One holiday behind

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Now that we've all eaten turkey, it's time for me to get around to posting Halloween photos.
As you can see, Faith was Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz this year. She'd still wear the ruby slippers every day if I'd let her.

Faith doesn't have an acrophobic bone in her body, as evidence when she was 2 and climbed to the top of the McDonald's PlayPlace structure without a qualm. Last Halloween, our church had a 20-foot-tall slide she spent all night climbing to the top of and sliding down. This year, she had to settle for the inflatable rock-climbing wall. We found out afterward that one of the other sides of the "mountain" had its footholds closer together for smaller climbers, but despite the fact that she was on the "big people" side, she made it to within 5 feet of the top.

Here she is at the petting zoo, in a shot that shows off her French braids. I hadn't even tried to French braid anyone's hair since high school, and it took me about a half an hour and a lot of hair gel to get hers done. I told her before I started that I wasn't a very good braider. She was very still and patient, but part of the way through, she said, "I think you're right, Mommy. I think you're not a very good braider."

And, yes, we do still have another child, but we don't have any Halloween pictures of him. Eric is at a difficult age photogenically: If he sees me point the camera at him, he immediately stops whatever he's doing and runs toward me to point at the camera. So most of our pictures of him here recently are either when he's sleeping or out of focus as he quickly approaches.

In which the blogger criticizes the way other people raise their children

The kids and I went to a newly-opened McDonald's for lunch and playtime today. (Probably won't be back, as there's no door at the PlayPlace entrance, which means Eric felt free to race out into the restaurant proper where I had to chase him down, but Faith enjoyed the different playground.)

I rarely actually eat lunch at the McDonald's, but it's a great place for me to sit and read the newspaper or get caught up on magazines while the kids get to Play Well with Others. They're contained where I don't have to worry about crazy people or traffic, and it's all climate-controlled so it's an all-weather, all-season playground with reasonably-comfortable seats and free refills. What's not to love?

Plus, of course, it's the perfect venue for that perennial favorite parents' game, "I'm Sure Glad My Kid's Not That Much of a Brat." At our usual McDonald's last month, I enjoyed a banner day in the sport, when a four-ish boy came in dressed like a miniature sk8r-boi, complete with black T-shirt, baggy black jeans, and a curly asymmetrical haircut a la the late Heath Ledger circa "10 Things I Hate About You." His surly pose was spoiled by only one thing -- the baby blue pacifier that never left his mouth except when he ate.

Now, I know the pacifier habit is a hard one to break. We made Eric go cold turkey shortly before his 2nd birthday, and I felt so sorry for him. But given that your kid is running around with a pacifier not long before kindergarten, why dress him like a 15-year-old? It makes for a jarring juxtaposition.

Now you can probably go find the sk8r-boi's mom's blog wherein she criticizes something my kids were doing at McDonald's last month. The game goes on....

Talk about a lost month!

Oh well. Let's start off November with a photo of Tommy with the kids.