Resident Picasso

Biscuit's day care had an art show this evening. They took pictures and paintings and creations from all the kids and displayed them all in one room, like a gallery. They even printed out fancy frames to make the art look really important.

Here's Biscuit's artwork:

Biscuit said his picture was of exploding fireworks. Can you see it?

We had some errands to run after the art show, so we stopped by a local deli for some dinner. This should not surprise me at all, but Biscuit rarely orders food or drink without added commentary. He asked for milk to drink and promptly told the server that "milk has logs of protein and will make me very strong," complete with a show of his muscles. Biscuit also asked for a hamburger and fries, and boy did he get some fries!

Check out this one:

THAT, my friends, is a tater!

Poor little man

I promise I'll get to the details of Biscuit's birthday party soon, but I have to post this pictures of my poor boy.

Jeff and I went to Biscuit's day care this morning for a parent-teacher conference.

The teacher said Biscuit is doing well. She went through all the tests he's taken so far, showed us some examples of his handwriting (still bad), showed us some projects they've been working on and went over what we can do at home to help and what we'd like for them to do (work on the handwriting).

We told his teacher that we like to be kept in the loop, so we can help reinforce what they're doing during the day. So it was a good meeting.

I was almost all the way to work when my phone rang.

"I know you just left here, but he fell on the playground and messed up his nose," Biscuit's teacher said.

"I'll be right there," I told her. I whipped a U-turn and headed back to day care.

I walked in the door and poor Biscuit was bloody and visibly shaking. I scooped him up and held him tight. He desperately wanted to lay his head on my shoulder, but with his face still bleeding, he couldn't figure out how to make it work.

I asked him what happened, and he said they were going out to the playground, and the teacher told them not to run. But he and his friend ran anyway. Biscuit got halfway down the sidewalk and stopped, but his friend didn't. He plowed into Biscuit, and Biscuit plowed into the sidewalk.

Jeff was at the house because he was working a late shift today, so I brought Biscuit home and got him tucked in on the couch with some juice and a movie in the DVD player. I worked a short day and swapped off with Jeff. It's really nice to have adjustable hours at work.

I gave Biscuit a very careful bath, but we skipped brushing his teeth for fear of making him bleed again.

Here's Biscuit right before bedtime:

Poor little man.

Happy Halloween!

Remember that exciting field trip Biscuit went on? Well, his class painted the pumpkins they got from the pumpkin patch. They also painted paper bags pumpkins to hold goodies from their fall festival today.

Biscuit said his pumpkin has a face on one side and a cape on the other side. I don't quite see it, but he does, and I guess that's what counts.

They played games like sack races and ring toss. They had cupcakes, chips and other snacks. They got bags of candy and goodies to bring home in their pumpkin bags. It sounds like he had a good day.

Biscuit wore his costume all day.

"Were you able to handle the bathroom okay?" I asked him.

"Mom!" Biscuit said. "I just asked someone to undo the back of my costume, and then everything was fine." He gets so exasperated with his mother sometimes!

"So you wore your costume the whole time you were at daycare?" I asked him.

"Yes, and I even wore it a naptime," Biscuit said. "And guess what? I didn't need a blanket!"

I was a little mad at the other parents. Biscuit was the only kid in his class who wore his costume. I'm not sure what the deal was, but all the other kids were jealous that Biscuit was wearing his costume, and they didn't get to wear theirs. I hope they all went home and gave their parents lots of grief!

Anyway, I picked up Biscuit and brought him home for a quick dinner. Then we were off for trick-or-treating.

I always take him around our cul-de-sac and to some older neighbors' house across the street. They love seeing him and talk about how he's growing up so fast. We've been really lucky that we still have all the same neighbors we had when we moved into our house 10 years ago. And they're all very nice people.

The neighbors loaded Biscuit up with enough candy that we really didn't even need to go to anymore houses. But one of my friends lives on a longer cul-de-sac. I'm guessing about 10 or 12 houses. We went there two years ago, and it was a nice area. Because it's a dead end street, there are no cars coming in and out. And that was just enough houses to get good candy without being completely worn out. So we met another couple and their little boy over there. The boys got a nice haul, and Jeff and I enjoyed hanging out with the other couple.

Here's Biscuit's haul:

And if you're wondering what we could possibly do with all that candy ... well, we had one idea.

The wheels on the bus ...

Biscuit has known the song about the wheels on the bus going round and round for a long time now. But today, he experienced that round and round firsthand.

Biscuit went on his first field trip today. The kids in his class went to a pumpkin patch at a church about 3 miles from day care.

Let me have a quick pity party. All day, I felt a little pang in my gut knowing he was having a new, fun experience that I wasn't any part of. I know that's probably selfish on my part, but I've been a part of all the new and fun experiences he's had so far. Now, it's like he has this whole part of his life that doesn't include me. 

It started when we enrolled him in day care. I've read and heard all the arguments and pros and cons for and against kids being put in day care. But for me, I knew that's the way it would be. Being an older mom, I had been working for a long time before I even thought about Biscuit, and I knew when he arrived that I wanted to keep working. I also knew that financially, if we wanted to keep our current lifestyle, I would have to work. I realize how lucky I am to even have a choice, and I haven't regretted my decision. Plus, I think about how Biscuit has grown and learned since he's been in day care, and how much he's enjoyed it, and I know it was the right decision for us.

But every once in a while, for just a minute or two, I wonder what it would be like to be with him more.

And then he sits at the table, and in a voice that's so excited it exaggerates his stutter, he tells me all about how he got to ride a bus today. And they didn't have car seats. They had big-boy seats with big-boy seat belts. And the pumpkin patch was at that church like you're coming home from my old day care.

And there were two old lady stories.

Wait. Old lady stories?

Yes. Two stories about two old ladies. One of them swallowed a bat. And then she swallowed an owl to scare the bat. And then she swallowed a goblin to get the owl. And the other old lady, I don't remember what she did.

And they had lots of pumpkins there. They had big pumpkins and medium-sized pumpkins and small pumpkins all over the place. And he thought they were going to get to pick out their own pumpkins, but those people picked out pumpkins for them. And they put tape on the bottom and wrote their names on them, and they could take them home tonight if they wanted to, but they have to bring them back tomorrow because they're going to paint them.

Whew! It made me tired just hearing about it!

So despite the feelings of guilt or jealousy about Biscuit sharing these experiences firsthand with other people, I really love having that moment when I see the whole thing filtered through his eyes and his words and his personality.