Monthly Newsletter #61

Dear Landon,

This month has been, interesting.

We had our neighborhood night out this month. Our neighbors all meet at the end of the street and hang out. This year we ate hamburgers and hotdogs. Normally we see a police car and a fire truck, but it seems we only got the police car this year. The officer let each of the kids get in and use the loud speaker and turn on the lights and siren. You were fine with flipping a button to turn on the lights and siren, but steadfastly refused to talk into the loud speaker.

We started out the month with your annual checkup at the doctor. As it turns out I hadn’t taken you to the doctor all year, which is kind of nice, but I hadn’t realized it had been such a healthy year for you. Your growth record is about the same as it always has been, little short, little on the high side for weight – but nothing to be concerned about.

We went to the Greek Festival again this year. You had a blast. It rained when we first got there and everything was soaked, but about 20 minutes after the sun came out, it was all dried up and you were ready to play. I hope one day I’ll get you to try the other foods, but as it was you liked the souvlaki (steak on a stick). Which is good enough for me. You made a couple containers of slime, and a rainbow crystal thingy – which you kept shaking until the whole thing turned brown. And you spent a good hour on the jumping things, slides, etc.

The next weekend we had Carson from school’s birthday party at BounceU. I love BounceU. They have the best giant slide ever – you don’t like to go down it by yourself, so I get to go on it with you – which I love to do. You also tested out their hurricane machine – along with like 12 other kids – you experienced 75 mph winds.

We did our annual pumpkin patch trips. The one to Dewberry Farms, we ended up not getting a pumpkin, but you jumped on the jumping pillows, rode the zip lines, and panned for marbles, among other activities. It was awesome weather and we had a lot of fun that day. At your request, I had made arrangements for you to go spent the night with my parents on Saturday night, so after we left Dewberry Farms we headed down that way. Zoey was there for the night also, and you two played and played and played.

I came back to get you on Sunday and we did our annual trip to the church pumpkin patch in Lake Jackson. You refused to take a lot of the pictures we normally take there, but I did get a few to make the comparisons from the years.

This month you were also introduced to my boyfriend, Mike. This is the first time you’ve been introduced to anyone I’ve dated since your daddy left. I have been very careful about not introducing you to anyone unless I thought it was serious, I don’t want you attached to people who aren’t going to be around. And your reaction was kind of what I expected, although it was a little bit delayed. Which meant your daddy had to deal with the bulk of it. There was some confusion and some jealousy, and the ever present fear of change. I think your daddy handled it well, because you seem to have adjusted to having Mike around. Granted, it’s only been a few days, and you will leave to visit your grandparents at the beginning of next week and by the time I get you back, Mike will be gone again. We won’t see him again for several months – but hopefully next time we see him, we won’t have the drama that we had this time.

For Halloween we sat out in the front yard to hand out candy. You dressed as Yoda and had a blast. You jumped around with your light saber, and you and Mike emptied two cans of silly string on each other. Which you then collected and made “the world’s biggest ball of silly string” and declared it a world record.

All in all this has been a very busy month, and I suspect this next month will be equally busy. I hope you continue to have a desire to learn (when I picked you up from school one day you had a pile of worksheets and your teacher informed me that you announced you didn’t want to play, you wanted to do homework) and a love of reading (our current deal involves 8 bedtime books, to be negotiated down if you feel the need to stay in the shower so long as to drain the water heater.)

Love,

Mommy

I'm sorry if my child may have insulted your daughter when you came to my house on Halloween

Last night, because the dogs go crazy when people knock on the door, we decided to sit out in the front yard in lawn chairs and hand out vegetables.  Surprisingly we didn’t get too bad a response on the offer of vegetables, and when given the choice between the vegetables and the candy, one kid did actually choose a cucumber.  I’m pretty sure his mom either threw it away or is contacting the police to have it x-rayed!

 

Mike stayed behind to hand out candy, while Landon and I took off to trick or treat.  One of the ladies on the street prepared special bags of candy just for the neighbor kids.  We get a lot of kids for trick or treating that are driven in from other areas. And I guess they just got regular candy, while the kids she knows got bags with really good candy and a few other trinkets.

 

So once we finished the street, Landon hung out in the front yard dancing around, playing with silly string, talking to trick or treaters, etc.  A couple of kids walked up, a boy about Landon’s size and an older girl – maybe 11 or 12 years old (I don’t know I don’t have one that size so I can’t really tell) – I don’t even know what she was dressed as really, but she was wearing a green dress with braided trim.  And then I heard him say “Are you a whore?” 

 

And everything went silent.  And I looked at Mike.  And Mike looked at me.  And I looked at the parents.  And I said “EXCUSE ME!  What did you say to her?”  And after some argument about who he was actually talking to (the little boy) he explained that he had asked “Are you a four?”  I’m not sure what the question was about, “are you a fantastic four?” maybe, but honestly I don’t really care.  By the time that got resolved I was just happy that I wasn’t having to explain to anyone where my child learned the word “whore.”