I Still Have Candy

I know that Halloween was several weeks ago and most of our friends posted their pictures while sugar still made up about 90% of their children's bloodstream--I remember when I was teaching, we would call the day after Halloween "sugar detox" in our classrooms. But we do still have some candy at our house--mainly because all of the good stuff is gone--so we thought we would finally share some of our Halloween highlights.

It was amazing how well and quickly Brig took to trick-or-treating. To my little vocabulary sponge, Halloween provided a bunch of new words to add to his daily ramblings. If anyone says anything about Halloween, Brig just goes off, "Pumpkin. Briggie La La. Baby hot dog. Trick or Treat. Pumpkin candy." Rough translation: "There are pumpkins all over the place. Briggie was Elmo and baby was a hot dog for Halloween. My new favorite phrase is trick-or-treat. On top of the fridge is my pumpkin full of candy. This is so cool."

Even yesterday, as we pulled into the church parking lot before our meetings, Brig recognized where we were and said, "Trick-or-treat." It just made me smile to think that for the rest of his life, Brigham will associate church in some small way with Elmo, trick-or-treats, and candy. Whatever works to get him hooked, right?

Calvin was the darn cutest little hot dog I have ever seen. I found this costume at a consignment sale and knew I had to get it for my Hallow-wiener. He was a pretty big hit where ever we went. I always knew he looked good enough to eat.

Speaking of eating, I have to share a story about Calvin at the end of church yesterday. A friend was holding him at the end of primary so I could play the piano. After the meeting, all of the kids stayed in the room to get a cookie as a reward for a "primary program well done." I watched Calvin track the tray of cookies as it was going around the room, eyes locked on, mouth open wide, wrists turning furiously. The longer he watched the tray, the more visibly upset he became until finally he just started yelling. Not crying or whining, but yelling. He was mad. Everyone else was getting a cookie and he was mad that he was the only one not getting one. Oh man. The kid is not even 8 months old and already concerned about equality.

And the fun continues on and on and on.

**So I've gotta just tell you something, this blog was posted this afternoon by the Mother and then something happened tonight that I wanted to add to it.  

We got ready for bed and went through our normal routine of bathing, changing, PJing, feeding, reading, wrapping, rocking and brushing that we do every night. But at the end we had ended up in different rooms with each of the boys. So I took Brig into the living room to say goodnight and our prayers. Brig was tired and Cal was in a formula coma already. It was a darkened room with two of the tiredest, cutest boys in the whole neighborhood, it was quite a sight.

So we gave goodnight kisses and with the requisite temporary social disobedience Brig finally folded his arms. Again quite a sight. I started the prayer and a few seconds into it noticed that he was very intently keeping his little arms folded and head bowed. His eyes were certainly much more closed than his fathers. So I decided to try a little something and said, "Briggie, say the pray. Say 'thank you for Mommie...thank you for baby...thank you for Jesus...we love you Heavenly Father...we love Grandma...thank you for our friends and the Church and our family.'" And you know what? the little bugger repeated in beautiful pure childlike clarity his very first prayer, complete with an unprompted and emphatic "Amen!!" I know he didn't understand some of what he said but I also know that he did understand most of it and it was remarkable to a dumb little Dad who enjoys this kind of stuff.

Once my friends were sitting around braggin about all the sweet clubs and and parties they were going to that weekend. They invited me and asked what I had planned to which I replied, "are you kidding me? I'm gonna go home and play some mad tackle football with my boys tonight and tomorrow morning and every second I get with them. It's the most awesome thing you've ever seen when Callie throws a Pancake block or Briggie bust's through the line like it wasn't even there." They kind of stood there for a minute ... ... then asked if they could come over and play too. These boys are the greatest in the whole world and we love those little shits like kids haven't been loved since we were kids.

And still the fun continues on and on.