Pre-Halloween dilemma

Halloween season is hard around our house. (I didn't know it was already Halloween season, but Teri informed me that it was.) One of the main dilemmas in the Keller household is what we should be for "All-hallow-even." Nothing like celebrating the sixth most profitable holiday (or one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent). Anyways, Teri is gung-ho about Halloween this year and especially what the options are for Crew. So far we have two pretty good options. The first is a cross between Grandpa Keller and Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his Mister Universe days.

"Howdy, ma'am, dawgone it. C'd yo' show me th' way t'th' bunkhouse? ah need t'git me mah spurs an' lasso fo' th' roun'up. Do yo' happen t'knows when they will be servin' th' grub? By th' way ma'am, hyar's a li'l piece of advice: Nevr approach a bull fum th' front, a horse fum th' rear, o' a fool fum enny direckshun."

This next series of pictures is the second costume option. At first I thought that a bee costume was only for sissies. But then I started thinking, bees are pretty tough. You pretty much don't want to mess around with a bee. I guess a bee costume would be okay for Crew to wear (this once).

This is a picture of Crew's face, just after he learned that somebody was "messin' with his hive." You never mess with another man's hive, I guess. His mom even had to hold him back.

And this is when we told Crew that he was exempt from cleaning the toilets, and that it was Jett and Wynn that had toilet duty.

Crew just learned that he can't have honey until he is older than 1 year.

Wynn's "At-Home-Losing-A-Tooth-Surgery"

Wynn has had a tooth that he has been passionately wiggling the past few days in hopes he would have a tooth to present to the tooth fairy this weekend. You remember being a kid, having a tooth seem loose, and wiggling it until it actually was loose. Well, that was Wynn this weekend. He wanted to get that three dollar bill from the tooth fairy. We told him a two dollar bill was the closest he would get, although he might even get a nickel. He was even more excited about the nickel. Finally, today after church, he had wiggled it the the point that it probably was actually loose.

When the loose tooth was confirmed loose by our family dentist, (We'll give her a fictitous name-Teri), Wynn decided he wanted to try the "plier method." It is a method often used by parents to tease their children (and by dentists using methods originating in the Revolutionary War). So we located an old pair of pliers for the occasion. We made sure they were plenty rusty or it wouldn't work just right. (See enlarged picture).

As with most surgeries, large amounts of gauze and blood-soaking material were needed. However, no anesthesia was needed, the tooth came out, and Wynn was as excited as could be.

Now all that was left to do was prepare the tooth for showing to friends by soaking it in a glass of dihydrogen oxide. And smiling for the camera. Thanks for doubling as a dentist, Mom!