I hope all of you (and your children) had a fun day trick-or-treating, partying, parading, or participating in whatever Halloween festivity caught your eye today. Here at the Menagerie House we went to a lovely party this morning, and then carved a jack-o-lantern and painted a pumpkin this afternoon. Tonight was the big event…Ta da!

Tonight was Liam’s first ever trick-or-treating experience. He’s been too shy in previous years to go out. We kept offering to take him, but he was perfectly content to go to a couple of parties and then hand out the candy on Halloween night while wearing his costume. He’s matured tremendously over the last year though, and the terrific time he had tonight is because of his newfound gregariousness. This picture is of Liam and his “best friend” A, who lives two doors away from us. In this shot they were meeting one of our more creative neighbors, who was all dressed up to hand out the goodies.

And here he is with another friend, J, who lives across the street. You can see the lemur tail that occupied our morning yesterday if you look carefully between his sneakers. The tail, a screen-printed lemur shirt, and a red silk (every super hero needs a cape!) made up his SuperLemur costume.

He returned home happy, cheeks flushed from the cool night, and in possession of a significant load of candy. He’s really not much of a candy eater except for M&M’s, which he adores. His first action upon arrival home was to count his M&M’s:

“Mommy! I’ve got nine snack size bags! Nine! That’s almost a million, you know!”

All in all, it was a successful Halloween, especially considering that both kids and Mommy were not feeling completely well. And I’m glad we ended up having the time to make that tail yesterday!

To all of you out there, “Happy Halloween!” from the Menagerie House crew!

On Tuesday I met up with a new milestone in my parenting career. Right around noon I got a call from the Waldorf School. On the other end of the phone was Liam’s sweet teacher, who was concerned because he was “warm, his cheeks flushed, and all he’s interested in is staring at the wall. He’s coming down with something.” She asked me to come pick him up and let him have a nice peaceful afternoon at home. Two days a week he stays for aftercare at school - they fix a hot lunch for the children, tuck them in for nap, and for those who don’t wish to sleep, read several story books, do a craft activity and go out for another healthy dose of fresh air in the play yard.

But that day it was not to be - he was indeed feverish and cranky. I’d never been called to come to school to pick up a sick child before, and I hope we don’t have to do this again anytime soon - poor Liam was sure he’d done something wrong to result in his teacher asking him to go home. He stayed home with me yesterday due to the fever. Last night, both Kiri and I became feverish and cranky, so I found myself in the pickle of entertaining two sick boys who both want to hang out in my lap and read books. The catch of course, is that neither child feels that my lap is big enough for two, so a certain amount of shoving and pushing results. And they never agree as to literary selection either. So we went the domestic arts route today, and by gosh we had some giggles by the end of the day!

Liam and I started out by making a new lemur tail for trick-or-treating tomorrow night. (SuperLemur is back in action for Halloween ‘08, but somewhere over the summer we lost last year’s tail.) The new one took a good chunk of the morning, and it actually looks much better than last year’s creation. I’ll post a picture tomorrow when I get a full photo of SuperLemur.

By that time we were all cranky, so we watched some Sprout and took a nap. Kiri kept on sleeping, so Liam and I took advantage of that to make some dough for cut-out cookies. We got them all baked and decorated:

Special note to all you grandmotherly types out there - yes, he was feverish in this shot, yes, I know he has no shirt on, and yes, I know he should have shirt on. Liam remained unconvinced by all my logical explanations and hissy fits, so we went about life with a shirtless Lemur.

This is the first time I’ve ever frosted cut-out cookies - usually we put sprinkles on before they are baked and call it good. But the frosting allows for more creative decorations, plus wow, is it yummy.

We were on the clean-up phase when Kiri came back. We offered him a cookie, and then he got busy helping Liam clean the counter:

This is the two of them hunting down the last drops of icing, plus all the spilled colored sugar and non-pareils.

This was Kiri’s first ever time as bakery assistant, and he was pretty much wowed by the job.

“Mmmmm, I love to put things away already, but I never knew clean-up time could be so sweet!”

And with that we made it to the end of the day. Liam is definitely better, Kieran’s about the same, and I’m about the same, too, but at least we’re all happy and got some constructive things done today. I am willing the boys, especially Liam, to feel better by tomorrow so they can enjoy Halloween - I don’t want to be the one to have to explain to SuperLemur that he’s too feverish to go out! I will keep everyone posted, I promise!

I’d forgotten how delightful 18-month-olds can be. Kieran at 18 months is a delightful combination of baby and little boy. One moment he’s clinging to Mommy, and the next he’s attempting to cross the street by himself. While we never know from moment to moment whether we’re dealing with a baby or a little boy, things are always interesting around the Menagerie House.

I was brushing my teeth the other morning while listening to a conversation in the bedroom:

Kevin: “Kiri, come tackle Daddy!”

I heard running feet, the giggling of little boys, and then:

Liam: “Daddy, I think Kieran has a present for you in his diaper.”

Kevin: “Kiri? Do you need a new diaper?”

Kieran: “No!”

I continued on, trying to decide whether Kiri is more like a baby or a little boy these days, and thinking how handy it was that Kevin was still home and could handle the diaper change. Slowly, still sleepy at 6:00 A.M.. I realized what Kieran had said. So did Kevin…

Kevin: “What did you say? Oooh, I see you have that word now!”

Later that day, I asked Kieran about lunch.

Me: “Kieran, how about a sandwich for lunch?”

Kieran: “No!”

That afternoon, I heard this interaction between the boys:

Liam: “Kieran, do you want the red crayon or the blue one?”

Kieran: “No!”

Liam: “How about a marker?”

Kieran: “No!”

Kieran stood up, mumbling “No!” to himself.

Liam just wanted to play with Kieran, but Kieran was clearly intent on exploring his new linguistic skill. Liam gave it one more try:

Liam: “Kiri? What does the cow say?”

Kieran: “No!”

Liam: “Mommy? Why is Kieran saying ‘No!’ even when that’s not what I’m talking about?”

Me: “Well, I guess he does that because it’s fun and just because he can finally say ‘No!’ “

That was when I remembered the word I had been looking for that morning. Kieran isn’t always a baby, yet he’s not a little boy, and he will say “No!” at the drop of a hat. Aha!

Ladies and Gentlemen, hold on to your hats for the wild ride just ahead. Kieran has entered a new phase. He has become a Toddler. With a capital “T”.

Welcome to Toddlerhood, Kiri. It’s fun time you are entering, complete with ups and downs and lots of excitement. But please? Remember to be gentle with your parents - and your brother!

Well, since I did promise a photo run-down of our summer, I guess I’d better get to it. Being as it is October now, and my laptop is finally back in my loving arms, and all that stuff. During this summer I was keeping the blogging and the photography light in order to give myself a bit of a break. Now that Autumn has returned, I’m hoping to pick things back up again. The break was nice, but I  miss my bloggy friends, and I miss having a more detailed memory book. So, with that, here are a few scenes from the summer.

Seriously, folks, Tupperware is the best toddler toy ever, hands down. Here is Kieran stirring ice in a pitcher and pouring it back and forth into a plastic bowl. He amused himself this way for many hours this summer.

Here’s the early summer milestone - learning to climb the stairs. It took him most of the summer, but he can now safely go up and down the stairs at great speed, even on all fours.

All that working and playing makes a guy hungry, thirsty…

..and tired. Nighty-night, Baby!

For a while last spring and into the summer, Liam was quite fond of this guy. I made him a hat just like that of his cartoon buddy, only in Liam’s favorite color, red. It got a lot of wear until the weather became hot; I’m predicting a return to this hat now that it’s cooling down.

A guy’s gotta have wheels. Here’s Kiri at a park attempting to “drive” a climbable truck sized for the pre-school set. He was not quite tall enough to really get into the game.

Kevin had a birthday (40!….ssssshhhhh) this summer. Liam and I made him a cake while Kiri cheered us on from behind a pile of oranges in his highchair. Here’s the chef with his masterpiece. About the only part of the cake that wasn’t 90% Liam-made was the baking part. He did the mixing, the pouring, the frosting, and the decorating.

We spent a fun evening with friends at the fair. Liam is all about pony rides these days, and a fair is a great place to find them.

Child-labor laws? I’m not allowed to force my toddler to mop the floor? But he’s the one who threw lunch there in the first place!

Here’s Liam putting out a pretend fire in a scale-model house. This was a safety demo evening put on by our local volunteer fire fighters.

If you know the Princeton campus, you know this fountain. It used to be strictly verboten to go into the water there, but on this July night we found people and dogs of all sizes wading and splashing. There was even a couple of grad students floating in inner tubes.

Here’s Liam watching a puppy play fetch in the water. Shortly after this picture was taken, we adjourned down the street for ice cream. Evenings like that are what summer is all about.

I’m interrupting this summer-logue for a Random Ferret Picture. This is Pippi, who has developed a ferocious passion for climbing legs.

And here is Houdini, who thinks it is just the funniest thing when Pippi jumps on her from hip-height. Here she is doing the Weasel War Dance that ferrets perform when having lots of fun.

A shot from earlier this week of the boys taking a break from play. If you look closely at the sun angle and the quality of the light, you can tell Summer is pretty much over…

…or just look out the window. It won’t be long until you are seeing photos of the boys in mittens and coats.

Thanks for stopping by, and hopefully you’ve enjoyed these photos from the Menagerie House. Hopefully I’ll be updating more frequently now. Next week we’re off to Walt DisneyWorld, so I’ll have lots of content!

We are a family of co-sleepers. Both of our kids have been in our bed since they were newborns. Liam moved out when he was two - or three, I can’t remember for sure, but he comes back some nights just to fall asleep, and then we move him into his bed later on. Kieran is obviously still in bed with me since he night-nurses, and I’m not getting out of bed in the wee hours if I don’t have to! Co-sleeping works for us. I love having warm little bodies snuggled up against me, feet against my tummy. It’s safe and it’s warm and we all get (mostly) the sleep we need.

However, there are situations where co-sleeping is not such a great thing. Not many, but I did find one today. Let my story serve as a cautionary tale. Kieran played in the sandbox with the big kids for a bit this morning at drop-off. (We’ve been having a problem in that he doesn’t want to separate from Liam in the morning. He cries, begs to go back to Liam’s play yard at school, and unless I keep him busy, he will periodically point out the front door, sign “car”, and say, “Leem! Leem!” It’s really is a sad thing to witness. So Liam’s teacher has been letting us hang out for a bit at the beginning of school to let Kieran have a few more minutes with his brother and have some fun playing with the big kids. That has helped a lot, and Kieran is much happier.) Today he joined a “strawberry pie” making party that was in progress in the sandbox when we arrived. (The pie looked a bit grainy to me, but Liam assured me it was delicious.) At one point one of Liam’s classmates drizzled “strawberry filling” all over Kieran.

Despite the fact that I brushed him off as well as I could, he ended up bringing some apparently large percentage of the sandbox contents home under his shirt and in his pockets. I was not aware of that fact as I gently picked up a sleeping child from the car and tucked him in for a nap when we arrived home. He looked so peaceful that I decided to join him.

It was a wonderful nap until I woke up a bit later. The bed was distinctly scratchy. I tried to brush the visible sand off the sheets. Just then Kieran rolled over and several spoonfuls of sand fell out of his pockets. I brushed that off, but then more sprinkled out from the cuffs of his pants. I gave up and let the baby sleep. When he woke up he pointed to his shoes and socks, obviously wanting me to remove them. I did, and out poured sand. I wouldn’t have thought you could squeeze much sand into Robeez, but it turns out that yes, you can. And I’m too lazy to change the sheets today since that’s on the agenda for tomorrow, so we’re just going to put up with some sand in bed tonight.

So there you go - co-sleeping is warm and fuzzy and wonderful. But when the kids get big enough to play on their own, it’s a good idea to check the contents of pockets, shoes, and other spaces in clothing before they enter the bed. Who knows what could end up in your bed? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

…with the first day of kindergarten. My first baby really is growing up. (Note to self - stock up on tissues for these moments.) Our big boy was all excited to go as lots of his friends from last year are in his class, and he hadn’t seen most of them since last Spring…

“Bye, Daddy! Bye, Kiri! Let’s get going, Mommy!”

And so began the day. And it continued wonderfully. May he love the rest of the school year as much as he loved today!

(I’ll be back with more details in a few days. I also have a post that I had intended to put up on Labor Day with photos from various events this summer. I also have a great “Bits and Pieces” post. Alas, all of this will have to wait. My computer died last week, and the verdict from the repair shop is that it needs a new motherboard. It’s on order, but it won’t be in until next week sometime. I’m using Kevin’s machine right now (Thank You, Hon!), but it doesn’t have all the stuff that I usually use on it. Hopefully the parts will arrive soon and I’ll be able to post a flurry of new posts…)

Yesterday the boys and I attended a playdate at local park. I have seen this park many times in passing, but I had never explored it before yesterday. The town next to us built it about ten years ago in celebration of the 300th birthday of the organization of the town’s government. It’s several acres of land with many walking/jogging trails, shade trees, lilacs (note to self - must visit next Spring),  and a gorgeous fountain. When one of the members of my local mothers’ group organized a playdate there and mentioned the terrific playground, I signed up.

We arrived at the park, managed to drag Kiri away from the fountain (the boy loves water - why did I not think to bring a change of clothes for him?), met up with one of the moms and her children, and made our way to the playground.

The equipment was wonderful. I remember not wanting to play on monkey bars as a child because the metal bars inevitably hurt my hands and left blisters if I continued on for long. This place had yard after yard of monkey bar pathway, but the bars were made of a beautiful hard rubber with ridges. The bars felt wonderful in my hand, and I even managed to swing across a few bars before stopping. Liam swung his way across and back and then went on to explore other things.

As we went toward the back of the play area, we found another structure made of these same bars, this time strung together with really tight bungee cords and suspended off of a metal frame. Liam climbed up, jumped off, climbed up, jumped off, and then stared at the structure.

Me: “What are you thinking about, Liam?”

Liam: “Well, I’m trying to figure out what this thing is,”

Me: “It’s a climbing structure, right?”

Liam: “Well, yes, of course, Mommy, but what is it really?”

(Note to self - mark my words, Liam will be a pro at sarcasm by his teen years.)

Me: “What?”

Liam: “I mean it looks like something….I know! It’s a spider web!”

And it was! It really was a spider web made of bars and bungee cords that one could climb on, through, and over. It really was a clever piece of playground architecture. Throughout the morning Liam would wander on and off the spider web, obviously enjoying some sort of imaginary game.

I wondered who or what he was imagining himself to be. Finally, Liam ran over, dragged me to the spider web, and with a quick, “Watch me, Mommy! I’m an exciting creature! Really exciting!” he scrambled up to the middle of the spider web.

I asked him who he was, and he started swinging the web through the air as far out and back as the bungee cords would allow.

Liam: “Watch me, Mommy! Wheee! I’m the famous Big Spider and this is my home! Wheee! Wheee!”

Me: “Glad to meet you, Mr. Big Spider. What are you doing on this fine day?”

Liam stopped swinging, looked at me like I really was denser than he thought, and said, most patiently, “I’m doing what all spiders do on playdates,” swing, swing, swing, “Wheee! Woo Hoo! I’m WEBSURFING!!! It’s fun! Wheee!”

I’m sure the poor boy is still wondering what his crazy Mommy thought was so funny that she ended up choking on lemonade after laughing too hard.

I told Liam I was heading upstairs to put Kiri down for a nap. I should have paid more attention when the reply, “No worries, Mommy. I need to do some decorating anyway.” drifted up the stairs.

Next time I will listen a bit more closely.

I was reading the news this morning while, for once, the boys were playing quietly together. I vaguely overheard Liam, who was playing store, trying to sell Kiri some trinket or another. I smiled, glad that things at home are peaceful, even if bad news is all over elsewhere. I heard Kiri say “yes” to his brother, but then Liam shrieked, “No! Mommy! He’s not playing right!” An upset face appeared by the counter.

Liam: “Mommy? Kieran isn’t playing fair!”

Me (wondering how a baby/toddler cheats): “Really? What did he do?”

Liam (indignantly): “He didn’t pay me with imaginary money! He tried to trade me a Thomas book for my merchandise!”

Me: “Well, he’s pretty little. Maybe he doesn’t understand about money. Could you just trade instead of using money?”

Liam: “No! He has to use real imaginary money or it’s nor right!!!…….Mommy? You know how to use money, right?”

Me: “Well, yes, yes I do…”

Liam: “Maybe you’d like to buy something from my store?”

Me: “Well, sure, what do you have for sale?”

Liam: “I have the world’s biggest apartment store. I sell everything! Ask me for ANYTHING!”

Liam jumped and spun around in delight.

Me: “Hhhmmm, can I buy a dozen eggs and some soy milk?”

Liam: “Mommy, that’s boring, but if you say so….that’s $4.29.”

I pretended to pay him.

Liam: “You need to buy something fun.”

Me: “I do? Oh, of course. I do. How about a one week trip to DisneyWorld?”

Liam (pretending to search the shelves): “Well, hhhmmm, somewhere…AHA! Here it is. I’ll put your tickets in a bag. Better use plastic in case it’s raining outside. That’s $7.89, ma’am.”

Me: “Thank you, young man, and I do like your prices!”

Liam: “Thank you. Now what else would you like?”

Me: ‘Ummmmm, how about world peace and happiness for all?”

Liam: “Oh, yeah, we sell that - everyone seems to ask for some. Would you like the 5 gallon, or the large barrel?”

Me: “I think the large barrel. How much is the price?”

Liam: “It’s $2.00.”

Me: “Wow, that’s a great price!”

Liam: “Yes, it is. We want everyone to buy some.”

And if it really was that easy, wouldn’t that be truly something amazing??? I hope he’s still holding that thought when he’s grown.

Kieran has most of the tricks you’d expect of a baby his age - he totters along, stumbling occasionally, uses 9-10 words with regularity, eats with utensils (except when it’s more fun to finger paint with spaghetti sauce), draws a straight line, and when pressed, throws a pretty decent temper tantrum. However, the child has one thing most his age do not.

Kieran has a throwing arm that is absolutely mean. We keep telling him when his throwing is inappropriate. If he’s lobbing trains, we’ll gently take them from him and give him a ping-pong ball to throw. We ignore thrown food at the dinner table as much as possible. Still, though, we have to be right on top of him at all times, because usually Liam and Casey are on the receiving end.

It’s not a sibling thing, really, it’s just that Liam gets engrossed in his imaginary play and he becomes the perfect target. Then Kieran spies him, or the dog, realizes the toy he is holding would be more fun thrown, and boom! All heck breaks loose. Which is why Kieran persists in throwing things; he’s in it for the reaction. In the last week Liam got a bruised forehead when a metal Percy was thrown at him from a distance of four feet or so, and poor Casey got hit right between the eyes with a Weeble. It’s dangerous, and it amuses Kieran to no end to see Liam or Casey yelp and run away. It’s not a fun phase that we’re going through with all this throwing, but like any phase, it won’t last forever (we hope!), and it is sometimes funny:

Kieran was in his highchair eating breakfast. More of it was ending up on the floor, and then into Casey’s tummy than was going in Kieran’s mouth. But  he was in a good mood, and so was the dog:

Me (watching Kieran throw cereal): “Kieran, we eat our food. No throwing.”

Kieran: “No??”

Me: “No.”

Kieran picks up some fruit and dangles it over the edge of the highchair, making sure he’s got my attention:

Me: “No throwing, Kiri. Fruit is for Kiri to eat!”

Kiri waves his fruit about:

Me: “No throwing fruit, Mister!

Kieran: “No??”

Me: “No!”

Kieran begins to nibble his fruit; I look away. Silence reigns for a moment, until:

Kieran: “Mama?”

Me: “Yes?”

Kieran (setting up to pitch his pear): “Mama??”

Me: “No throwing.”

Kieran: “No?”

Me: “No.”

Kieran: “Mama? YES!!”

And with that he launched a slice of pear across the kitchen and into the sink. I couldn’t help laughing.

Me (to myself and Casey): “At least he’s cute, and if this keeps up, maybe there’s a college pitching scholarship in his future.”

“Mama says I throw everything, but she is wrong! I would never throw an ear of corn on the cob - it’s too delicious to stop eating!!!”