The Color of Halloween

Let me preface this by complaining for a minute. It's "tax widow season" for me right now and although I see the light at the end of the tunnel (a few weeks), that doesn't make it any better. Well, maybe a little better since that "light" is the tropical island of Oahu... Anyhow, today was one of those particularly hard days where I have just had it and want to stick my kids in front of the TV, even though I fully realize that doesn't make them any better or happier. Every mom has plenty of these days, I just know it. Tonight both kids were in tears, and even went into hysterics. After calling Spencer at work to remind him just how unhappy we all were (poor Spencer) we had had enough of each other. By the way, Emma was the one who begged to call him and all she did on the phone the whole time was cry. I decided Emma needed to go to bed since I don't think she gets enough sleep (can you tell??), and I rocked Tyler (and cried for a few minutes) in the rocking chair. He calmed down but as I write this, Emma is crying in her bed. I must be strong!

(I know, complaining is totally annoying so I apologize, especially because I know plenty of people with equally absent, or more absent husbands...) So, on to what I really MEANT to write about when I sat down at the computer...

After Tyler was happy, and after I got my frustrations out through a few tears, I started pointing at things and asking him what colors they were. He knew my shirt was red and my pants were blue. Then I pointed to the orange on his PJ's and asked him what color. He said, "Halloween color!" I thought that was so clever - obviously orange isn't good for much other than for being the color of Halloween and he must be in agreement with my feelings exactly. Anyway, we worked on "orange" a few times but he still prefers to call it "How-ween." I'm happy because in exactly 19 minutes I can put him in bed and trust him to stay there and go to sleep. I can also trust that at exactly 3 a.m. I will wake up to find him on top of me, sound asleep...but that's a story for another time.