Pumpkin Prep/Nana Graduates

Halloween is almost here. We'll post some costume pictures soon for both kids, but what's the fun of spoiling the surprise now?

It's been rainy and gloomy much of the week, which actually made for a perfect night carving jack-o'-lanterns the other night. The actual carving turned out to be a mom and dad project, but the prep work was fun for everybody, especially scooping out the seeds.

Funny story below ...

Yes, Maya's got a couple of Beanie Babies in her shirt. It's a game that got started with her dad on Sunday afternoon that has continued through the week, even at school where her teachers says she puts all sorts of things up in her shirt then laughs and laughs.

The funny story, however, is how we got the Beanie Babies ...

On Sunday afternoon, Amy and I took the kids to the mall. Starting at Kohl's, where we got Owen some flannel sheets, we got distracted and Maya managed to leak through completely. Fortunately, we were at a store with baby clothes, so Amy quick bought a pair of sweat pants while I got Maya into a new diaper. We bought the sheets and moved on.

Amy had a couple of things she needed to pick up next, so I took the kids to the carousel. Owen quickly got on his standard ride, a bunny, but Maya was more picky. She finally settled on the horse right next to Owen. She was comfortable being right next to her brother ... but Owen wanted his own space, which is OK, so he moved to the other bunny on the complete opposite side of the ride. At this point, Maya didn't want to sit on the horse anymore, so she ended up sitting right next to her dad on a bench, which was actually perfect as we enjoyed clapping our hands to the rhythm of the music and had a lovely time.

The kids were both getting munchy around this time. We normally get a smoothie for the kids at the frozen yogurt stand in the mall, but it is now closed. Fortunately I found out the coffee place sells a passable substitute.

So the kids were sweetly sharing their smoothie as we reunited with mom and headed off to get what we needed most on this trip, a new parka for Owen.

We got into the department store and navigated the escalator with two kids and a stroller (now filled with coats and bags) in tow. Maya was tired of being of being carried at this point so, finding the coats, I set her down so she could walk around a little.

Not more than 45 seconds later, I was showing Amy a possible coat for Owen when we saw three racks of children's parkas fall over domino style behind her. Owen started crying and we rushed over to assess the situation.

We didn't see Maya immediately, but then we noticed a rustling in the ski pants. She stood up (the down-filled pants made for a nice, soft landing), but walked out crying as the smoothie she was holding had spilled and, as you can imagine, she was a bit startled at being buried in an avalanche of Columbia activewear.

That's when Owen started crying. He, too, was perhaps a bit startled by the situation, but I think the bigger issue was that he caught sight of the smoothie on the floor and wanted it back, which made Maya cry louder, which made Owen cry louder, etc., etc.

Some other shoppers helped us stand the racks back up, and some store employees also came over to help.

We got the kids separated for a while until the crying had mostly stopped. Amy at this point was ready to go. But just then an older store employee who had helped us came over and said she'd just been on the phone with the store manager. They said the kids could each pick out a stuffed animal from a nearby table to take home free of charge.

Maya lasered in on this deal in a second.

We went over to the table and she quickly picked out a little Yorkshire terrier and a baby kitty. Owen, who needs no additional stuffed animal other than the Sammy Salami cat he already has, was happy to let her have both.

So now she has her kitty and puppy babies ... who also happen to be fun to stuff into her shirt.

Now this isn't to say Owen didn't have any new critters come into his life this weekend. We went to the farmer's market on Saturday morning, where Owen got himself a balloon skunk.

And, no, I cannot confirm if this skunk's odor defenses come from the balloon artist having bad breath when he blew it up.

CONGRATULATIONS NANA!

We're all very proud of Nana who finished the radiation treatment for her brain tumor yesterday. I drove up to be with her on her last day.

Nana has done an outstanding job working through these treatment and all of the food issues and other side effects. It was amazing to see how she's found a community of support at the hospital, not only with the medical staff who has been caring for her five days a week the past six weeks, but also with the other patients coming in for their own care. We visited with many, there were lots of hugs and exchanges of email addresses and phone numbers as mom is now on her way to the next phase.

Just look at how happy the radiation technicians are with her ...

Great going, Nana!