Another 15 year old in the house

An artist friend of ours, the talented Heidi Jacobs, created some terrific Halloween pieces. I showed Liam the photos on facebook and told him we'd get him one for his birthday, so he chose "the batty bat mug" and is delighted by how much hot cocoa it holds. Thank you, Heidi! 

This photo is so you can all marvel at his humungous feet.

And this one is so you can marvel at how much hair he has. I sent this picture to Zita to see if he has as much hair as Nina!

Liam has a favorite tree because of its humungous yellow leaves. I don't remember what kind it is, but he makes sure to hug it every year, haha. His favorite colors are still yellow and gold, just like when he was a baby and adored his stuffed yellow giraffe, Geoffrey, who is still in his bedroom somewhere.

We measured him a few weeks ago and he was 5'7", making him officially taller than me. He's probably crept past that now.

 Mister Minty had himself a birthday. He still requests all things mint: mint chocolate chip ice cream, peppermint sugar cookies, "minty circles" (otherwise known to the rest of the world as Lifesavers), Thin Mints, minty hot cocoa... it's hard to keep mint extract on hand around here. So these were a big hit from Grandmama, and I haven't had a single one yet!

He also may be a little Lego obsessed.

 I asked what he wanted for his birthday and he chose mint chocolate chip cookies. As I'm rummaging around in the pantry for the bag of Andes mint chips that I knew I had in there, he strolled in and asked what I was looking for.

"Oh, I ate those a long time ago." 

I did smack my forehead and not him, thank you very much. 

Regular chips with a brand new mint extract it is! And eyeballs, because I used pumpkin, ghost, and moon cookie cutters. Everything turned into blobs as chocolate chip cookies don't behave the same way as sugar cookies, but that didn't change their deliciousness any.

And Dada found some high-end minty cupcakes!

You probably don't see anything in this picture, because Liam is standing sideways and is therefore invisible. Pretty sure he hasn't even hit 100# yet. (The baby gate keeps the dogs out of the kitchen, in case you're wondering.)

I came downstairs Halloween morning to find Liam, caped and perched gargoyle-style on top of the ladder in the sunroom. The ladder was up because Dada was kindly installing plant hooks for my ferns. There's a low rumble from above, "the birthday boy sits upon his throne." I do believe I snorted. He is in every respect a Halloween child.

We skipped trick or treating this year. It just didn't seem like a good idea given the germs floating around, so we dressed up the dogs instead. Honey is wearing a pumpkin bib and Bos is a hot dog, haha!

At this point, wearing real clothes feels like Halloween for the boys as they've been the pajamas the majority of the time since March. Anytime they're told to put on real pants these days they are automatically suspicious because with the remote learning they're doing there are no actual people being seen or being seen by. Think Khan Academy but dryer. Damon has the occasional Zoom meeting but Liam has zero, hence the pajamas all day, every day. By the time we get back to street clothes, nothing Liam owns is going to fit because he's growing so fast. We tease him regularly about being Groot from "Guardians of the Galaxy", especially when he rumbles some reply to us. 

His braces will come off on Tuesday, so he is very much looking forward to devouring his favorite candy bars that he's been very responsible about not having. We got him a decent supply of Twix, so that should last him an afternoon or so. 

Overall, a pretty fun kid. I think we'll keep him.