Happy Halloween

My boy is getting to be really independent. This is probably the last Halloween I'll be able to dress him in a costume of my choosing. I suspect next year he'll want to dress up as a superhero or Thomas the train or something worse. And it won't be long before he won't want Mom and Dad dressing up with him.

Until then, I will enjoy how cute he looks for his first three Halloweens.

First Halloween: Baby Spock

Second Halloween: Raccoon (or My Neighbor Totoro)

This Halloween: Robot

Have a spooky but safe Halloween, everybody!

5 Scary Things

With Halloween just around the corner, thoughts often turn to the spooky an the scary. I'm not afraid of ghosts or goblins or even zombies (OK. Maybe a little, cuz they want to eat my brains!) I'm more afraid of real things (and sometimes just reality in general). Some are silly, some not.

That said, here are the top 5 things that scare the bejeebers out of me:

1. Spiders -- Not all spiders, but brown recluse, black widows and others that can do real damage with their bites. And the harmless, but aggressive ones who will coming running right at you. It's just not right for something to think it can take on a human thousands of times its size.

2. Miller moths -- This is a totally irrational fear, again of something many, many, many times smaller than I am.

3. Small spaces -- As I've gotten older, I've become more and more claustrophobic. I can barely read an account of someone being trapped in a small space without feeling a tiny bit panicked. Maybe I'm turning into Edgar Allan Poe.

It's scary how much I love this little guy.

4. Road ragers -- And there are so many of them on the road. Where is everyone going in such a hurry that they're risking their lives to get there? I'm usually driving with my son. Which takes us to ...

5. Something terrible happening to my son -- This is the scariest of them all, and probably the most realistic. Terrible things happen all the time. The best I can do is protect him when I can and try not to dwell too much on it.

4 Things I Say ...

too much, if how often Milo says them is any indication.

1.  That was crazy!
2. I don't think so. (As in, no way, mister, not going to happen.)
3. If you say so.
4. Shut up (not to Milo but I need to stop saying it nonetheless).

I could never say, "I love you" to this kid too much.

By the way, let's all just pretend it hasn't been three months since I last posted here and just move on.