Nov
1
This morning we loaded up the kids and trekked over to the Bellevue Square Mall, which is an upscale shopping mecca smelling faintly of complicated espresso orders and fifty-dollar bills. It’s not the usual sort of place I think of when it comes to kid-friendly activities, but the weather was dour and our options were limited. We made our way to something called the “Kid’s Cove”, which was essentially one large walled-in section of floor filled with soft rubbery shapes for kids to play on. Parents sat around the perimeter of the Cove, while its innards teemed with toddlers. There were maybe fifty kids in there just galloping around, and Riley was instantly sucked in, as though he’d been grabbed up by a tidal current. We sat there on the sidelines, like all the other parents, watching Riley bob to the surface now and then and wave at us. Dylan perched on my lap, softly clapping his hands and making his contented/interested noises: “Beh! Meh. Bmmm.”
We did that for a while, stroller’d over to World Wrapps for some lunch, then headed home with two tired, mostly happy kids. As far as excursions go it wasn’t exactly what you might call adventurous, or even very interesting, but if you would have suggested that location to me a few months ago I would have laughed myself sick. “A toddler and a baby, in that snooty mall?” I’d have said, slapping my knee in a jolly manner. “SMOKE ANOTHER ONE.”
I don’t know why it’s taken so long for me to get comfortable with taking both kids out and about — maybe it’s that Dylan is a little more predictable, a little less likely to randomly spray an entire semi-digested bottle of milk down my shirt. Maybe it’s that Riley is officially old enough to be hissed at, Mommy-Dearest-style, if his behavior strays into the unacceptable zone, and these days he actually responds to Stern Admonishments and Dire Threats instead of fishflopping on the ground screaming. Maybe I’m just realizing that cabin fever, if left unattended for too long, results in eye-glaze, clock-watching, and way too many goddamned episodes of Curious George.
It’s funny, I never would have thought that a morning spent sitting at a mall and NOT SHOPPING would be any kind of fun, but it’s all about finding things to do with the kids now. Sometimes I rail against this fact in my head, I get frustrated and wish I could just go do what I want for once, and sometimes I find myself sitting in some dorky Kid’s Cove, thinking, you know, this is really nice.
Oct
30
Earlier tonight I succumbed to this enormous bone-cracking yawn and peered outside our windows at the pitch-black evening, and I thought, man, it must be LATE. Then I realized it was 7:30.
I’m not sure I’m really ready for it to be, like, November. I love autumn but it’s going by way too fast, the days are getting shorter and shorter and I swear the leaves just started turning but they’re suddenly already half-gone, and were those Christmas ornaments I saw on display in the mall tonight, REALLY?
I had so many good intentions for going all out for Halloween this year; decorating the house and making all kinds of treats and carving at least three or four pumpkins, but somehow I blinked and what the hell, tomorrow’s the 31st.
We did manage to get one pumpkin carved:
The rest, well, maybe I’ll draw some faces on them with a marker or something.
I did send Riley to class today in his Old Navy DON’T LIE ABOUT THE CANDY shirt, which I hope counts as a Festive Holiday Craft.
Dylan wore his awesome MUMMY LOVES me outfit.
Wait, you seriously need a closeup of this onesie, it is just that goddamned cute.
AM I RIGHT?
Unfortunately, it came home in a sealed baggie today after he apparently pooped down a leghole this afternoon. (Those of you whose kids go to daycare, don’t you HATE those Baggies of Doom? Especially when they create a sort of horrible condensation on the inside of the bag, like some little weather system of disgustingness.)
Our Halloween plans for tomorrow involve me attempting to wrestle the children into their outfits, then taking them to JB’s work for trick-or-treating (his office decorates their halls and hands out candy to employees’ kids, which I always think must be fun for a certain percentage of workers, and a sheer living hell for the rest). Then maybe a quick stroll around our neighborhood in the evening, depending on whether Riley’s Into the Concept or Frantically Opposed to the Entire Thing.
I took photos of the kids’ costumes a while back in case everything goes to hell tomorrow:
A fist, a hand, hoocha hoocha hoocha . . . lobster!
Emo pirate.
After the kids go to bed, I’m going to force JB to watch 28 Days Later with me, and you bet your sweet chocolate-coated ass I’m going to be indulging in a LOT of this:
How about you? What’s on tap for your Halloween?
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