Who dares to cross my bridge!?!?!

Early this week I finally came through on a promise I made to my mom several years ago. I showed up to help sort through, organize, clean up my old bedroom. It is now her sewing room - and sometimes a nap room for the almost 4 year old. And I admit I had a lot of stuff in there over the years, and slowly Mom has been giving me bags of things to do with as I will. But I was never there to help in the first place... until Monday night.

The biggest thing to go through was books. Now I have always loved reading, and I think the little one is following in my footsteps. He loves to have a story read to him, and if you can't - he will sit down and tell the story himself. (I love watching him do that.) Back on topic, though... I could not believe how many books we had tucked away in that room. A three-row book shelf was stuffed with books, and the closet... well let's just say I don't need to buy any books for quite some time for the little monster that I have. Of course, some are going to stay at Mom and Dad's while some go home with us.

I had forgotten all the books I had when I was little. To see some of these books for the first time in more than 10 years (some more than 20!!) was like stepping back in time. I am looking forward to sharing my favorite stories with the young one. There were a few that he picked out right away... a Fox and the Hound pop-up book, anything with Curious George or Clifford the Big Red Dog, and a teeny little book called The Three Billy Goats Gruff. (When I say teeny, I really mean teeny. The book is maybe two inches by three inches and no more than a 1/4 inch thick.)

This book tells the story of the three goats who need to cross a bridge, under which lives a troll. The troll under the bridge loves goats, I think it even states that goat stew is his favorite, but hey - you can go to the library to check it out to make sure! The little one of mine has decided this is his newest game to play. Someone has to be the troll and ask the all important questions "Who dares to cross my bridge?" and he answers "the little billy goat gruff because I want the green, green grass to eat and get fat." If I can ever capture the look on his face as he gets ready to "race across the bridge" I will post it with an update. It is so darn cute!!

Halloween Fun!

The little one experienced his fourth halloween this year. I have a picture of him in his outfit posted further down (Davy Jones in the picture is the daughter of a great friend of mine). It was so cute... he was Thomas the Tank Engine, and I was to be James. (Just check out this link if you are not sure what I am talking about.) Of course - I didn't find out I was to be James until about 3 minutes before heading into town for that childhood favorite of free candy. So I was just mama for the evening. But according to him that was okay. (I wish I could put his voice in here somehow - it is so fun to listen to him talking.)

Now that he is getting older - his concept of how this all works is getting better. He knows that he needs to say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you", however - we are still working on the part of when to say those words. Most often on Tuesday night it was "Trick or treat thank you." And at the houses where people were dressed up he just had to know who they were! It was the cutest thing... a guy all in black without a visible face and skeleton hands was not scary!! Just brought up questions like "what happened to your hands? Who are you? Where is your face??" I think the best things was that no one deliberately tried to scare us - you know jumping out and yelling "Boo!"

It was funny to see how much like me he is (or maybe scary is the better word to use here). We went to the houses of people I know, and for that matter that he knows also. So it wasn't just saying the words and then moving on... it was stopping to chat and catch up with people that I haven't seen for days, or weeks, or months. And most of the people he knew so it was his conversation and mine that had to be finished before moving on to the next place.

Here are the pictures that I have from his last three Halloweens. (Don't have an electronic format yet of his first year... If I manage to create on, I'll modify this post and add it in.)

2006


2005

2004