"He will miss his mommy"

While Dana was at a class, I took Felix to soccer practice on a beautiful autumn day. We parked a ways away from the field and enjoyed the walk through the dry crunchy leaves. On the walk back to the car after practice, Felix picked up a stick that he wanted to bring home with us. I suggested we leave it with its other trees instead (reluctant to start the inevitable habit of bringing home every rock, bug, stick, etc. found). Felix was matter-of-fact in his desire for the stick to tag along, so I acquiesced. However, within a few blocks he expressed concern that the stick would “miss his mommy and daddy” and was insistent that we return to reunite it with its family. Not feeling in any rush, I humored him and circled back. Unfortunately, when the time came to relinquish said stick to the earth, Felix changed his mind. So once again I exited the park on our way home. By the time we got to the light, his regret in not returning the stick had become full force whining. By the freeway, it was whaling, and by our exit, it included tears. I had no desire to repeat the drive only to fail at negotiating the stick out of his hands again, so I continued on, hoping he would get over it quickly. There was no persuading him - we returned home, stick in hand, tears streaming. “It will miss his mommy and daddy. They will miss him. Go back. Go back.” As I cuddled him and helped him ease into a nap, he tucked the stick into bed next to him, still expressing concern that it would miss his mommy and should be back in the park. It was on his mind still when he woke but forgotten by the following week’s practice. The picture above is with Felix's best friend, April.

Halloween III - Felix's Revenge

Felix celebrated his third Halloween and I can't believe how fast this is going. Last year I thought, "Felix may need another year or two to really appreciate Halloween, I can't wait until then", and then it's here. He loved Halloween, we had so much fun. He'd knock on doors, say trick or treat, take the candy, and thank them and leave. We gave him a bag that was too big, so we carried it for him most of the time. When the door was answered and as he said trick or treat, he had his outstretched hand with his clutching fingers giving the 'gimme' motion. Anyway, that Halloween I wistfully spoke of last year has come and gone. As you can see above, Felix was Peter Pan, or Robin Hood, or Link, or an elf. Whichever he was, he was adorable.


Before we get too far into Halloween I will share with you what I think became a cute picture. It was a Friday, a day that most of my stories with Felix take place, and he tells me that he wants to work on stuff. So he grabs his bucket of toy power tools, puts on his goggles, has me put on goggles, and then drilled some stuff while I sawed stuff.
Alright back to Halloween. Here are a couple of pictures at the pumpkin patch. It may look familiar to some of you. Rooney was there with Susan a couple of weeks ago.

And here he is carving pumpkins:
Just before we took Truman out for trick or treating we were trying to take pictures of him when he got this idea that he wanted us to take a picture of him from behind. We asked him to stand still and I can see him thinking and then he says "take a picture of my back" and he turns his back to us to take a picture. And to make sure we were, he'd look back at us while turned around and say, "okay, take a picture".
I still don't know why he wanted that picture, and it wasn't in lieu of taking a frontal picture, he just wanted a picture from behind.
Here he is with his haul. We took some of it, actually, we took it all and I gave it out at my work. And before I get a bunch of comments about how I stole his hard earned candy, I'll tell you that Felix doesn't care for candy too much and he didn't care that we took it. He does like chocolate though, as long as it is just chocolate.