Sweet boy, very hyper...

(The Cave Troll, Mate, & Grandpa Pete light candles.)

It was a rough day housecleaning, and it seemed as though every time we got a break from the short people, they were getting into something worse than what they were doing when they were driving us crazy.

Example? The Cave Troll disappeared for fifteen minutes when we yelled at him about climbing on the couch (which was upside down so we could vacuum under it.) When he came out of our room, he had a big bump/scrape ON HIS HEAD. Where it came from, he never said! (Yes, it rhymes... and I may filk about it later, but right now, I just wonder what fell on his noggin!)

Ladybug spent much of the day driving us apeshit as we tried to clean the damned house, and when she disappeared? Well, let's just say I found her trying to redecorate the freshly cleaned bathroom. In brown.

Nevertheless, the house eventually got clean, the pizza eventually got cooked, and grandma and grandpa and Auntie Wendy & Uncle Craig eventually showed up and showered the Cave Troll with gifts. His favorite was from mom and dad, who, in spite of a fiscal crisis of, well, national proportions, managed to dump collateral into a Bat Cave. Huzzah--we're broke, but he's happy.

I was going to try to go for a picture of Ladybug with a blue-icing face, but I'm counting my blessings that we got the Cave Troll with his dad and Grandpa Pete--lighting the candles on the cake. A moment of peace, to show that yes, I have, once again, not scarred my young by my inept handling of his social life. Huzzah for me! And Huzzah for my Cave Troll, who is amazingly like Mate in his ability to be pleased with very little, and his willingness to be sucked into a little big of escapism for a very long time. I'm a little tired and not quite in a 'waxing rhapsodic' about the little troll, but as far as little troll's go, he could be my absolute favorite. The kid wants a 'hognkes' (hug & kiss) from mom every time I leave the house--seriously, doesn't everybody need that sort of love? I'm very grateful to get it--and he's just damned cute besides. I, of all people, know that never lasts long enough.

As for the rest of the day, I managed to make a phone call to a friend (Hey, Needletart!) and since everybody has gone to bed, I've been editing like mad. As soon as we recover from the Bat-Cave Expenditure, and, well, Big T's B-day, and that pesky Christmas thing...well, it will be publishable. I swear.