Now we are six: the Andrew remix

 This precious boy is now six years old! He turned six on Wednesday, February 24, a chilly morning that seemed appropriate, given that he was born on a cloudy chilly day with snowflakes in the air.

Yeah, I made him stand outside without his coat on before school so I could take his picture. I'm that kind of mom. Fortunately, no extremities were lost as a result of the cold.

We actually threw a birthday party for him the previous weekend, and our friend Mary Clare got this wonderful family photo of the four of us at the party. And there's not even that much frosting smeared all over him!

A snowy day

Remember when snow days were fun? Like when they didn't mean that your kids were going to be out of school for days upon days upon days?

Yeah. Me neither.

But seriously, we had an epic snowfall last month. It started snowing in the wee hours of a Friday morning, and it snowed and snowed and snowed. We got about nine inches, all told, which is very unusual for Nashville.

It was beautiful. In fact, I felt almost giddy. Sometimes, we'll get a couple of inches of snow, just enough that it makes things pretty for a few hours. And then it starts to get all messed up. And I feel sort of miserly about it, like "Don't walk in my front yard because you'll use up all the snow and it'll never look pretty again!" With this snowfall, it just kept snowing. We tramped around in our yard, and a couple of hours later, you couldn't even tell.

And the sledding was fabulous. We took the boys to two different areas of the neighborhood for different sledding experiences. First they hit the hill behind a neighbor's house. A short steep hill that gives a quick fast ride, but not a scary one. You rarely see the big kids or adults sliding here, but it's still fun.

Then we braved the long fast slide of a hilly neighboring street. A family photo afterward.

Andrew was a hard sell at first for the street sledding. The sledders were working up some fairly impressive speed, and he wasn't so sure he was ready to take a chance on it, despite having taken a similar ride last winter during Icepocalypse 2015. He was enjoying giving scores to all the other sledders (and he was a tough judge). We coaxed and cajoled and finally convinced him to try it. (Was there a bribe involved? I couldn't say.) At the end of his big ride, he scored himself 100 out of 100. Yep.

The best part of this particular snow was that it lasted for a couple of days, in all its glory, and then it got washed away by rain. And the boys only missed a couple of days of school altogether. (Later, they missed three days for a piddling couple of inches that disappeared very quickly, which is far more typical here.)

I think most of us were so pleased by our big January snowfall that we're about ready to bid farewell to winter and welcome spring. But, it's still just mid-February, and chances are, we'll have at least one more bout of crazy winter weather.

Here We Go, 2016!

Happy New Year!

And now we embark upon the traditional time of year where I can't ever get the date right. I'll be writing and saying 2015 for at least the next 30 days or so.

But at least it finally feels like winter. It felt like spring here for what seemed like weeks. It was over 70 degrees on Christmas Eve. I had to scrap the boys' cute Christmas pullovers and pull random shirts out of the closet.

We even took advantage of the warm temps and went for a run/bike ride/walk on Christmas Eve morning, in fact. Notice the short sleeves. 

It was bizarre. But beyond that, the recent spate of weird warm winter was also a little scary. We had some terrible thunderstorms and at least one night of tornado warnings. I don't panic easily, but when the tornado sirens near your house are going off and the radar shows spiraling winds a few miles to the west, you start to get a little anxious.

We did wind up having a lovely warm Christmas, though. The boys gamely wore their matching Christmas pajamas (thank you, Hanna Andersson) so I could have nice pictures of them together. And everyone loved their gifts and no one was sick. 

Perhaps the biggest hit of all the gifts was the R2-D2 laundry hamper that....Santa...brought to Andrew:

In fact, he even insisted on sleeping in it that night. He brought it into his bed, got inside the hamper (it's flimsy), pulled the sheets up, and snuggled in for a long winter's nap. Hey, whatever gets him to go to sleep at night, right?

Hope you had a lovely Christmas and a happy and safe New Year's Eve and Day! 

Playing catch-up

I took a whole series of photos of Andrew playing joyfully in the leaves in our front yard a few weeks ago. This is the sort of thing that I routinely posted on the blog a few years ago but have fallen out of the habit of doing. I'm really sorry about that, too, since these sorts of photos end up being some of my favorites. You know, the joy-in-the-little-things types of pictures.

I gotcher joy right here:









He actually objected when I began to bag up the leaves!

I would also be remiss in not highlighting the fact that David and I ran the Boulevard Bolt on Thanksgiving morning this year. It was David's first time to run the Bolt in a number of years, and it was my first time since the year that I ran it when it was seventeen degrees at race time. (I will never get tired of mentioning that.)



Diane and Mark did the Bolt, too:



William has been busy, too, just in case you were starting to get nervous. He sang in his first big concert as a member of the Blair Children's Chorus at Vanderbilt. He wore his first tux (well, tux sans jacket) and he was most pleased with that.



Why, yes, he is available for proms and weddings. (He sang beautifully, too, and he definitely earned that plate stacked with treats.)

And finally but most importantly, we recently lost my last living grandparent. My grandfather Bill Larson died a couple of weeks ago. He was two days shy of his 98th birthday. We will definitely miss him, but we also know that he had a good long life, and he was surrounded by family even at the end.

We held a visitation and a small graveside service in Vicksburg, MS, where he is buried. and then we had a memorial service here in Nashville earlier this week.  I got this shot of the extended family after the graveside service:



It is strange to think that Grandaddy Bill won't be around any longer, but I think he's probably overjoyed to be in heaven with Mama Lou again!

The Fastest Boy in Kindergarten

God made Andrew for a purpose. He also made him fast.

Say "hello" to the fastest boy in kindergarten, folks!



As part of the annual Hound Dog Run event, the school holds a sprint race for each grade. The fastest boy from each class competes against the fastest boys from the other classes in the same grade. Same for the girls. Andrew won a preliminary race so he got to compete for his class in the kindergarten boy sprint race last week.

He was sooooo proud to be the fastest boy from his class. He was also pretty confident in his ability to win the whole race, too, and become the fastest boy in kindergarten. Well, we've always known that Andrew was fast, but we also didn't want him to think that he was just going to win the race. So, during the week prior to the event, we all talked up the value of doing your best, running hard and finishing strong, and being happy for the winner.

"Andrew, all that matters is that you do your best," I would say in an encouraging voice.

William would then pick up the conversational ball and talk up the importance of just getting out there and giving it your all and not worrying about whether you win or lose.

David talked about the importance of running hard all the way through the finish line.

"And no matter who wins, you're already a winner because you won your class race! And that's so cool! You'll always be the fastest boy in your kindergarten class!" I would say cheerfully. "So you can be super excited for whoever wins!"

Andrew's response to our pep talks?

"I'm going to win."

Or...

"Won't it be so cool when I win the kindergarten boy sprint race?"

No lack of confidence in this one, eh? Um, the power of positive thinking? Sure, okay.

The morning of the race, Andrew made sure to put on his favorite sneakers "because I'm fast in them." And he lined up at the starting line with his gaze fixed on the finish line.

(I just asked him about that a few moments ago. "I was thinking I was going to win," he said.)

The coach blew the whistle, while my dad and I held up our iPhones to video the race (you can hear me screeching Andrew's name in the background near the end). They were off! Andrew was not in first place right off the bat...but he pumped those legs, surged past the leader and won.

He. won. Just like he said he was going to.

I couldn't believe it. I mean, I could believe it. See my earlier statement that we knew he was fast. But he won! He actually came from behind a little bit and won the race!

Afterward, he was very pleased, but totally not surprised. Hadn't he told us that he was going to win? We were the ones lecturing him about doing his best (check), finishing strong (check) and being glad for the winner (CHECK CHECK CHECK). He was just doing all those things.

The fastest boy in kindergarten and his big brother:

First Day of Kindergarten and Fourth Grade

Who has a new red backpack and just bounded off the school bus with a giant smile?

This guy!



That's right. Andrew started KINDERGARTEN today! He's been excited about it for weeks--he would wake up in the morning and put on his backpack before he walked out of his room. Today, the big day had finally arrived. We had everything ready to go last night, so all he had to do this morning was get up, get dressed, eat breakfast and get his picture made a few hundred times.



His report when he tumbled off the bus? "Mommy, it was AWESOME!"

Seriously, this day could have been such a mess, and yet, somehow it went so incredibly smoothly that I'm pinching myself to make sure I'm not dreaming. We are not people who have easy-peasy smooth mornings as a general rule. We are usually running around with our hair on fire, with me barking out orders left and right and people losing shoes that they just had a second ago.

Yet, everyone got up on time, got dressed, didn't spill breakfast all over their new clothes, and didn't leave anything important behind. Both boys smiled for the camera and didn't pitch a fit. We got to school early. Not even just on time--EARLY. Crazytown. I know. Here, seriously, pinch me. I'm still not convinced.



We took William to his new fourth-grade classroom first. On the way, he saw the librarian and told her that he's reading the first book in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and she gave him a high five. Then we pushed our way through the crowded hallways all the way to the very back of the school to find his classroom, which seemed so grown-up, somehow. The big desks, the smart board, the computers at the back of the room.  I mean, I guess by fourth grade, you're expected to do some serious learning. As he sat down at his new desk, it really hit me that he's one of the big kids in the school now. Because I'm a nervous nelly, I reminded him one last time to make sure that Andrew was on the school bus for the ride home. Trooper that he is, William reassured me (for the one hundredth time) that he would.

By contrast to the Serious Fourth Grade Classroom, Andrew's kindergarten classroom has a giant tent set up around the reading center, and it's bursting to the seams with learning games. He was delighted by the number line on his new desk and perhaps even more delighted by the special first-day-of-school snack of Lucky Charms that his teacher provided. He was so ready to dive right in. He found a couple of his new buddies on the mat and joined them, and you could see that he had already switched over into "I'm at school now" mode. I went over and gave him a hug and kiss goodbye, and he was happy to oblige, but then he joined his classmates again and that was it. I've always joked about how William was all smiles and "see you later, Mom!" on the first day of kindergarten, and well, Andrew was pretty much the same way. No tears, no hesitating, no problem.

What a relief!

Edited to add: Andrew announced tonight, "I'm now an official infinity percent kindergartner!" Yes, sweet boy, you are.

Nine is definitely fine

My mom captured this magical shot of William celebrating his ninth birthday with his family:

I meant to post the photo right away on this blog, but I'm guessing none of you are too surprised that it took me this long. :) We had piano recitals, choir programs, soccer game, meetings, and other stuff going on. Per usual for this time of year.

Style Blueprint recently ran a brilliant column about the horrorshow that May can be, and my only addition to the writer's otherwise spot-on words is this: April is just about as insane as May. Actually more so for our family, because you have to add in Easter, our church retreat at Camp NaCoMe, and William's birthday. Now that we are into the second week of May, things are finally, finally starting to settle down a little bit. Of course, I have come down with a cold because that's how I roll. Run run run at breakneck speed to get everything down, then immediately succumb to the latest virus wafting through the air with the pollen. When I was in high school and college, I often got sick at the end of the semester, after everything was done. It was my body's way of saying "You're done. Yes, you are."

Back to William turning nine. It's been a long time since this first birthday celebration:

But I will say this: he still loves cake just as much as he did then. And he is just as delightful. The beauty of William being nine is that he's becoming this wonderful person, not just a little kid. He talks about how he values kindness and being kind to other people, which just  makes my heart fill with happiness. And he does! Recently, we had a small friend stay with us overnight when his mom went into the hospital to have a baby. The little boy got sad after awhile because he was missing his mommy. William fetched the little boy a cup of ice water and sat there with him while the little boy drank the water and calmed down a little bit. Then William sat down next to him, patted him and talked so sweetly to him about what a big boy he was and what a great big brother he was going to be. (Andrew was the one who originally came and found me, and while William was helping out, he was searching for snacks for the boy, so I have to give him some credit, too.)  He read bedtime stories to both boys that night, too. 

William still tends to "sweat the small stuff" but he's learning that sometimes, you do have to learn to do something before you can be good at it. And the best part: after he learns that, he says so! This is the kid who actually thanked me after giving him a tough-love pep talk when he was struggling to ride his bike without training wheels. Still aglow from the victory of finally being able to sail down the greenway on two wheels, he sighed happily and thanked me. I think it may have even involved the words "You were right, Mom."

I love you, my sweet nine-year-old boy! 

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter from the boys!

We woke up to a beautiful blue sky this morning. We definitely don't take those for granted after our long winter! Hope you had a marvelous day.

Five, finally!

Well, I feel bad. It's been more than a month since Andrew turned five, and I'm just now getting around to posting about it.

In my defense, we had weeks of ice, snow, pneumonia, and more ice and snow. Snow drifts and ice patches on the driveway. There were days and days of bad weather, days and days of fever, stomach bugs, antibiotics, sleet, trips to the doctor and to the children's hospital, and other general unpleasantness. Then there was rain. Lots of rain. Clouds, clouds, darkness, rain. Then we had spring breaks.

Then there was the day I dragged the (sick) boys to Publix and told them they could pick out anything they wanted to eat--because I just wanted them to eat something, anything. Andrew spied the bakery counter and eagerly picked out doughnuts with chocolate frosting and sprinkles after first peering at me skeptically because he thought I'd lost my tiny little mind. Which maybe I had. But I bought the doughnuts for both boys. When we got home, I ripped open the bag and tried to hand them to the boys. They both sighed and said no, thanks, they really weren't hungry and didn't feel like eating. My sons. Did. Not. Want. To. Eat. Doughnuts. Did I mention the chocolate frosting and sprinkles? I was looking around frantically for the four horsemen of the apocalypse.They turned down doughnuts.  That's how sick they were, one of those dark late February days.

William attended one-half day of school in three weeks.

If this all sounds very stream-of-conscious, that's pretty much the way that the last two weeks of February and most of March have felt. It's been a long season, let's just put it that way.

So! Andrew turned five years old right in the midst of all this. He was five on February 24, and he couldn't be more delighted about it.

I can't quite believe it myself. Five! It seems like just the other day that William was five. We got our last book in the mail in February from Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. I got the info about registering him for kindergarten, too. And he qualified for the school district's gifted program.  This is happening. Andrew is five, and there's no turning back.

For his birthday, he asked for a little toy bird that plays music. He named this little green songbird Pear, and it's his new best friend. He used some of his birthday money to buy a companion for Pear--a little blue bird that he immediately named Blueberry. David and I had never even heard of these little toys, but Andrew knew all about them and knew that's what he wanted. And sure enough, he plays with them all the time. I think I was like that about my Strawberry Shortcake dolls at about the same age.

Sadly, we had to cancel his birthday party a few days later because he woke up with a high fever on the morning of his party. He had been looking forward to it for days and days, and I felt awful about cancelling. But what could we do? You can't take a child with a 103 fever to a birthday party and expose everyone else to what we eventually determined to be walking pneumonia. He and William were still recovering the next weekend, so we didn't wind up rescheduling. I am still feeling guilty about this. I wish we could have found a way to have the party, but it was just not going to work out. Ack. Like I said, I still feel bad about this. Five is such a great age...and a great age for birthday parties, too. Ack ack ack.

So a belated happy birthday to sweet Andrew! You're five and fabulous! And you have an exciting year ahead of you.

Whoooooosh!

Hashtags like #OldSlickory and #Snowbama and #DwightDIcenhower have been popping up all over social media in Middle Tennessee this week. That's what you get when all these people are cooped up inside, drinking wine and getting creative. They've been having a little fun with the Great Presidents' Day Ice Storm that hit Nashville earlier this week. 

Yes, this is what it looks like when Elsa from "Frozen" comes to town: ice everywhere. Then a nice little sprinkling of snow on top, just to keep things interesting. 

It was sleeting heavily when I snapped this shot. Cold AND wet. Nice.

And since it's been cold, the white stuff is sticking around. The boys have been sledding pretty much every day this week.  The sole benefit of having ice is that it makes the sleds really zip along. I took about 50 videos of the boys sledding down various hills in the neighborhood. We had a few wipeouts, and a few near misses, but no one got hurt and no one cried, which makes it a whopping success in my book. 

Andrew was a little tentative at first,
but after his first whoooooosh down the hill, he was hooked.

We are staying inside today, however, because it was only about 9 degrees the last time I checked the temperature. No thanks. We don't have clothes for that. Yes, before you ask, we do have some Cabin Fever, but I think Cabin Fever is slightly preferable to frostbite. Ask me again later today, though...

William, preparing to slide down the hill
and hopefully avoid slamming into the trampoline.

My, this sleeve looks tasty!

A few weeks ago, an acquaintance mentioned on Facebook she was collecting suggestions of things that kids do that make parents wonder if they're the only ones.

For example, a parent might wonder, "Is my child the only one who...

...eats dog food right out of the dog's dish?"

...sticks beans/holly berries/erasers/beads in his nose/ears/both?"

...demands privacy when she goes to the potty but barges in on me every time I dare to shut the bathroom door?"

My contribution to this list would have to be, "Is my child the only one who chews on all the sleeves of his shirts?"

Except, well, I know that I'm not. Who knew that this was a common childhood thing for lots of kids? I didn't know until the Internet because I never did this as a kid, and David says he didn't, either.

William used to chew on the neckline of his shirts. Thankfully, he stopped. Eventually. But now Andrew has started chewing the sleeves AND the necklines of all his shirts and sweaters. It is driving me bananas. He KNOWS that this drives me crazy and that he's not supposed to do it, but he does it anyway. And somehow, the clammy damp slobbery fabric flapping around his wrists (and neck) DOESN'T EVEN BOTHER HIM.

Gah. I'm having the vapors, just typing it out. Yuck yuck yuck.

No, Andrew doesn't have any sensory or anxiety issues. In fact, he's pretty well adjusted, and he supposedly doesn't exhibit any behavioral issues in school. He is able to focus very well on projects for long periods of time, too. He just....likes to chew on his clothes.

Several people have suggested that I buy what's essentially a teething necklace for him. Another friend suggested a bracelet. Many of these products are marketed towards children with sensory disorders or other developmental issues; a brand that I've heard a lot about is Chewelry, although I'm sure there are other, cheaper, products out there that would work just as well. I'm about ready to do anything to get him to stop gnawing on the sleeves of that precious striped Hanna Andersson sweater that I love so much and hate to see being ruined. But I'm not even sure I could convince him to 1) wear a necklace or bracelet and 2) chew on said necklace or bracelet instead of the shirt!

He's my own personal version of Chewy Luis (Luis Suarez, the Uruguyan soccer player who can't seem to resist biting things....and, er, people). That's my kid: Chewy Drew. Thank goodness that he's only chomping away on his own clothes, though, and not other people and their clothes.

Someone else, wisely, said to me, "This, too, shall pass." And of course, I know this from personal experience, as William did stop. I just wish I could get Andrew to stop RIGHT NOW. Perhaps I need some sort of anti-anxiety device myself....

Merry Christmas, Y'all

Check it out! It's the Wyckoff family version of a Christmas Miracle!

It took the endless patience that only someone like Diane has to get one halfway decent Christmas family photo of the four of us. But we got one! Woohoo!

The children's Christmas Eve service at our church had just concluded, so the boys were rarin' to go. Poor David's still at the church, preparing to sing in the 5 p.m. candlelight service. A service that will be full of nice, quiet adults and youth who can sit in their seats and hold live flames. I know....I can't completely grasp it, either. It sounds like a fairy tale. 

The boys and I are fixing to go drive around look at Christmas lights while David sings. We started doing this the year that William had strep throat--we just piled in the car and drove around to look at lights while listening to Christmas music. And um, eating chicken fingers. (Look, if we're eating, we're all happy.) Hmmm, where's the best place around here to get some chicken fingers?

Hope that you have a merry and meaningful Christmas this year. 

Now with extra festive!

Can't get enough of the holiday cheer, can I?



This was taken at the Dickens of a Christmas festival in Franklin. It was probably the best picture I took all day. I may have to make some Christmas cards after all...

We are festive!

I got the obligatory visit-to-see-Santa out of the way early this holiday season, which was a good thing because Thanksgiving was late, and I feel like we're trying to jam-pack everything into a much smaller window of time. Probably because we are. Even though I've deliberately tried to curate our obligatory holiday cheer into manageable chunks, it still takes time to be festive, you know. 

Festive with Santa!

William asked Santa for a Disney Infinity video game thing. Andrew asked for--and I quote--"surprises." When asked about his response later, he said that he'd just like some surprises that he's never gotten before. Done and done. God, I love him. Thank you, my dear younger son, for making this holiday easy on your weary old mom and dad. This means we can get him anything, and it will satisfy his criteria. 

What other holiday frivolity have we indulged in thus far, you might ask? Well, let's see. Mom, Diane and I took the boys to Franklin for the Dickens of a Christmas festival last Saturday. Very fun. Very crowded, but very fun. William and Andrew sampled pickles, crawled on Civil War cannons, listened to handbells, and were, yes, festive. I took Andrew to the Walk Through Bethlehem event at Woodmont  Christian Church on Sunday afternoon. And we decorated a gingerbread house a couple of weeks ago. We just need to make some cookies now. Cookies TBD. 

Both boys have class parties this Friday, and then they'll be out of school for the two-week (ish) break. Maybe I can whip up some more holiday-themed activities during that time. Suggestions and recommendations are welcome.  

More festive! For reals! Mom didn't even have to
threaten or cajole to get this level of festivity!

Cure for a Book Hangover, Kid Edition

A few weeks ago, William read the last page of the final book in Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series. He contemplated the back cover of the book and sighed a deep, shuddery, eight-year-old-in-an-existential-crisis sigh. It was finished.

It's a phenomenon well known to intense readers. He had become deeply immersed in the series of fantasy books, recommended by my friend Erica, whose own son had enjoyed them, and finishing them gave him that sense of melancholy that hangs over us when we grudgingly finish reading a terrific book. Someone referred to it as "a book hangover," which I think is very apt.

But what to read next?

William finished the Harry Potter series over the summer and then tackled the first few books in Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Little House on the Prairie series. He also read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series and Heroes of Olympus series. He loved all of those. But he keeps putting the first Fablehaven book on my nightstand and imploring me to read it so he'll have someone to discuss it with. So that should tell you how much he enjoyed Fablehaven--he wants to hold a book club meeting with his mom.

I wanted to find him something awesome to read. Something that would lessen the book hangover. But I wasn't sure what to recommend at that point. He mentioned wanting to start reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Ring series, but David and I both remembered struggling with those books when we were young. (Heck, I struggled with them when I read them as an adult. And I'd already read books like The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass and The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner.) So we suggested that perhaps he might want to wait on those for another couple of years. But in the meantime, what could he turn to?

I turned to my second favorite source of info after Dr. Google: The Facebook. "Help!" I wrote in a desperate post to my Facebook friends and their friends and the friends of their friends. "I neeeeeeeeed book recommendations for William."

And oh boy, did they deliver!

What the Facebook peeps (and their kids) suggested:

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
• Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events
• Books by Andrew Peterson (example: On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (The Wingfeather Saga)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society series of books by Trenton Lee Stewart
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
• Redwall series by Brian Jacques and Gary Chalk
• Children of the Red King series by Jenny Nimmo
• 39 Clues series by Rick Riordan
• The Sisters Grimm series by by Michael Buckley and Peter Ferguson
• The Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer
• Half-Moon Investigations by Eoin Colfer
• The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series by Maryrose Wood and Jon Klassen
• Amelia Peabody mysteries by Elizabeth Peters
• The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper
• The Unwanteds series by Lisa McMann
• Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland
• Keys to the Kingdom books by Garth Nix
• Gregor The Overlander and the other Underland Chronicles books by Suzanne Collins
• Peter and the Monsters books by Darren Pillsbury
• Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage and Mark Zug
• Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander
• The Expeditioners and the Treasure of Drowned Man's Canyon by S. S. Taylor and Katherine Roy
• The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy
• The Apothecary by Maile Meloy
• The Pendragon books by  D.J. MacHale
• The Three Investigators books by Robert Arthur
• Books by Nancy Farmer (example: Sea of Trolls Trilogy)
• Books by Madeleine L'Engle (example: A Wrinkle in Time)
• Warriors series by Erin Hunter
• Anne of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery
• The Inheritance Cycle books by Christopher Paolini

As a book nerd, this list makes my heart sing. A long list of books to try! Even if William doesn't respond to some of them, others will surely appeal to him. If your child is looking for new reading material, you might also find some good candidates from this list.

Got any other recommendations? I'd love to add more books to this list. so please let me know.

A dark and windy Halloween

It was a dark and stormy night.

No. Make that, it was a dark and blustery night.

Oh, and it was cold too. Teeth-rattlingly cold. And blustery. Did I mention the blustery part?

But the Scary Chef and the Ninja would not be deterred. Neither wind nor cold nor dark of night would keep from making their self-appointed trick-of-treating rounds.

Not only that, but William and Andrew and Sammy trick-or-treated for more than an hour and a half during this rather extreme weather situation. Along with hundreds of other kids, of course, their parents, Chewbacca and a host of Darth Vaders, Princess Leias, and Elsas from "Frozen." Bruce and I accompanied them, and we were pretty amazed by how fast our kids could run when motivated by candy. I'm wondering if perhaps we should enter them in the Boston Marathon since they are so good at sprinting in full costume. 

I praised Andrew for saying "trick or treat" AND "thank you" when he went up to the front doors. I added, "And you were very cute, too." Andrew immediately responded, "You mean scary." And I nodded solemnly, "Yes of course." 

Not cute.

Scary. Very very scary.

Andrew, Joseph, William and Sammy.

The Scary Chef and the Ninja.

The grandmothers were not put off by the Scary Chef.

David removed his Darth Vader helmet so he wouldn't compete
with the fierce scariness that was the hallmark of the one and only Scary Chef.

  

Even ninjas love their mamas.

All in all, we had a lovely Halloween again this year. Even if we lost a few things along the trick-or-treat route, everyone seemed to have fun, and no one got frostbite. I didn't get a good picture of me wearing my giant black-and-purple tutu, which was the focal part of my 40-year-old princess get-up, but that's okay. I was able to drown my sorrow in Twix bars, and really, can you ask for more than that?

San Diego Revisited

Check out these two giddy kids on vacation, sans small people!

We went to San Diego last week and left William and Andrew at home with their grandmothers, who gamely agreed to watch them, feed them, and chauffeur them around to their many important engagements. 

Traveling without the boys was the weirdest thing. I only had to carry my own stuff. I only went to the restroom if I had to actually go to the restroom myself. There were no interruptions at mealtime or showertime or any other time. I never had to hunch over my plate to keep small hands from snatching any of my food. I was able to decide to take in a yoga class or go for a run or head down to a nearby bar for happy hour without making any other arrangements. I just went! And when I sat down to work on my laptop while David was attending a session, I never had to get up and wipe someone's tushy or fetch him a granola bar or find someone's missing shoe or referee an argument. I just...got work done. It was a little disconcerting, actually. 

Of course, we did miss the boys. We wondered what they would have thought about dipping their toes in the icy-cold Pacific.

David, right before the water washed over his feet and instantly froze his toes. Del Mar, CA.

And I feel reasonably confident that they would have looooved the food.

Shrimp burrito and fish taco at El Zarape. Oh my God, so good. University Heights, San Diego, CA.

But we knew that their grandmothers were taking good care of them. And we knew that it was good for us to get away for a little while.  David enjoyed the educational sessions that he attended, as well as seeing some old friends, and I did, too. I even ran in a race...on vacation! Aren't you proud of me? I even ran really fast (okay, so "fast" is a relative term here).

It was a really nice trip. But as always, we were glad to get home. And glad to hug and kiss Andrew and William and tell them all about our trip. As we predicted, Andrew was interested in hearing more about how we rode on a train and a trolley, while William was interested in the food. Love my boys.

Couple of quick October photos

Okay, just a couple of quick photos before I leave town for a few days.

Here's one of William and me at the new Zaxby's. Andrew was the one eagerly awaiting the opening of the place, so we took him there the day it opened. I promised William that we'd get him there soon, and so today, that's where the two of us had lunch.

At Cheekwood with Andrew a week or so ago. Love taking him there. We often take a picnic lunch at eat it by the ponds, and then I let him play Julie the Cruise Director and lead me all over the place. 

For example, he took me on a tour of the scarecrows. It wouldn't be autumn in Nashville without a visit to see the scarecrows at Cheekwood, after all.

Oh, and you know how I mentioned that the boys are both playing soccer? Guess who scored his first goal this past Saturday? This guy!

And it was even on purpose! First, I was in total disbelief, and then I was so excited that I was literally jumping up and down. A very red letter day for Andrew and his dear old unathletic mom who's never scored a goal in her entire life.