Flashback

Secretly picking through my children's Halloween candy this morning I came across a Rocky Road bar. Chocolate and marshmellow and nuts, it was my Grandpa Jim's favorite candy. He was hypoglycemic and not allowed sweets. But I remember trips to the drug store with him and secret candy binges in the car. My grandmother always knew. She would scream, "JIM!!!" from across the house after he'd convinced me to sneak him a bite of my coconut ice cream. This coming Christmas will be the first of my life without my grandmother. This fall marks twenty years that my grandfather is gone. But this morning snacking on my kid's treats for breakfast he was right with me for a moment. I could smell the smoky interior of his old green Pacer with the 'MrJ' vanity plate. I could see his thinning silky blonde hair and here him giggle - with me he kind of giggled like a girl to make me smile. All this happened in 20 seconds this morning, but I thought I would write it down for my boys. Who would I tell? These are little fragments of my life and their lives that just float away. I spend many moments trying to figure out how to preserve them, this is the best way I've found for now.

Men of many hats

It was just brought to my attention that there are not any Choco Halloween pictures up! This is my disclaimer: Choc is at a very anti-photo kind of stage. Every time I snap a picture he's yelling at me to pick him up so that's why there is not an abundance of Choco pictures here. Don't get it wrong though: the boy is in ultimate cute mode. He says 'Bye' and 'Bird' and babbles about all kinds of mysterious things. He follows his brother around like a puppy and mimics every naughty thing Cai can come up with. We are at a really neat point because Cai has just discovered it's fun to have someone else around like Solomon. So he says, "Mama, I'm going to my room to hunt some mysterious monsters." Then he turns to his silly little toddling buddy and says "C'mon Choco." Who instantly waddles down the hall after him. Anyway, here are some photos so it is revealed what our lovely Solomon was for Halloween.