This weekend, after stories and songs, I kissed Megan good night and told her, "I love you so much."

Megan responded by throwing her arms over her head, "I love you this much."

I put my arms up, too. "I love you this much." We hadn't read Guess How much I Love You recently and I was interested to see if Megan remembered the story, so I added, "And I love you to the moon."

On cue, she chimed in, "I love you to the moon and back!"

"Who says those things?" I asked her.

"Little Bunny Foo-foo."

"Noooo! It's Little Nut Brown Hare!" I corrected. I knew it had been a long time since we read that book. "You're my Little Bunny Foo-foo." I told her.

She knew just the tender thing to say: "And you're Hairy Brown Nuts!"

So it should have been really nice when one of my kids decided to take care of me. Today, Liam ran up to me and yelled, "clean, clean!" It would have been really sweet if he hadn't been rubbing me down with the toilet bowl brush at the time! Somehow, I just didn't feel very clean after that.

"Sure," I said. "Come sit by me."
"How do you vote?"

I got out the voter's pamphlet. On the inside there are some sample arrows that show you how to vote. Megan had them all filled in in a few seconds. "Now what?"

We turned the page. "See all these pictures?" I explained,"These are the people you can vote for. You can look at them and then circle the one you like."

Megan looked down. "TTT-ooo-mmm - Tom. Ssss-tttt-aaaa - Sta"
"That's Stu, honey," I corrected.
"I like Tom the best" she stated, as she circled his grinning mug.

And so we went through the book together, with me helping her read the names and her picking her favorites (I had already finished my voting in case you were worried that I might be biased by Megan's choices - haha!) She voted for Deb because I have a friend named Debbie, and she voted for the guys with the last name Smith (for obvious reasons). Finally, we got down to our last "vote"; Sam vs. Gerry.

"I want Sam because I like Green Eggs and Ham." ("I am Sam. I am Sam. Sam I am"). It seemed like better voting logic that some people use!

With Halloween and Mac's mom visiting our kid's didn't really need a time change to mess up their sleep schedules, but time waits for no man (or kid). And so with the time change Liam was yelling for attention at 5:20, which even on DST, would be early for him. I got Liam and then Megan came clamoring into our bed around 5:45. We had stayed up a bit later than usual with Mac's mom and had already changed our clocks, so it really did feel like 5:30 and not 6:30. By 7:00 (standard time), we had already finished breakfast.

So, How chipper was Mac after that "extra" hour of sleep? "This is the worst frickin' day of the year!" he said, just about the time he was pouring his third cup of coffee.

Not sure if Liam had a clue what was going on, but he was happy to be out an about (once the wig was off) and he seemed to get into the spirit, spending the whole night yelling, "Chick cheat." Close enough, I guess, cause everybody gave him candy.

Afterwards our "fairy ballerina" showed off her dance moves. The pink on her cheek isn't make-up - that's where she crashed into the floor from dancing in slippery tights (the inside of her lip is purple, too). It seems our dancing queen still needs a bit of practice!

Not to worry - nothing a few pieces of candy couldn't cure!

Poor Liam didn't get to sample the wares that night. He went straight to bed - no clowning around!

After

It's still pony tail long, but without the bottom six inches.

Also, heard in our house: "Liam! You can't stand on the cat!"

We did get a chance to get another Halloween picture of the kids. The kids got bigger; our pumpkin/gourd crop got smaller. (On purpose - Things were a bit crazy last year!) The kids seemed to be a bit more photogenic last year. Maybe my sister got a good shot, but I am not holding my breath - none of the kids wanted to sit STILL!

We also celebrated Brooke's second b-day a few days early (despite hoe it looks, we did NOT drug her!)

After we took Megan's picture, she thought we needed our picture taken, too. We insisted on keep our clothes ON!

We took a hayride.

We picked out a pumpkin.

Liam got very excited about apple picking. Look how the Dude has grown!

Megan and Mac climbed the hay tower.

Liam didn't want to be left out. Megan also went down the tunnel slide twice, but only after Liam did it first!

Then pet the animals, eat a donut, browse the store (buy more donuts!) and call it a day.

Failed Bribery: Mid-month Megan and I had a "Special Princess Tea Party" (Does that make us Special Princesses?). I promised her we could have this party when she stopped wearing diapers to bed (she hasn't peed at night in over six months). So finally, she announced she was ready. We had the tea party and Megan went to bed in UNDERWEAR! The night passed without incident, but by the next night Megan was throwing tantrums to have her diaper back. Oh well, it was a good try. We did agree that four year olds don't wear diapers, so hopefully the end is only a few months away. We may have to celebrate with another tea party.

Howdy Partner: I became a partner at work. During the process I learned exactly why there are so many lawyer jokes. Anyway, it looks like our roots in Salem just got VERY deep so we shouldn't be moving anytime soon.

Out with the Old: As I reassembled the house, I went crazy getting rid of stuff - three carloads out of the house. Wow it felt good! I could definitely be one of those people who's gets rid of all their stuff and lives without possessions. I felt especially good about culling the stuffed animal herd. Man I hate those worthless dust collectors!

Play nice: Megan and Liam are playing together with increasing frequency, leaving me to fantasize about days when I can just say,"Kids go play!" and they actually do so.

School Days: After initial trepidation, Megan LOVES school. Like everything else, she just needed to warm up to the idea. These days she's taking on reading. Most three letter words are no problem (consonant-vowel-consonant words). She gave up Sesame Street songs on Youtube as a treat in favor of Clifford the Big Red Dog spelling and reading games (BTW - she can spell "big red dog" too!). And we no longer get to spell for secret parental communication. She's not always right but she's on the right track. Talking to Mac about her P-O-T-T-Y Megan was sure we were talking about the pond and when I asked Mac if he wanted the C-A-N-D-L-E at dinner, Megan's reply was,"I want some candy!"

Double speak: Liam has this weird habit of making every word a double. It reminds me of my Grandmother who always greeted everyone with a "Hi, Hi!" In our house we have "may-may" (Megan) and "Don-don" (Dante). At night we take a "show-show" (shower) and when he's naked he likes to play with his "peen-peen" (boy does he ever!). Favorite activities include "climb - climb" (climbing on anything!) and watching "Barn-Barn" (Barney, the purple dinosaur). In other Liam news he's still having a lot of trouble using the "poon-poon" (spoon). He's starting to learn his colors, but he always answers pink (then yellow). We only demonstrate this skill on pink objects when we want him to look smart.

Too much of a good thing: We just couldn't get enough of the construction chaos, so we decided to replace our roof, too! The 30 year old cedar shingle roof only had a couple of years left at best, so we decided to replace it this year before it leaked on our brand new siding. It also seemed liked a good idea to only have our plants pulverized to dust one year! So more nails, dumpsters, strange guys and a port-a-potty at our house again!

Now on to October!