B sees ginger on the kitchen counter.

B: I didn't know we had ginger. Did it come in the CSA box this week?
M: No, we got it at the market. F insisted we buy "the food that looks like poop"

M (to F): Daddy wants to take you someplace fun this morning.

F: Are we going to the Skokie Exploratorium?
B: I was thinking we'd go play outside, at a park or a playground
F: I want to go to NEW JERSEY!

B is at the stove, cooking breakfast
R, in another room, starts crying

B: F, can you go see why R is crying and if she needs me?

F vanishes, returns a minute later

F: R has your back scratcher and she has put SLOBBER on it

R has, unfortunately, inherited her dad's bug bite sensitivity. She has 2 big red welts on her face.

M: Something is wrong. R has these welts, and F has a huge orange splotch on his face.

B goes to investigate F

B: I think the splotch is the remnants of the pumpkin he had painted there.
M: Oh. Yeah.

F: It's an especially bright day.
B: Yeah, the sun is really bright today.
F: The sun is bright every day!
B: True, but some days, something blocks us from seeing it, like clouds.
F: Or strollers!

F just woke me up to tell me this:

F: Daddy, I was just thinking. If we left some chicken on the ground, outside it would evaporate. And then it would rain down chicken.

M & F have been distracted from packing by "art projects". They found a greeting card with a picture of R on it.

M: Who should we send this to?
F: We should send it to a bad person ... to happy them up.
M: Who?
F: How about our downstairs neighbor?

F: I don't like Santa Claus because he's old. He leaves presents in your house but I really don't know him that well.

F found a shoelace on the ground at the playground. He is now running around yelling, "A rope! A rope! My favorite thing in the whole wide world!"

Smiling Blue Poppa." A painting by F

F: That bird is called a PIGEON because it PIDGEs!

Walking over to T's house, F has been talking about telling him a scary story.

F: T! I have the SCARIEST story!
T: Where?
F: In ME!

F: My airplane keeps breaking!
B: Why do you think it does?
F: Because it's made of lego!

Apparently we just drove past an auto repair shop.

F: Look! A fix-it shop!
B: What kind?
F: Oh, just cars ... not people ... or buildings ... because buildings don't have wheels ... maybe a cement truck

F: Hey, Mommy? I mean, hey, Daddy! Sometimes I forget which one you are, so I say hey Mommy and then hey Daddy.

F is spinning in circles. R joins him.

F: Look, Daddy! We're spinning! We're the Earth!

F: We are big strong men!
B: Who?
F: Me and ANNIE! We're lifting CASTLES and building castles!

F has his halloween costumes figured out for the next five years: cricket, wicked witch, cartoon cricket, centipede, millipede.

F shines his flashlight in my ear.

B: How does it look in there?
F: Fine, but I was just checking for monsters.
B: Did you find any?
F: No.
B: What if you did?
F: I'd take it out and give it to Mommy and tell her to throw it out the window ... but anyway monsters won't fit in there. It's too small!

F just got out of bed. He said he had to whisper a secret in my ear. It was "I wonder what we're going to do tomorrow!"

F and I are shelling and eating peanuts

B: Why are you eating peanuts?
F: So I can get the shells and use them in an art project
B: I thought it was because you liked them
F: Oh. That's another reason!

On Halloween. Seriously.

F: I have enough candy now. Can we go home?