May the Force be With You

Halloween was incredible this year. It was Emerson's first year of walking door-to-door, and Henry has quickened his candy-seeking pace. The boys got all dolled up for their school's Fall Festival, then went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, then donned their costumes one last time in Grandview (thanks Matt and Laura!). this picture says it all ...

The Marauder!

Emerson is fully mobile now, and can often be found careening through the house getting into one sort of mischief ... Or another. Henry announces his arrival by yelling "The Marauder's coming!" which will almost assuedly be followed by Emer's infectious giggle and, when he whips around the corner, his impossible smile. Impossible because no matter what he's doing (coloring the dog, throwing chalk in the toilet, pulling out your chest hair), that smile makes it impossible to be mad at him.

And he knows it. Everyone better buckle in!

Braces!!!

Yeah .. it happened.  I can't shake it anymore ... I had to get braces.  Or lose my teeth (eventually).  At least, that's what the orthodontist said.  And the periodontist.



So, here's the scoop after a couple hours with them:

1. They don't hurt.  Yet.  They do, however, feel roughly how I thought they would on the back of my lips.  That is, until I ...
2. Talk! Talking is a big part of my job, and it's just plain weird now.  Hopefully this improves.
   
3. Or Chew! Eating sucks! It's bad enough that I have to eat a sandwich as if it were a landmine, but I also keep about half of it in in my damn braces ... and it's a bear to get crap out (I'm assuming that I'll get better at this, too, but still ...)
4. I'm sure I'm not the only adult to get these things, but not if today's visit is any indication ... everyone else got to go to soccer practice, or got to play, or had a recital ... I had to get back to work.
   

So, bring it with your schoolyard taunts, tired insults and hard luck stories ... I've got 17 months, 30 days left of these things (plus 3+ years of retainers) and I'm in it to win it.

Merry Christmas! (belated)

Christmas was absolutely incredible this year.  Even though we got nothing but rain (Brown Christmas, anyone?) we had an absolute blast.  The weekend before, we we blessed to have all of our family in town, and the boys got to see all of their cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, parakeets, orangutans, et-cetera, et-cetera.



In addition, Emerson got to go to the Aquarium and his new favorite place, COSI.



He and Henry had a blast ... Emerson is so excited to explore EVERYTHING.  He loves to figure out how things work.  Henry ran laps around Kidspace while Emerson sat contently examining the plastic bricks.  And splashing.  And splashing some more.



When it came to Christmas itself, Henry was a little more chill that morning than we thought he'd be. He had been so excited about everything else that we thought he'd explode when he saw the Christmas tree loaded up with presents.  He was definitely interested, but not giddy.  That is, until he started opening his presents ....
     

Then it was ON! We all stayed in our jammies until 2:30 PM, skipped out on going over to my parents house (sorry, Grammy and Grandpa) to lounge around some more, then went to a big family Christmas for dinner.  After years upon years of trucking around to a bazillion places each Christmas, this was my first to just sit around all day (and we still had to leave for dinner!). Merry Christmas to all!