You just ate two waffles, 2 sausage links, half an apple, a glass of milk, and a boiled egg. There is not enough space in your belly for more.

When your socks don't fit, it doesn't mean that you now have a reason to never wear socks. It just means we need to get you new socks.

If you can, let us know when you START to get hungry. Because the walking up to me in tears as if your cat died only for you to say “I’m so hungry!” is a little freaky.

You WILL eat again. Really.

It’s okay to sleep a little longer. I promise you won’t miss anything big. No need to wake up before your body is ready and then march around like a cranky monster because HUNGRY!

The reason we “always” have to try on clothes is because your pant bottoms are at your shins and we’re trying to get a better fit for you. And it’s not “always”.

Your food is not going to run off your plate. It’s okay to slow down.

Yes, we will be having supper today.

And because I really wanted to go to New York City for a few days before that.

I invited my mother along.

She had never been. So I thought it would be fun to show her the city and have a little mother-daughter time with a few musicals anchoring each day's activities.

Our itinerary was jam packed. But not as much as my mother's luggage.

Day 1: Dinner at Barbuto, Book of Mormon musical (which was AWESOME!), my mom's first subway ride, and Times Square (to which my mother said "oh, this is it?"

That same evening, I met up with colleagues for a drink as they arrived into town and then next morning started early with meetings.

I wanted my mom to really have a NYC experience - lots of walking, crazy cab ride, subway ride, good food, broadway show - and I think I succeeded in putting together an itinerary that was entertaining, touristy with a touch of local flare, and manageable. I can't wait to go back! I love visiting New York City!

The kids started asking about Halloween some time in July? This year, though, I didn't spend hours creating costumes from scratch. Thank goodness. No. Harper had decided she wanted to be a - wait for it - a princess. Which means she just wore an outfit she's been wearing for the last, I don't know, YEAR. And that's fine. It was easy. The boy, out of nowhere, had declared he wanted to be a skeleton so thank you very much, Children's Place.

With a children's theatre production of Bunnicula, two Halloween parties, and the school fall festival the weekend before Halloween, we carved pumpkins the weekend before.

And by "we", I mean that as soon as the kids saw the inside of the pumpkin and that those insides needed to come out - with their HANDS - it meant that they watched me gut and carve.

And I wish I would have talked about pumpkin rot and decomposition as part of our pumpkin process because OH THE TEARS from the boy when five days later his pumpkin was the first to roll off the stool and crack in to a million moldy ant-covered pieces.

We attended an epic Halloween party, named by the hosts Pirates of Wellington Court. You guys, this group of neighbors freaking BUILT A PIRATE SHIP that kids could play on and inside the pirate ship, after dark, they had a 3D HAUNTED HOUSE. And not only that, but they had wireless radio contact with each other so they could adjust the scare factor based on who was coming through the doors. And not only THAT, but there was a four-camera live feed from inside the haunted house being projected onto an outdoor screen on the next driveway over. PEOPLE!

The next day was the kids' school fall festival which saw rock wall climbing, bull riding, bounce house bouncing, and face painting.

The finale of Halloween night took us to our friends' home in our old neighborhood, once again to trick-or-treat briefly, and then close out the evening with the kids handing out candy while the adults handed out wine to their grown-ups. Thanks to a colleague of mine providing the "fuel" source, I was able to make a flaming pumpkin for displaying for the trick-or-treaters.

I should have removed it then.

Instead, I watched it carefully as I closed the door, making sure it didn't get inside the house. I figured he'd move along by morning.

Well. This morning, the boy wanted to check on our pumpkins that we carved yesterday. Because they might have moved? So he was instructed to put his shoes on before going outside. Which he did. Meanwhile, the girl is slow-playing breakfast, needs her hair combed, and doesn't have any shoes on yet, Jen is gathering their lunchboxes and backpacks, and I am trying to make my breakfast.

Somewhere in there, I hear the boy screaming from outside. So I rush out there and he's all "There's something in my SHOOOOOOEEEEE!" It looked like some pine needles. So I say, "Buddy, it's just pine needles!" Except that it wasn't. Because as I pull his shoe off, there's the pine-needley legs and grasshopper attached to them.

Now how on earth it survived in his shoe with his foot in it, I have no idea. Because just ten minutes earlier, Jen had put a piece of paper on the ground in the kitchen and traced the outline of both his feet. Because the only pair of shoes that fit him are his crocks. Which are the one's the grasshopper some how snuck into. And Jen put her foot next to his foot outline and her foot is only about four inches longer. I told Jen I figured he'll have the same foot size as hers by the time that he's nine years old. To which she replied "Yeah, I was thinking it'd be before he hits double digits." Which is when the scream came from outside.

Never having learned the proper way to pick up a grasshopper, I grabbed its hind legs. And when I did, he frantically started doing leg extensions and I think that grasshopper was six inches long at this point. I put the grasshopper in my left palm while I hold his hind legs with my right hand and those front paws were sticky! Harper's squeals of "Let me see!!!" quickly turn into "Awww, I want to hold him!" Jennifer is trying to grab her phone so she can take a picture of this giant grasshopper and I'm in the process of putting the grasshopper in Harper's hands when...

It bites her.

And I'm not talking a nibble. This thing was so large, I could see what seemed like in slow motion when the thing cocked his head back, exposed some gnarly pincher teeth-like things, and bit down on her finger. Hard! Now she's screaming. I literally have to pull the grasshopper off her hand, without breaking it's legs, and it in the process it takes a tad of her skin with it.

Oh the tears.

Jen pulls Harper into a hug as big 'ol alligator tears are streaming down her face and she's screaming "it bit me! it bit me!" I'm tossing the grasshopper out the back door so I can tend to her wound just as Mateo is returning from the front yard having checked on the pumpkins. Which had not moved. But now hearing Harper's screams, and which point he sees the grasshopper leaving my hand and falling onto the ground and now Mateo will not move towards the door because he's afraid the grasshopper is going to get him.

Think quick. Of some lies.

I leave Mateo in a statue-like position, staring at the grasshopper, run inside, get a Hello Kitty bandaid for Harper and muster up a story of how the grasshopper was just grabbing her tightly because he thought he was going to fall off her hand. And then I re-enact it. Like I'm the grasshopper trying to hold on to her arm like it was her finger and saying "see? He just didn't want to fall!" And she's almost bought it. So I ask her to be the grasshopper and try and hold on to my arm and it all makes sense to her now. She starts cry-laughing. Hysterically.

She asks Jennifer to carry her to the car. Meanwhile, Mateo is still frozen still outside whining "he's gonna get me!" So I'm all, "hold my hand, buddy, watch how still he stays when we walk by. It's ok!" And thankfully, it doesn't move. And as we head to the car, I'm all "look, he's playing freeze tag!" And I reenact it as I'm buckling him in so that Harper can see it, too. There I am, acting like a grasshopper and then I freeze with a silly look on my face and go "I'm a grasshopper! I'm playing freeze tag!" And now they're both laughing, pretending to be frozen grasshoppers with silly faces.

We finally head off to school, well behind schedule. For all I know, the grasshopper survived the hoopla, Mateo is getting new shoes today, and I'm still not certain if Harper had shoes on when we left the house.

Happy Monday morning, y'all!

And then we had a twenty seventh conversation about not going outside of the house without telling a grown up.

Not a few weeks prior, I bolted out of bed when I heard the back door slam shut. I'm not sure what I thought was going on. SINCE IT WAS ONLY 6:00 AM. But when I got to the door, I was met with Mateo, still in his pajamas, with his oversized toy tank in one hand and the car keys in the other.

"Buddy, what are you doing?" I asked, trying to breathe out the adrenaline. "I forgot my tank in the car last night so I went to get it!"

He had found the car keys, gone outside, unlocked the car, pulled his tank out, locked and set the alarm on the car, and had come back inside.

We've since had a keyed deadbolt installed. And we hide the key at night.

Listen. Listen to yourself. I mean really listen. If you are still enough, long enough, you will hear exactly what it is that you need to do. Listen to others, too. Unless they’re saying things that have negative energy – towards you or another human being. In that case, don’t listen at all.

Fail well. Life is full of failure and heartbreak. Nobody is perfect. So if you’re failing, that means you are also trying new things and living and loving. It means you’re getting up and going for it again. If you’re mad about failing, fine, be mad. That’s ok. Throw your fists in the air and get mad and cry and feel your feelings. But don’t give up. You’ll be glad you didn’t.

Do something for other people. It’s important to get involved with something greater than yourself. It develops compassion and empathy and sparks passion and creativity. The world will get really really small as you get older and it’s important that your view of the world doesn’t become narrow in the process. I really think the world would be in a better place if people just cared about each other more. Held hands more. Helped each other more. Also, doing for others creates positive energy all around and it’s a good thing to be a part of. When I was in junior high, my church took a mission trip to Mexico, where we visited a city literally made of cardboard boxes and sheets of tin. And from there, we went to an orphanage where kids my own age were without families. The experiences broke me and shaped me and opened my heart to poverty and homelessness in ways that I may not have been open to otherwise. It is so easy to shame someone or judge someone’s circumstances when you haven’t seen it with your own eyes. One of the coolest gifts of helping others is that you’ll find you are humbled and educated in the process.

Do well in school, but don’t let it consume you. Grades will only get you in the door. To college. To graduate school. To your first job. After that, it’s determination, hard work, and who you know. And who you know knows. I know, that part can suck. But it’s mostly true. I’m not saying be a social climber or an ass-kisser. I’m saying be authentic and I’m saying…

Surround yourself with people that are “better” than yourself. And by “better”, I mean people that inspire you, people you can learn from. When I was growing up, I played tennis and I always noticed that I played a more solid game when I played a tougher opponent. I didn’t win all those matches. Not at all. But I walked away knowing I actually got better. I also noticed that when I played someone less skilled, my own game maybe sometimes got sloppy. I may have still won, but I didn’t improve myself in the process. Find good people and be good people to others.

Learn to type. I’m not kidding. I’m talking about typing without looking. Like just knowing that you hit the number “3” with your left middle finger. You will save hours and hours of your life to be used for something better if you just learn how to type. Like if we calculated how much time you’d gain back it would be something like 2.87 years. I took typing in ninth grade, and to this day I think it is the most important, multi-purposeful skill I ever picked up.

Don’t be so guarded. You hear me? I was so guarded. And I went through so much alone because I was too afraid, too skeptical, to worried about being judged or whatever. Find two or three people you really really trust. And be one of those people for someone else. And then lean on each other. If you feel all alone in the world, I promise, you aren’t. If you don’t have someone to talk to, you can talk to me. But talk. Let it out in some form another. If not in words, than through movement, or music, or art, or something. Don’t hold it in. Don’t. You’ll find that you are loved and loved well, but you’ll never know unless you let people in.

Take care of your body. You only get one. Stay out of the damn sun. Use sunscreen. Feed your body lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. Drink more water. Exercise. Actually, take up running. Yeah, take up running. No, I’m serious. Like, run! You’ll keep the habit of doing it, it’s an efficient form of exercise, and your metabolism will thank you for it later. I don’t know a single former soccer player or cross-country runner or jogger that isn’t still fit. I was a goalie and I had powerful groundstrokes in tennis because I didn’t want to move. That’s carried over. And now I carry extra weight around from all my bad habits. Believe me, it’s easier to create and stick with good habits while you are young than it is to break habits and form new good ones when you are older.

It really does get better. I know things can be super tough. Sometimes we tell ourselves really mean messages. Sometimes others do it for us. It can be unbearable - the weight of it all. Maybe it feels like no one will care or will listen or like you’ll never get through it. But you will. You will get through it.

Having said that, live in the present. We all want things we don’t have, want to be a grown up and make your own way and be the boss of yourself. I remember feeling so different than my peers, like everyone was out there having fun and how stupid that was and why wasn’t everyone else worried about their career choice as I was? By the way, by the time you get to your early 20s, you’ll have changed your mind a few times. And by the time you get out into the working world, you’ll likely be doing something different than what you spent all that time studying for. I was always pining for more adultness, more responsibility. In the process, I missed out on a lot of fun and just being young. You only get to be young once. Be responsible, but enjoy it. Skip. Have hobbies. Laugh.