Tuesday, November 02, 2004

I Eat Color!

Words you don't really want to hear from your nearly 2 year old child. I didn't actually hear them because A) I'm nearly stone deaf in my left ear; and B) said small human was down in the basement while I was upstairs straightening the kitchen area. Mrs. Skinny comes up the stairs yelling for help, holding a smiling but struggling toddler.

Seems the Mrs. went over to the laundry machine to rotate one mound between washer & dryer. When she comes back, munchkin has a large grin on her face, the title statement, and a ring of red around her mouth. Seems one of the crayons looked good enough to eat, so she did. Probably just a nibble, but enough. She seems fine two days later, so...

It set the tone for the day. Both children were certifiable all day. Clearly we brought two more lunatics into the world. Little one was alternately grumpy as heck and devlishly mischievous all day [Editorial aside: I get REALLY cheesed off when people pronounce that word as "mis-chee-vee-us" Don't know why it bugs me so much, or why people can't speak what they see. Goes along with people who say Nukular.] Oldest was better behaved, until...

The candy bowl came out. We don't celebrate Halloween, but I thought we should be neighborly enough to have something for people who came by. It was beautiful in NY on Sunday, so I dragged oldest outside during youngest's nap, forcing her to [shudder] PLAY OUTSIDE. Except she didn't want to play. She wanted to hover six whole inches from the candy bowl. (Reese's minature peanut butter cups and two-piece Kit Kats, for the record). "When are people coming by? When can I give someone candy? Can I have just ONE piece? PLEEEEEEEZE?" Repeat until nausea.

Suffice it to say one or two people came by, candy was dispensed. Oldest's best friend came by, they proceeded to fight for 90 minutes out of the two hours they were together. The last fight of the afternoon was over, I kid you not, a sequin one of them found on the floor. Of such crises wars are made.

Anyway, I had spent the earlier part of the day cleaning out the garage in order to fit my car inside. We heard when looking for a home here that nobody parks their car in the garage, and it turns out to be true. Halloween, with it's accompanying shaving cream/egg rituals meant Mrs' car had to go in the driveway, & itty-bitty Honda Civic had to go in the garage. (it worked - not a spot on either car.) So by the end of the Great Sequin Incident, I was close to foaming at the mouth. All got resolved eventually, and I collapsed on the couch in front of a completely meaningless Bears-49ers football scrum, and went to bed way too late.