I Want To Be A Baseball For Halloween

I have 3 boys old enough to trick or treat this year. So the annual "what am I going to be for Halloween?" started early just after school started in September. Luckily, two of the boys wanted to be Boston Red Sox players. "Easy!," I said to myself. Manny Ramirez has long shoulder-length hair, which I made by taping black yarn to the inside of the Boston Redsox hat. They wore their little league baseball uniforms with Boston Redsox shirts and looked great.

My oldest son, on the other hand, wanted to be the 756 home run baseball that Barry Bonds hit. As an engineer, I prided myself by thinking that I would come up with some clever way to make him look like a baseball. Well, after about 2 weeks of trying various thoughts and designs, all I could do was make my son look fat, but not like a baseball. He was getting a bit concerned and volunteered to be something else. He decided to be a basketball trading card instead. "Great!," I said.

Well it took some doing, but I managed to scan one of his basketball cards and blow it up to about 2 feet by 3 feet in size. I put the image on a large poster board and cut a hole out where he could stick his head through. I'm happy to say that it all worked out well and all his friends and classmates approved of his basketball trading card costume.

Another successful Halloween accomplished. Now, I just have to figure out what to do with 3 large bags of candy....

Aiming At The Toilet

We have four boys, so it is not surprising to me when there is a little urine around the toilet that didn't quite make it. Recently, things were getting worse and my wife and I were scrubbing the toilet all the time, trying in vain to keep the bathroom smelling nice. One morning this week during breakfast, my second son got up to go to the bathroom. I happened to be walking by the bathroom, and I notice him aiming at the top edge of the toilet as a game. Of course, he is missing half the time and, well, you know. Yuk!

After a long lecture, actually a short yell session, I made it clear that if he wanted to play the aiming game while peeing, he would have to clean it up. He didn't seem to like that so much. The bathrooms have never smelled so nice. Well, as nice as a bathroom in a family with four boys can smell.