I wasn't kidding about Halloween overload! (See previous post for more details).

Here are Jacob and Casey trick-or-treating. Casey loved it! She was a real pro! She remembered to say "trick or treat" and "thank you." Jacob was a great role model, too!


Here's Jacob at the end of a long night of trick or treating. "Don't touch my candy, mom."



Here's Casey sorting through her loot. She turned to our friend Jessie and asked, "Can I eat this one tomorrow?"


Here are the kids on the front porch before trick or treating. I would post more....but y'all are just going to have to wait for the calendar! I will say, with some pride, that Jacob and I made his mask out of paper máché, paint and electrical tape. He and I also dyed his gloves with professional baker's food coloring! I also made Casey's witch shirt decal, her broom, and her hat. For her shoes I took a pink pair pink boots that she got as hand-me-downs and colored them black with a Sharpie!


We were thrilled to be joined by the Marx brothers (Groucho, Chico and Harpo) as well as their foil, Mrs. Potter!


Here's our family just before trick or treating. Uh, Josh and I are not in costume!


Here's Jacob with a wicked Spider Man pose at the Halloween parade at his Kindergarten!


Here are the pumpkin pancakes that Jacob and Casey and I made earlier in the week. Honestly, I think these were overkill. But the kids did enjoy them!


Here's Casey chowing on her pumpkin pancakes!


Here's Jacob eating his!


This was the first year that Jacob designed and cut most of his own pumpkin. Josh and I trembled in fear as we watched him work, but he was able to cut out the eyes and the nose on his own!
Here's our wonderful babysitter, Maddy! She brought apple cider and helped us to carve pumpkins! She made a sun/moon face pumpkin (see images below).


Here are all four of our pumpkins. Top right, Josh's pumpkin. To the left of that, Jacob's pumpkin. Down one step, our babysitter Maddy's pumpkin. Bottom step, the witch pumpkin I carved for Casey!


Here are Josh, Jacob and Maddy's pumpkins in the dark on Halloween night. Pretty spooky!

It's beginning to look a lot like....Halloween!

Casey and Jacob and I were in Cotsco last week when Casey pointed excitedly. "Look!" she cried. "It's the Christmas!" Sure enough, it wasn't yet October 19th and the Christmas marketing had begun.

Thankfully, however, everything else is Pittsburgh is still decorated for Halloween. And I love it. It is my favorite time of year. I think I like it even more than Christmas.

I go nuts during the holidays, a fact for which I can safely blame my parents. My mom decorated for virtually every holiday on the calendar. On Valentines Day my mom put up hearts and put out chocolate candy. On St. Patrick's Day she decorated with shamrocks and leprechauns. On Easter we would get baskets from the Easter bunny and my Grandma Smith sewed matching Easter dresses for me and my little sister. In the spring I made May Day baskets out of construction paper strips, and delivered the baskets filled with flowers to the neighbors. On the Fourth of July we hosted a giant swimming party (we lived on Lake Washington) for all of our friends; my dad would add historical trivia contests and relay races to the food and fireworks.

But the fall/winter holidays were the most exciting. Each year I started planning my Halloween costume during the summer. One year I when I was in fifth grade I lay awake for hours each night, for weeks upon end, trying to figure out how I could create a Halloween costume that looked like a clarinet (which I played in the band). I eventually decided to make a "book worm" costume. I made a green mask for my head, and I wore goofy black glasses and a graduation mortar board. And then my body was encased in a giant cardboard box that I had painted to look like a book. The book was titled, "BOOK WORM."

Yah, I was a giant nerd. Even when I was just eleven years old.

My Grandma Newman did her part, too. She was a seamstress in Helena, Montana, where she worked for a family of sisters by the last name of Moore. The Moores also had a candy shop, and, so, for every holiday my Grandma would send us cardboard containers filled with candy from the Moore's shop. The containers were sturdy little decorations in their own right. There were pumpkin shaped boxes for Halloween, boxes shaped like firecrackers and covered with glitter for the Fourth of July, and boxes in the shape of birds and eggs for Easter. The candy itself was kind of yucky: miniature spiced gumdrops. But the boxes were so sturdy that my mom has passed some of them onto me.

My dad also got into the act. During Halloween and Christmas my dad painted the windows in the living room with holiday scenes. He used tempera paints, and the images were pretty easy to wash off and/or scrape off when the holiday had passed. My dad never involved me in the process, but I was in awe of it. I watched him like I was watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel—even though my dad was just painting homey scenes, like kids throwing snowballs, or a scary witch with a green face.

Inspired by this memory of my dad I announced my Halloween decorating plans to Josh.

"I'm going paint our windows for Halloween."

"What?"

"My dad used to paint the windows of our house; I'm going to paint the windows with scary Halloween scenes for Halloween."

"No, you're not."

"What?"

"You are not going to paint the windows. That sounds really messy: going on as well as coming off. I suggest you come up with a different plan."

"Uh, OK. You might have a point."

So, I decided to do black paper silhouettes for the windows. I asked the kids to help me choose different images from a database online, and then I sketched them on paper and cut them out with an exact-o knife. The cutouts look good from inside our apartment, especially during the dawn and twilight hours. At night, from the street, they are lit from behind by the glow our lights. Perhaps a new tradition has been born?

At the same time I have to ask myself: why am I so crazy for the holidays? Is there a line between just making things special, and making a huge mess and spending a lot of money? I often do both! And, while I have fond memories of the way we celebrated holidays when I was child, are my current activities more about me showing off my artistic skill, and less about spending time with my kids? Am I pushing candy on them, needlessly and constantly, throughout the year? I'm not entirely sure!

On the other hand, uh....here's my handiwork. Please admire it! Or tell me that I've gone to far!




I also made Halloween cookies for an afternoon during which Jacob and I were entertaining 2 other Linden kindergarten homeroom moms and their kids. Jacob and I made the dough. Then I rolled, cut and baked the cookies. Then I frosted all of them green. Then Josh, Casey, Jacob and I decorated them with little tubes of thin frosting, candy corn, and black licorice. My favorite designs were made by Josh! (Hint: he made the snake cookie and the spider cookie, below!)


I come from a significant familial network of sicko holiday fanatics. Here are the Halloween hair clips and mini bags of m-n-m's that "fun" Aunt Cindy sent!



Finally, my holiday aesthetic has been successfully transmitted to at least one of my children. I came back from my trip to Madison to find this cute paper pumpkin on the wall. Jacob made it at school. It's so darling and whimsical! It's going to go in our permanent Halloween collection for sure! Any suggestions on how to keep the construction paper from fading?

What Were You Doing When the World's Leaders Came to Pittsburgh?

It seems like a million years ago already, but last month the world’s most important 20 leaders came to Pittsburgh. I was actually pretty excited about the event. As a proud booster of my adopted city I have beat the drum for the ‘burgh on many occasions, even risking ostracization from my birth clan when I rooted for the Steelers over the Seahawks in the 2006 Superbowl.

The media hype leading up to the G20 was cool. Pittsburgh was featured in Forbes, in addition to other well appointed publications and our city’s many virtues were extolled to the ooohs and awes of the maddening crowd….of journalists. But as the event got closer, I started to realize what it meant to host a gaggle of global leaders. Here’s what the G20 meant for us:

1) School closures. Jacob had finally started kindergarten on September 10, a date that I thought was shockingly late, especially since my school year started on August 28th. Josh was in the final throes of his dissertation, and so between the two of us (and the best baby sitter ever, Maddy) we muddled through the late summer/early fall gap in child care, and Jacob got a lot of much deserved personal attention from his adults. And, uh, he also got to watch a lot of Scooby Dooby Doo, Where R U.

But then we got word that the public schools were shutting down for two and half days for the G20, starting on Wednesday, September 23, and that those no-school day were being tacked onto the holiday that was already scheduled for Yom Kippur (Monday, September 28th). So Jacob did not even have 2 full weeks of school before he was out, again, for three and a half days. Perhaps world leaders were hoping to secretly chip away at America’s productivity, one rust-belt city at a time (the next G20 will be in Detroit, right?).

2) Freeway closures. In the weeks leading up to the G20 every time I left the house to cross a river I found myself, mysteriously and suddenly, stopped on the freeway. When the traffic would finally evolve into to a slow crawl I would find myself driving past workers prettying up a little area of the freeway here or there. It looked like the city’s version of what my cousin Cindy calls the “10 minute tidy,” only with concrete instead of throw pillows.

3) A 4,000 person militia. The cops came from all over Western Pennsylvania, and, in some cases, from all over the country. They dressed in uniforms that were so incredibly dark that they looked more like costumes than uniforms. The cops acted like action figures, too; my son got an Iron Man doll for his birthday that says, “Activate the microtron. I will fire you.” The G20 militias warned, directed, ordered about and arrested throngs of curious onlookers with a similar robotic, unimaginative monotone.

4) Newfangled weapons. I was shocked to read that the 4,000 person militia had been authorized to use aural weapons for crowd control that had never before been used on American citizens.

5) Empty streets. On Friday afternoon, the day that the G20 was wrapping up, I took the kids to a farm North of Pittsburgh for raspberry picking. The freeways were empty. EMPTY. Except for the military guards on route 579. Otherwise, we had the roads and the raspberries to ourselves. Here, you can see for yourself:



The rasberries were plump and delicious. There were also hundreds of bees enjoying the berries, which, for some reason, did not sting the children. Perhaps they had been warned not to sting anyone by the Pittsburgh police.



Jacob loves to pick berries, though he hates to eat them. He is an absolute sweetheart.


Casey ate as many berries as she could stuff into her little mouth. Or sometimes she just dumped them on the ground. She loved picking berries, and didn't want to leave.

Taking it on the Chin

It was a dark, cold and rainy day, but still. It didn’t seem like the kind of day that was going to end with a trip to the hospital. We started the morning with a drive to the best French patisserie in Pittsburgh, Jean-Marc’s. Casey had an orange pumpkin cookie and Josh and Jacob had maple bars. I had one small bite of Josh’s pastry, and then I tried to fill up on the aroma of freshly baked sweets.

In Aspinwall, a few miles from the bakery, we dropped off our broken printer at a UPS store and got some coffee. Then we headed over to the Children’s Museum, where the kids amused themselves in the Mr. Roger’s entry-way for almost an hour! Josh and I sat on the couch and drank our coffee. The place was mobbed with big families, including grandparents, and lots of pregnant women.

We drove home and the kids had “Chicken Mac n Cheese” for lunch. I’m pretty proud of this dish, since I make it lot but don’t actually eat chicken myself. Everyone else seems to like it. Casey woke up first, and then Jacob. We fed the kids an early afternoon dinner, and then bundled up for a short walk to the bowling alley near our house, called Forward Lanes.

At the bowling alley there were plenty of close calls. The 11 year old girl in the lane next to us accidentally pushed a bowling ball off the rack, missing Casey by about an inch. Jacob and Casey both threw the bowling ball towards the pins like they were heaving a shot put in the Olympics. A few times I pictured each of them in the ER with broken toes. We had “bumpers” on our lanes, so Casey, with her slow rolling balls, actually came in third for the family, behind Josh (#1) and me (#2). Jacob loves to bowl, and was sad to leave.

On our way home we stopped at Starbucks to get our Costco Starbucks coffee ground. The kids got to split a cookie, and Josh got a donut. I enjoyed thinking about the 22 pounds I’ve lost since August (yes, you read that right. 22 POUNDS. And counting). We climbed the small hill between Starbucks and our house, hustling the kids up and down the wet streets. It was about 6:30 PM, and already dark, when we started to climb the 30 or so steps in front of our house.

On the way up the steps Jacob stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and was skip-hopping up each step. He tried to cut in front of Josh, and I called out to him. “Don’t get in front of your dad, Jacob.” I turned my eyes away from him, for a minute, but then I heard a thud in front of me. Jacob had fallen, and he was starting to wail. Josh picked him up and gave him a big bear hug. Then we both noticed that blood was gushing from his chin.

We snapped on the light in the entryway at the bottom of the stairs to our apartment. Jacob had a gash on his chin that was so deep it looked like an animal had taken a bite out of it. Josh knew exactly what was in store for Jacob that evening. “He’s going to need stitches.”

This probably wasn’t the right thing to say to Jacob at this particular moment, because it only increased the volume on Jacob’s howling. Josh got Jacob to hold a clean rag to hold on his chin, and we ushered Jacob upstairs. Josh cleaned the wound as best he could, and put a bandage on it. I agreed to take Jacob to the ER. I put some books, snacks, games and some college papers to grade in my purse, and we headed out for the newly remodeled Children’s Hospital, on the other side of town where we used to live.

The waiting room at the new Children’s Hospital was like something out of the future. There were more than 100 people in the waiting area. It was cavernous, with high ceilings and brightly colored walls; one grape colored, one lemon-lime, one cantaloupe. There were six giant seating areas, each with it’s own large, flat screen TV, tuned to the Cartoon Network. There were a few consoles scattered around the room that seemed like they had games on them. Half of the families were wearing masks, and the sound of raspy, hacking coughing filled the air. After we sat down I heard several of the parents talking about how many times they had been to the ER with their children, just this week.

We were there for almost an hour before someone called our name. I thought we were just going to be registered, but instead we were ushered into a clean, well-lit examining room that boasted another brand new TV. I guess flesh wounds have their advantages in the waiting room hierarchy. A doctor in his early 20s (or was he 19?), with long hair, looked at Jacob’s chin and said it would definitely need stitches. He asked one of the nurses to put a numbing jelly on Jacob’s chin. When the nurse saw the size of Jacob’s gash she put on an extra dose.

Jacob stretched out on the hospital bed and watched Teen Titans on the Cartoon Network. I patted him and graded papers. Every once and awhile I would see the long-haired doctor pass our room, and I would try to catch his eye and look plaintive, but not pathetic, in the hopes that maybe he would choose us next. After another thirty minutes or so a woman with a stethoscope hanging around her neck came in and said that she was the doctor. She examined Jacob and told him how strong he was. She said, “someone’s going to come in and put some numbing jelly on your chin.” I said, “We got that about 30 minutes ago.” “Oh,” she said, looking surprised. “I guess they take pretty good care of me here.”

The doctor disappeared mysteriously for another 20 minutes, and then came back holding an armful of supplies. She washed Jacob’s wound with water, and then iodine. She asked me if I could hold Jacob’s head really still. “I think I can hold his head,” I ventured. “Would you like someone to come and help hold his head?” she asked, meaningfully. I pictured the doctor sewing up Jacob’s chin, and me passed out on the floor. “Let’s get someone to help hold Jacob’s head,” I agreed.

A nurse came into hold Jacob head. She was young, and had a Pittsburgh accent, and she told the story of how when she was little she had tossed a bowling ball up in the air and tried to catch it. She broke her finger and ended up in the ER! She asked Jacob about his kindergarten class and about his planned costume for Halloween. I tried to watch the stitching for a minute, and then sat down because I was starting to feel sick. The doctor put in 5 individual stitches, tying each one as she went, and then put a dozen millimeter wide strips of tape across Jacob’s chin. The doctor and the nurse told Jacob he was the best patient they had had all day. They said he was “super tough.” Jacob replied, “I’m even tougher than my dad!”

Jacob snacked on a protein bar on the way home from the hospital. He was quiet, and he seemed happy. I thought about how grateful I was that we had such good health insurance; even so, the ER co-pay was $50.00. I promised Jacob a few pieces of Halloween candy when we got home; by this time it was about 9:40 PM. Josh was watching the Alabama/South Carolina game, which Alabama was winning. We gave Jacob lots of love and put him to bed. I had a headache, so I took some ibuprofen. Josh came into our bedroom and rubbed my back until I fell asleep.

There was no doubt about it: Jacob had taken it on the chin. Josh and I talked to him about the importance of keeping his hands out of his pockets when he was running, and especially running up a wet staircase. But thanks to some good doctors and our good fortune, Jacob’s accident didn’t ruin our great day.

VIDEO!!! Casey puts on shirt & pants 10-15-2009

PC Users: you can hold the CTRL and the +/= button repeatedly to make the video (& the whole web page bigger & bigger). After you've viewed to your satisfaction, you can reduce the web page size back down by holding CTRL and hitting the - button repeatedly. Mac users, I think you can do the same thing except hold the Apple key down instead of the CTRL key.

In Which Casey Subtley Points Out Her Mother's Sexist Thinking

Last evening Casey and I were driving home after school when Casey noticed an ornate church.

"Momma, that looks like a castle."

"Oh, Casey, that does look like a castle! Do you think a King lives there?"

"Mmhmmmm..."

"I wonder what kind of King he is. Is he a good king, or a bad king?

"He's a woman!"

The Tooth Fairy's Close Call

I woke up at 5:30 AM and then again at 5:50. At 6:00 AM I thought that maybe I should just get up. The house was quiet. I crept out of our room and into the bathroom.

Suddenly I heard loud crack like a rifle shot. It was Jacob opening his door, which sticks at the top of the door jam.

"Mom!" Jacob cried, and he turned on the overhead light in his bedroom. I shielded my eyes from the light. In the early morning October dark it was like a bolt of lightening had crashed into the apartment and overstayed it's welcome.

"Jacob!" I yelled-hissed. " Turn the light out! You'll wake up Casey!"

Jacob flipped the light out but then he explained his actions. "Mom! I want to see if the tooth fairy left me any money!"

Oh.....I thought. Oh crap. Josh and I had each forgotten to play "tooth fairy" the night before, even though we were very excited that Jacob had lost his fourth baby tooth in German class, and even though we had placed the tooth carefully in a ziplock bag so that we could swap it for a $1.00 bill sometime in the middle of the night.

I decided to distract Jacob with gummy vitamins.

"Jacob, follow me." I grabbed the jar of gummy vitamins from the kitchen and led Jacob to the living room. It was dark throughout the apartment, and also outside. I gave Jacob two candy vitamins. "Wait for me, Jacob. I'll be right back."

I tried to think of a clever lie, or a ruse, but then I decided speed was preferable. I scanned the dark dining room for my purse. I rustled through the papers and the dried leaves I let Jacob stash in my purse earlier in the week. Finally, I felt my wallet. Fortunately I had some cash---a rare occurrence in our cash-strapped household. $5.00 bill, $5.00 bill, $1.00 bill. Jackpot. I pulled the smooth one dollar bill out of my wallet and threw my glance back at Jacob on the couch. He was still chewing his vitamins.

I backed slowly towards his bedroom and then turned around and rushed to his bedside. I pulled up his pillows and felt for the bag with the tooth. I snatched the bag and left the dollar in its place. I rushed back into the living room.

"Jacob! Let's see if the tooth fairy came last night! I'm going to turn on the lamp next to your bed, so we won't wake up Casey!"

Jacob and I headed back to his room. I turned on the lamp which cast a soft pink light. Jacob pulled the pillows off of his bed. "She came! The tooth fairy left me a dollar! A one dollar bill!"

"Jacob, that's great!"

Jacob kept his eyes glued on his dollar, like it was a million dollar bill. He didn't suspect a thing.

"Mom, I have to go poo!" Jacob announced this like he was telling me that he had just invented cold fusion. "And I'm going to bring my dollar with me!"

Jacob sprinted to the bathroom, and I plopped down on his bed, relieved. It had been a close call for the tooth fairy. Next time she'll have to remember to do her job right the first time.