The results of this year's trappings

I don't have too much to say about the results of this year's leprechaun trap. I'll let the pictures tell this story:




The final count was 43 jelly beans, 12 'gold' coins and 8 peanut butter eggs. Bandit.

Who's Magical Now, Pointy Ears?

Beginning last year, it became a tradition to catch a leprechaun on St. Patrick's Day. Last year, we set the trap on St. Patrick's Day eve, but this year we decided to take advantage of the little bugger's want for beer and set our trap on St. Patty's Day (aka, Daddy didn't know when St. Patty's Day was this year and it sneaked up on him- oops).

No matter how you look at it, my alibi has merit: why catch a sober leprechaun on the way to a St. Patrick's Day party, when you can take advantage of one who's been thrown out on his shamrock for swimming in his Guinness well after last call and is now staggering home in a drunken stupor?

That being the premise of this year's trap, we decided to go with the good old standby: skulduggery. Here it is folks. The leprechaun trap for 2010...

I present you with The Pub Crawl:


We took an ordinary cardboard box and colored it to look like a bar:















Then I cut an 'x' in the door and angled the triangles inward, that way, he can fall in, but can't figure out how to get out (thanks, Mr. Guinness for the assist):

























Next, we place the trap in the yard:















Followed by some authentic scenting:















And, as I stated last year, the leprechauns, once they know they've been trapped, are able to disappear, but only if they leave a treasure behind.

My hopes are high this year, so check back tomorrow to see what we scored!

'Ah-ne'

As I stated previously, I'd be publishing some noteworthy posts from our old family blog. These are too good not to share.


[This is a legacy post from our previous family blog, originally posted 9/20/06]

Last night was just like any other night. We played with Declan, read him a story, gave him a bottle, said prayers, gave kisses and turned on his music to fall asleep. Declan got fussy as I left the room, but that is the norm. He will fall asleep.

I went back to our bedroom and sat there piddling around on my laptop. I had noticed that lil man had stopped fussing and that his CD had played through. Maribeth was already sleeping, so I went about my business of playing games on my laptop when I noticed little Declan noises coming from little Declan's room. Nothing alarming, but I stopped to listen. It sounded as though he had fallen asleep and was making noises while dreaming. I thought, "Hey...why not turn his music back on and let him sleep to it?". So over to his room I went.

I opened the door a little, sneaked over to the radio and turned on his Kermit CD. I turned to leave and I saw that Declan was standing up in his pack and play (his 'bed') with his bottle, making faces and making tiny little laughing noises. I walked over to him and said, "Hey, bud. What are you doing?". He glanced at me and then pointed across his room to the area where the radio and rocking chair were and said, "Ah-ne."

I looked in the direction he was pointing and thought that he meant "Ernie" because Kermit was singing (Jim Henson had been both Kermit and Ernie, so they sound similar). It didn't make sense to me though that he would think it was Ernie singing because we must have listed to those songs a hundred times and he knows that it is 'Termit' and not Ernie. I looked at him and said, "What?"

Once again, while still making faces and noises he pointed and said, "Ah-ne." I asked him, "Do you mean Ernie?". He replied with a cute little "Noo".

Then it clicked...He was imitating someone. You could tell. His attention was focused, he was making faces and little laughing noises.

He wasn't saying 'Ernie'. I took a deep breath and hesitantly asked, "Do you mean Arna?".

Without skipping a beat, he replied, "Yeah".

With an odd feeling, I kissed him goodnight, walked over to the door and said, "Tell Great Grandma not to keep you up all night" and pulled it shut. He didn't fuss at all.

_______________________________________________________

For those of you that may not know, Arna is Declan's great-grandma. She passed away some time ago and Declan had never met her before.

We had been over at my parent's house this weekend, and coincidentally enough we showed him a picture of her and had told him her name was Arna.

So that's the story in a nutshell...If it was you...thanks, Gramdma.

Good Initiative, Bad Judgment

If you ask anyone, they'll probably be able to tell you about a half dozen words or phrases that they've heard which have stuck with them through their lives. Ask anyone who was or is in the military and they'll be able to tell you about three dozen, unfortunately, this being a blog about a father and son, I can't share most of them here.

Although, there is a phrase which, as of late, I've been using more than most others: good initiative, bad judgment. It means the obvious: you did good wanting to do what you did, your intentions were sound, however what you did wasn't the best choice. And, you guessed it, I've been using it with the little mister more and more lately.

The latest incident is definitely blog worthy. I had sent Declan upstairs to get dressed while I finished doing whatever it was I was doing downstairs. When I was done, I still heard the rattling of him trying to close his dresser drawers, so I went up to see if I could assist. Walking into his room I saw him standing there with his pants on and socks (good job so far), but he was putting his shirt on over his pajama shirt (huh?).

"Wait, wait, wait!" I said, walking into his room. "You have to take off your pajama shirt."
"No," he said moving away from my assisting reach, "I want to wear it under my clothes."
"What? Why?" I smiled questioningly. I braced myself for the awesome power of cute.
"If I wear my pajamas under my clothes, then I won't need to put them on tonight. I can just take these off and go to bed." He made a 'bloop bloop' noise as he mimed taking off his shirt and pants.

After I explained to him that wearing his pajamas under his clothes all day would render them obsolete as sleeping attire, I helped him change his shirt. However glancing around his room, I took note of the scattered clothing. Looking back at him, I simply pointed to his pants and cocked my head to the side.

He rolled his eyes as he slowly lifted his pant leg: a brightly colored, fish laden, pajama-covered leg came into view.

Good initiative, bad judgment, little man.

A bit of winter reflection

As I sit here drinking my coffee and eating my whole wheat bagel with cream cheese, I'm looking out the kitchen window. I still see naked trees, piles of snow and the ground is covered in a bland, faded green. Visually, it still seems like winter is on its last legs, however I feel it is officially deceased and spring is upon us.

I've felt this way since last Thursday. I remember waking up and looking out the window. Everything was sunny, yet snow covered. But it was refreshing. It felt like spring. And with that feeling,all of the stir craziness, the cabin fever and the frosty stagnation just went away. It felt different. So the last week or so, I've been enjoying the days a lot more.

It's also given me a little bit of motivation for the upcoming months. Throughout the winter months, being home with Declan, I feel as thought we didn't do a lot. I won't sit here and say that it was a negative experience or that I have regrets, but I do feel that we could have done more through the winter (just take a look at the sparseness of the posts).

So what is coming? A trip to the science museum and the local natural history museum, a puppet theater, endless trips to the park, road trips and tons of spring and summer fun. I may even repost some of my ols favorites from the old family blog too.

I feel like we have to make these next two seasons count. After all this is his last summer before school starts. ;)