Gnarly November

Does that count as alliteration? 

The week began with a bang on Halloween. As I was driving home from work (my satellite office = the library), I noticed all manner of terrifying toddler and petrifying pre-teen scurrying about the neighborhoods door to door, offering to bypass the home without incident in exchange for a tasty sweet.

When I got home, I informed the children that it seemed everyone was already out, so they had better get in their costumes before all the good stuff was taken. The boys switched up their costumes, and Avey stuck with her variation on the Princess Leia. 

Merritt stayed home and kept me company while I manned the front door to ward off the little demons, and tried to squeeze in a few more minutes of work. Kira took off with the kids to get far more candy than we could/should consume over the next year. Hakan needed to go to sleep, so we tried to get him to bed quickly before the older kids went back out for the night, but he caught on and threw one of the biggest fits of his life. It was no doubt fueled by his exhaustion. We were eventually able to calm him down and get him to bed.

We were otherwise troubled by Merritt’s sleep disturbance in the early week. He continues to get up one to three times at night. That wore us out all week, but thankfully, he slept through the night last night.

Wednesday was a fun and historic night as we watched the Cubs win the World Series for the first time since 1908. The game was especially exciting after the Cubs led nearly the entire game only to have the Indians tie it up in the last few innings. That took it to a 10th inning (a very rare occurrence in game 7 of the World Series), and then they finally clinched it!

I made it through the 9th inning, but with Thursdays being my long and early day, I had to call it a night. Kira was up with Merritt until the end of the game, and told me what happened when we were both awoken by Merritt in the wee hours of the morning.

We spent part of Friday raking up the leaves into a nice pile so that the kids could roll around in it. They had a grand time, and we got some nice pictures. Merritt even enjoyed himself, sitting and ripping fistfuls of leaves, and sampling the flavors of each shade of leaf. 

Avey and I enjoyed a daddy-daughter date yesterday when we went to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It was an enjoyable time, although Avey got worn out after a while. 

We also spent part of Saturday preparing for and celebrating my upcoming birthday. Kira made a doughnut run for breakfast, and then we enjoyed a pizza dinner (thanks to a generous cash gift), and a variation on Boston Cream Pie that my family enjoys. 

This upcoming week, we expect to witness the nation elect one of the worst human beings ever to seek the office of the President. If we survive it, perhaps there will be another post in a week. What a strange time to be alive…

#Happenings