Making a Mess of the US!

Reid, Sania and I have been hanging out in the basement lately. It's a playroom, and it's nice to burn some energy down there, toasty and warm while we're having a cold snap, and be able to walk away from the mayhem without a care in the world.

Sania spends a third of her time putting on and taking off toddler sunglasses and yelling "me!" to nobody in particular and then trying to destroy whatever it is Reid has set his mind to doing. Reid mostly engages in role-play with various combinations of some French livestock toys we received from a friend in New York and cast members from Toy Story. It's funny to hear what Buzz Lightyear has to say to a giant horned Limousin cow.

Tonight, I put some punk rock on the stereo because Reid was wearing one of his favorite shirts, the inexplicable "Rock Legend!" shirt. Basically, lots of schools have outlawed shirts that promote a particular brand, icon, character or product. Reid can't really wear his limited selection of Toy Story shirts (2) or his one Spider-Man shirt to school for fear of, I don't know, inciting a riot. So the people who make shirts for kids like Children's Place, Old Navy and the like all sell a wide selection of shirts with generic themes in awesome fonts and featuring striking images. Reid has a shirt that says, "Cool as Ice." I don't even know what it is supposed to mean.

Anyhow, Rock Legend shirt was a natural match for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes punk rock covers of classic rock tunes, so we rocked out. Obviously.

Halloween Parade

Halloween was a smashing success. We didn't get any pictures from trick-or-treating because it was dark and we had coverage issues (one parent giving out candy, other parent short-handedly toting children around neighborhood). But Reid's school had a Halloween parade and although he basically refused to wear the Spider-man mask (Sania refused to wear the Superman cape, natch), Reid was pretty cute fronting for the camera in his comically over-developed chest and goofing off with his friend Owen, who came as a pirate.

This is essentially what Reid and Owen's time together at their Montessori School will be remembered as:

Imaginary adult conversation between Reid and Owen:
Reid: I feel like we've been standing on this riser for 100 years.
Owen: You have the patience of a gnat.
Reid: At least I'm a super hero. Pirates have poor hygiene and scurvy.
Owen: Please. Superheroes have secret identities. You ran around in the Stargazer/Lily room in your mask until the bottom half filled with spit and now everybody knows you're Reid and not Spider-man.
Reid: Whatevs. I think our moms went to get coffee.
Owen: Your dad took a picture of you knocking George's NASA hat off his head. When the forensic evidence is reviewed, you're going down.
Reid: My lips are so chapped.
Owen: Ooh, mine, too. My mom says to not lick them so much.
Reid: Lick them? That sounds like a great idea.
Owen: Sometimes I feel like you don't listen to a word I say.

It's really late. If this isn't funny, well, what can you do?