October 31st

It was a dark and stormy night. The birds were angry and bent on wanton destruction of property and livestock. But Batman was steadfastly keeping watch over the frightened citizens of Gotham City...

Ok, so it wasn't really stormy. It wasn't Gotham City. The birds weren't angry so much as just looking for a Snicker's bar or some gummy bears. And Batman wasn't really paying attention. 

In fact, Batman had just borrowed the outfit from a friend the day before after, to everyone's surprise deciding on short notice that that was just the ticket for Halloween. We didn't know that he even knew about Batman. Although he keeps talking about Batman and the "green guy". Not sure if the green guy is the Hulk or the Green Goblin. In either case, he's mixing up the comic books. 

The boys started their tour of the neighborhood by scaring Heidi, their friend and frequent babysitter. They ended the evening having way too much candy on their hands. 

Some of it will have to disappear. 

Happy Halloween! 

Workshop of horrors

Sunday evening a pair of goblins on our living room floor were preparing for the arrival of Halloween. They each - Johan with a little more help than Mathias - carved a jack-o'-lantern for the occasion. When they were done the floor was a mess but they each had a frightening pumpkin to show for it. Halloween starts now! 

Working on letters

Johan knows the letters of the alphabet. It's the pronunciation that is a bit muddled.  A couple of weeks ago he met with the speech language pathologist and it was decided he needs a little help. Today was his first session of speech therapy. 

In particular they are working on pronouncing the letters F, V, S, and L. They're also working on the CH and SH sounds.  He'll be going on Wednesdays and Fridays. Probably for a while. 

A jolly jumper

Last time we visited the Wisconsin Dells Johan was more than happy to be a spectator - sitting by the side of the pool watching the activities taking place before him. This year he was a bit hesitant at first. Then he discovered that his favorite thing to do anywhere is jumping into a pool of water. So that's what he did for most of our mini vacation. For those of us who had to lift him out of the water and onto the side of the pool hundreds of times it wasn't quite the restful vacation it could have been...

A zoo substitute

On a recent afternoon Mathias was playing at a friend's house. Johan and I seized the opportunity to visit a nearby pet shop. Johan especially enjoyed the turtles and the birds. It was much faster than a trip to the zoo. Everyone had fun and, no, we didn't bring anything home.  

Rony Pony

Mike, our neighbor down the street, was kind enough to have the boys over for a ride on Rony Pony. 

Mathias had a blast and enjoyed it very much - the faster the better!  Mike got a fair amount of exercise that evening.... 

Johan on the other hand, wears a cowboy hat and adores Woody the cowboy doll in Toy Story. But he had no interest in getting on a horse. Go figure.

We were bracing for Mathias asking for a pony afterwards. But so far we haven't heard anything. Maybe he's saving it for Christmas.

This morning

This morning at 04:45 Johan woke us up with an urgent request - he needed help putting a band aid on his toe. Now, his toe wasn't bleeding, injured or even stubbed. I think he just woke up in the middle of the night and needed something to do. That's the last time we buy band aids with cartoon characters on them.