Hutch's Halloween!

So this is Hutch's first Halloween as a participant, and he threw himself into it!

First he helped Mommy carve the pumpkin!

Then he got all dressed up in his skunk costume!

Then he went to all the houses in the neighborhood to look for candy!

Then he came back to the house and sat as Daddy let the dog get into the ring pops!



But soon we were tired, and had to go inside!!!

Happy Halloween!

10 Thoughts on Harry Potter

Here's the picture of Hutch that has nothing to do with this subject...;)

I just did a drive to & from Dallas on Tue/Wed, and listened to Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince on audioCD. I'd already read the book twice, and I thoroughly enjoy listening to HP on CD, as Jim Dale does an astounding job reading them.

When I read, I read quite quickly and tend to skip over some of the nuances, perhaps. So I can read, for instance, HP #6 in about 10 hours. On CD, it takes 19 hours. So you get a lot of time to think even more about what's going on in the book.

So I wanted to put down a few of my thoughts on what happened in Book 6, just in case anyone else cares. For those of who who haven't read the book yet, I'm putting my thoughts in handy-dandy Invis-O-Text. Seriously, don't read the text if you haven't read the books, you will ruin a tremendous amount of your enjoyment. And stop whatever you're reading and go read them, darn it!

So, in no order of importance:

1. RAB is Regulus Black, Sirius' brother. I think everyone knows this. And the locket was back at the House of Black (they actually found it during the cleaning of the house on Book 5). Whether it's been stolen or not, that's another question.
2. Dumbledore is definitely dead. You can read between the lines and see that JK left the door open for him to be alive (for instance, only characters say that Dumbledore was killed, the "narrator" simply says he was cursed). But Harry's thoughts during the funeral are so representative of him "moving on" and accepting his future that it would be quite useless (and very disappointing for the critic in me) for Dumbledore to return.
3. Snape, on the other hand, is most definitely still working to kill Voldemort. He killed Dumbledore as ordered to by Dumbledore (the argument Hagrid overheard was Snape telling Dumbledore that he did not want to kill Dumbledore, and Dumbledore saying that he HAD to). Notice that I didn't say that Snape is "good". I'll get to that in a minute.
4. Snape does know the entire prophecy. Reread that section of the book.
5. Snape was in love with Harry's mom. This is why Voldemort tried to spare Lily, so that Snape could possibly have Lily. And Snape DOES feel horrible about HER death.
6. Remember Harry being told that Wormtail has a life debt to Harry? I think that those debts are passed down if not repaid, so Snape still has a life debt to Harry as well, thanks to James saving Snape's life.
7. So based on thoughts 3-6, I think that Snape swore a Unbreakable Vow to someone to not let Harry be killed. As the prophecy states that either Harry or Voldemort must die, this means that Snape is working to kill Voldemort. He is still not good, but that's not needed.
8. Who is the Someone? That's the hard part for me. You apparently need 3 people for the vow: The two bonded people, and someone to work the spell. Snape was 1 of the bonded, and Dumbledore was either the other bonded person, or the spellworker (this is why he trusts Snape). So who is the third person? Dumbledore's brother?
9. I think that the continuing beseeching of the Sorting Hat for the houses to join together means that Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Draco (yep), Luna Lovegood, and either Ernie McMillan or Susan Bones from Hufflepuff will end up fighting someone together in the last book.
10. I am VERY curious to see how the mirror that Sirius gave Harry plays a role in the final book.

So that's a few thoughts on this. Let me know what you think.

Cutie-Patootie

Look at this cutie-patootie! This was taken last weekend outside Big Mama's apartment building. Hutch had a grand time running around (glad to be out of the car for a little while) and throwing walnuts into the parking lot (see previous post about Great-Grannies).  

Belly? Yep, belly.

Great Grannies Galore!

We made our loop through Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee this weekend during my Fall Break. Hutch got to visit with Grandma Rhoda, Aunt Lisa and Uncle David, Cousins Robbie and Bryson, Great-Granny Markham, Great-Granny Big Mama, and Grandaddy Larry. Here are pictures with Big Mama (in purple) and Great-Granny Markham (on the front porch of her house).
Hutch is a real trooper. He put on a good show with each Great-Granny by running and jumping and jabbering away. He gave hugs and blew kisses to each when we left.
We took Great-Granny Markham to lunch at Logan's in Evansville where Hutch ate macaroni and cheese with alarming speed.
At Big Mama's there was a walnut tree and Hutch had great fun picking up the walnuts and throwing them into the parking lot. Big Mama gave Hutch a ride back into her apartment building on her super cool walker (she's sitting on it in the picture).
When we made it to Lee's dad's house Hutch was still running wild and had a blast doing laps in the yard. It was late when we headed down the road to Clarksville for the night and Hutch was asleep within minutes of getting into the car. He slept 11 hours that night.
There's lots more tales to tell of this weekend but Hutch has begun to throw things down the stairs....more later! Jen

The Untold Joys of Parenting

For me, one of the cool side benefits to becoming a parent has been the new world of TV shows that I am now aware of or have been reintroduced to. I am sure that many of you out there who are without kids have probably heard of Barney & Teletubbies & other stuff, but those are yesterday's news (and not that good, really). Let's get into some of the goodies:

Sesame Street - Yes, you've seen Sesame Street. But how long ago? I didn't recognize half the characters on it. Baby Bear? Zowie? Rosita? New to me. But the highlight is Cookie Monster. You have NO idea how friggin funny that guy is. I mean, when you were a kid, do you remember Cookie Monster saying "Ergo"? Yes, he said "ergo" the other day. And his ongoing conflicts with Prairie Dawn are just amazing. Must watch.

Bear In The Big Blue House - Another gem from Jim Henson's people. It's obvious that the writers know that parents end up watching this with their kids, and they throw out enough side jokes and comments to keep us entertained. Listening to two purple otters discuss how to put a string & a magnet together has never been this much fun.

The Wiggles - Hutch absolutely adores this show. And his dancing/singing along with it is a source of much entertainment at times. But there are two things that Jen and I find even more fun.

First, there are these terribly creepy Wiggle puppets that they bring out every now and then. You know how most ventriloquist dolls are creepy? Yeah, triple that. WAY creepy. And they oftentimes show up in the mirror to tell their human counterparts to "wash their hands" or something like that. The stuff of nightmares.

Second, the fact that these are 5 adult men acting like they have spent a LOT of time together allows Jen and I to rewrite the script out of the range of Hutch's ears a lot. Needless to say, if anyone ever wants to do an adult-parody of the Wiggles, give us a call. But in the end, these guys are the highest-paid entertainers in Australia ($47 million last year), so they're doing something right.

Oobi - Yeah, that's odd, isn't it? But they're pretty creative. And as with the Muppets, you beging to assign a lot of personality to them. But it's kinda odd to laugh at a hand with a couple of marbles glued to it. Great writing, again.

So next time you're looking for something to watch, flip over to Noggin or Disney Channel. For pure entertainment, these shows (and another 10 or so I didn't mention) are better than 99% of the drivel that the networks are putting out today. Enjoy!

The center of attention

As you can see, Hutch is working hard on ensuring that our hearing is destroyed as soon as possible, thereby allowing him to sneak about the house as undetected as possible.

No, it's not fake

It occurred to me a few days ago that instead of going to Jillian's to bowl and hang out for Lee's birthday we'd go somewhere far more entertaining. I decided to get a tattoo of Lee's name on my derriere. I arranged for Hutch's former babysitter to pick him up from daycare so I could take Lee out by myself. We met at home, hopped in the TT (I requested he grab it from work since it was just the two of us), and headed to Snellville. Earlier in the day I spoke with the assistant director at Hutch's daycare who has a tattoo and recommended a place called Good Clean Fun (www.goodcleanfun.net). I looked it up online at school and decided it was the place to go. So Lee starts in with the questions, "Where are we going?"....
"Do you want me to tell you? Or should I give you hints?"
"Will we be lying down?"
"No, but I may be..."
"Will someone be touching you?"
"Yes."
"A man or woman?"
"Probably a man."
"Above the neck? Are you getting a haircut?"
"No! What kind of birthday present is that?"
"Below the knee?"
"No, on my hinie!"
(Eyes widen with lightbulb moment)
"Are you getting a tattoo???"
(Evil, knowing grin)
"Yep. I'm getting your name on my hinie for your birthday!"

As we headed down the highway we discussed the logistics of the tattoo, the placement, size, design, etc. I also wanted a lotus because of its symbolism of love, fertility, femininity, etc. I wasn't sure how much it would cost so we decided to go with the name first then add a flower later on.

Once there however we went with the flower (chosen from about a thousand teeny tiny pictures on the wall). Guillermo did the work and was quite personable. I sat down and leaned forward on a little stool thingy. I held Lee's hand most of the time except for when he got up to take pictures with his camera phone.

Yeah, it hurt pretty bad. It basically feels like a searing, hot knife carving into your skin! The owner offered Guillermo $20 if I passed out. It was never that bad...remember I made it through 15 hours of unmedicated labor!

We went to dinner at Mellow Mushroom afterwards and had some yummy pizza. The only letdown of the day was no appropriate beverage with dinner :( beer only!

So that's that, mommy's got a tat! Happy 33rd Birthday Lee!

Petit Weekend & Belly Button Brushing

It was a beautiful day for racing! We hung out for a while at the track. Hutch was a good sport with the ear protection, Daddy clearly was not...."huh?" he says.

Hutch enjoyed some funnel cake and lemonade with me. I think it made both of us a little cranky in the end...uggggg...greasy track food.

Apparently there were 72,000ish people at the track this weekend. That's like 3 times the population of Hopkinsville within 5 minutes of our house!

Two for the price of one today! Here's Hutch in his spiffy new jeans (with sticky size label still on ) using his toothbrush to clean out belly button lint. He brushed a lot of things that day with the toothbrush...the chair, the dog, random toys, the step stool, my belly button, his neck, etc.

What the Heck, Vol. III

Okay, name the car that is producing all of this smoky goodness...........Nope, you're wrong.