*Smacks Forehead*

The party was amazing. Wish I could post pictures but I won't post pics of other people's kids. And of course all my cupcakes are gone - they ate them and they were good. Why the heck do I worry so much?

A Spooktacular Day

Here is Ricky, my little vampire. He's all dressed up for school today. The 8th graders are hosting a carnival for the kindergarteners. This is a school tradition - I remember what a blast it was myself back in the day!

I volunteered to be one of the Room Moms this year - without knowing what that involved. It's okay, you just have to take the reins in the party planning for the whole year. All the teachers wanted us to do was bake decorated cupcakes. I had great aspirations - pouring over websites and I finally decided on 2 choices. Cupcakes with a bat on them or cupcakes with a frankenstein face on them.

Needless to say, I never got to make those kick-ass cupcakes I was dreaming of. We had a bad windstorm here for 2 days and Teddy came down with a fever for 3 days and I didn't feel like dragging him all over every Walmart and Target looking for the equipment I needed so I just made the funfetti cupcakes with a candy corn pumpkin on top of each with Halloween sprinkles all around. Is that lame?

There's a part of me that says that they're just kids and won't care or notice - and then there's a part of me that says that I'm a full-time stay-at-home mom and should strive to be awesome dammit! Anyways, there's nothing I can do about it now. The cupcakes are done - lame or not. I'm sure they're tasty though. In any case, I guess there's always next year!!

Think You Had a Rough Childhood? Think Again. Push by Sapphire

About 5 of my neighborhood mommy friends and I decided to read the book Push which the movie, "Precious" is based upon. When everyone is done, we're going to meet at the local pub, have a few drinks and talk about the book - among the usual mommy/girlfriend talk.

The life of Precious is so awful - the worst I've ever imagined- had one baby from her dad at 12 that has Down Syndrome, and is now pregnant with her second baby by her dad also. Her mother molests her too and forces her to eat. If she doesn't eat when her mother wants her to, she gets beaten. That's why she's obese. Her mother also expects her to do the cooking and cleaning. She can't read and has been passed through the school system - nice!! But finally is put into an alternative school. This is where things start to turn around for her.

The book is under 200 pages and I devoured it in one sitting. I didn't even stop to use the bathroom (which probably contributed to the UTI I have right now - ugh). I haven't seen the movie, but I don't need to. I saw it all in my head and that was plenty.

This book is a great book discussion piece because it has many implications about the school system's failure and the role of parenting. Precious couldn't have been born to worse parents. Throughout the entire book, I kept thinking, 'what the hell kind of mother are you???" stupid woman for letting your daughter get raped every night by your husband, then beating her for it - that she took your man, molesting her yourself, and making her your domestic slave?? Not to mention the verbal abuse too. Such a sad fate.

The author worked with inner city kids for several years, not sure how many. I passed on my copy of the book to a mommy friend so I no longer have it. So you know that Precious is based on some of the kids she came in contact with.

I couldn't put the book down because I kept hoping for a happy ending. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I won't say what happens in the end. But this is the most moving book I've read in a long time. Depressing. But it really makes you appreciate the childhood you did have.

I am now reading The Help which is really good so far.

My Mother, the Axe Murderer

This year is little Ricky's first year of officially going door-to-door and threatening tricks if no treats are given. This is his third Halloween. The first and second Halloween were spent going to specific houses of friends and family to show off our child in his adorable costume. This year he is old enough to speak in sentences, walk up and down steps, and hold his own pumpkin basket. He walked with his Dad while I captured every minute with my new camera and video camera.

We just walked up and down our block and visited the neighbors. Although we practiced the whole scenario of saying "Trick or Treat!!" and replying to the gesture by saying "Thank you" Ricky remained silent for more than half the trip and Mark had to do all the "work." As we neared the end of our trip, he actually *did* say thank you to a few women who Mark noticed were nice and nice-looking. They had to be both, not one quality without the other. Kind of funny!

We went to my mom's house to trick or treat and I convinced Mark to wear a scary mask and long hair wig to scare the pants off my mom. It worked. Very funny. After that visit, we were exhausted. However not too exhausted to do something utterly immature.....

With Ricky sitting in his car seat in back and Mark driving, I put on the scary mask (that Ricky is wearing in the picture above) in the passenger seat, rolled down my window, and screammed/growled as loudly as I could (with Mark's help) to anybody on the sidewalk, crosswalk, bus stop, etc. It was so much fun - if this is what boys do, it was a complete blast. The funniest incident was when we growled to a pre-teen boy alone riding his bicycle - he nearly shit in his pants. We laughed for blocks though and I do feel bad for him now, because he looked pretty scared - but the look on his face was absolutely classic.

I turned back to look at little Ricky and he was smiling at me and Mark and I have to wonder what he will say about this when he is older...if he will remember his crazy parents growling at people in the car, with his mother in the axe murderer mask?