Carrie is laughing with glee...

... and by that I mean she is practically howling. She let out this laugh that I'm pretty sure Nana could hear.

I walked her home from Jillian's house and I'm telling her about this dream I just had. See, I have this gift of drinking an entire can of Mountain Dew (which I don't do very often, so it's no cause for concern) and then promptly falling asleep. It doesn't matter if it's naptime or bedtime. I guess all that sugar and caffeine just causes an immediate system shutdown. So I had this lucid, crazy dream after my Mountain Dew and I'm telling her about it, we're walking, I'm talking, we make it in the house, and Carrie announces, "Mama, you let in a ladybug."

This is the second time she's interrupted me telling her about the dream, so exasperatedly I look around, the mail in one hand and my skirt in the other (it's the long, flowy, blue one so many of you have liked through the years) and I'm turning around, checking the front door for the ladybug.

She is starting to crack up, "Mama, Mama, you let in a ladybug!" I can't for the life of me find it on the door, so I turn back around to face her. She TURNS ME around again and there it is.

On my bum. Or rather, on the very edge of the hem of my shirt, which hangs down onto my bum.

Can you hear Carrie? She's still giggling and saying, "we have GOT to tell Dada about this!"

We found it after it flew around the house and she helped return it to the great outdoors, after telling me several times that, "a ladybug wants to join our family!"

...

Now I hear that Liam is up, and he told us, "I am using the laundry basket (that had clean kid laundry in it, folded and everything, alas) for my boat." Two minutes later it is, "Mama, I am using the laundry basket to be a ghost!"

Can you tell Halloween is fast approaching?

I just asked, "what happened to the laundry that was in it?" And he told me.

"I don't know. It came out."