Maison

This year I was so excited about my little ones first Halloween. So excited in fact that I got carried away and bought his costume 2 months early.  By the time Halloween came he had out grown it, so I got to work on a new one and I was so proud of it.  The little guy woke up this morning with a cold though, and he was way too grumpy to enjoy the holiday. So instead of trick or treating we popped in some movies and started a new holiday tradition.

SCARING THE TRICK OR TREATERS!

Whenever they came to the door,  he and his auntie handed out candy to the kids, while I went out the back door, in my gorilla costume and ran at them making monkey noises. He had a blast,  I had a blast, and we still got to enjoy my favorite day of the year.

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I know I know its October, and I should be writing about Halloween but I just couldn’t resist this one!  When I was in college, I ended up raising little cousin Matty for a bit. He was staying with me at my house at the time. For Easter though, we went to stay at my moms house.  He was incredibly worried that the Easter Bunny wouldn’t be able to find him, so I decided that year Easter was going to be HUGE! We made a trap for the easter bunny. It was one of those “Elmer Fudd” style traps with a box, a stick, and a carrot on a string. Eventually he fell asleep next to his trap and I tucked him in.

Then the fun part started. I quickly whipped out the milk duds, carrots, and cocoa mix and got to work. I painted huge footprints on the kitchen floor, dropped half eaten carrots, and made a small pile of milk duds on the floor near the door.

The next morning Matty was way more interested in the mess the bunny left than the big basket full of toys and candy. He just couldn’t believe the bunny pooped in our house. At the end of the day, I started cleaning, and insisted he help. There was an argument about who was going to pick up the poop/milk duds, which was quickly settled by a surprise visit by my uncle.

He walked in, said oh! “you dropped your candy” scooped up the pile and much to Matty’s disgust, ate one.

Matty still asks me why I never told Uncle Kenny he was eating poop ha ha!

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My grandmother was notoriously hard of hearing, but she absolutely refused to get a hearing aide.  We loved her, but we would get annoyed when we had a conversation with her because she was always interrupting us with “huh? what? heh?”.  My cousin Matty, (he was 4 at the time) finally told her this “Grumma if you’d stop askin’ what I said and let me say it, you’d know what I’m sayin”.

When he said it, it happened to be in front of all of us other grandkids, and you could almost see the little idea bubble floating over all of our heads!

We all decided whenever grandma was talking to us, we would stop talking at some point and just move our lips. We did this for about 3 days and she FINALLY went out and got the hearing aide. I have to admit though, hearing her tell us we were too loud (she always had it on full blast) was much more irritating than “heh? huh? what?”

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I think my favorite of all memories of my childhood is the summer my uncle took us fishing late at night. Every summer I would spend in New Orleans with my grandparents. My uncle is what you might call “old school” he grows his own food, he hunts and fishes to feed his family, anything he needs, he builds. There are a few exceptions like his car.. and I’m honestly shocked that he has electricity.. But any way.. My favorite of all the memories I like to reflect on was that summer. He rounded up all of us kids, and gave us hats with lights on them. We all piled into his truck and drove to Sellars canal. We drove the boat out through the canal until we got to this part where the water was only about 4 feet deep. We had to paddle through it. The water was so clear we could see the fish. In fact… there were so many fish we didn’t need a pole. We were reaching in with our hands and grabbing them. It was a truly awesome thing to see, and probably the most fun I’ve ever had.

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For my very first birthday, I went to the Audibon Zoo. Since then every year no matter where I am I go to the zoo.  This year.. I opted for the butterfly garden. It was nice.. but about halfway through, I left and drove to the Audibon Zoo, and I am glad I did. I hadn’t been there in many many years, I and I was quite happy to find that the white tiger I visited every year when i was younger was still there alive and kicking! The camel ride was gone, and the elephant ride too, but everything else was exactly the same. I even got the little guy some hand pulled taffy to chew on while we wheeled him around in one of those big red zoo wagons. It was nice to be back home again, I think next year I’m going to make a special trip back there to go to the Audibon again.

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One of the best things about where I grew up were all the old houses. My grandfathers house is about 150 years old. It was so much fun around Halloween time, we would stay up late and tell ghost stories in the living room. The old stained glass windows made eerie shadows on the wall at times and it was almost like that house was listening to us because it always managed to creak or groan at just the right time.   As I’m hanging the cobwebs up and sticking skeletons on the walls I keep remembering those nights when that creaky old house and the cheesy ghost stories would send us running and screaming into grandma and grandpas room at night.

Grandma was always there waiting to comfort us.. and Grandpa of course was there too, waiting to jump out and scare us again!

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Since my son was born I’ve done a lot of reminiscing, being a parent will do that to you. It makes me think of how great it would be to be that age again. Everything is new, everything is an adventure. There are no inhibitions, no “you can’t do its” the world is yours and anything is possible. As we grow older people tell us things are hard, or we will never be this or that, and we spend out lives thinking these things are true. We grow up to be encumbered by jobs, responsibilities, bills ect.. We focus on our looks, on our belongings, what people think about us.

Childhood i think is the ultimate freedom. I hope my son gets to keep that freedom, and that innocence for as long as he can.. because being a grown up is just no fun!

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My frst pet was a cat I found that people were throwing things at because she was trapped near the storm drain. After I ran the jerk kids off I set about calming the cat. Once she was calm, I got her set free, and then she followed me.

At that time I didn’t particularly like cats, but I also don’t like people to be cruel to helpless people or animals. Anyways, I explained the situation to my mom and she was also sympathetic. ( They are the best of friends to this day!)

My brother called it Kitty because he was young, and the name has stuck. Kitty has broken her leg falling off of a shelf, and has never complained, although you can tell she suffers when the weather changes. Kitty has always been grateful for our kindness. She really is the best cat, and she doesn’t act like a cat at all. She is exceptional!

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