids on sugar highs from too much candy on Halloween and Valentine's Day. We used to dread those two holidays just for that reason. So...no sugar from me.

Well, I've been putzing around doing nothing but catching up on some blog reading and writing here since I got in from doing groceries. Time to vacuum and fold some laundry. Whoopee. Just think what a gazillionaire I'd be if I could invent how to add a few more hours to a day, hours devoted to nothing but fun things. Well, until that happens, duty calls for now.