taking things too far

okay, i have to preface this post with a little background info.

once upon a time, when my oldest son was a newborn, there was a pile of kids books sitting at my parent's house. my mom said, "please take them!" so i did. among these books was a weird little dr. seuss book called "sneetches and other stories." not being a big fan of dr. seuss, i never read the book until much, much later, when my oldest son asked if he could pick the book that night. he came running to the couch holding this book, and grudgingly i read it. that night it became an instant family favorite, and i can't even count how many times we've read it.

well, the last story in the book is a little gem called, "what was i scared of?". it's a story about a boy/thing who, one dark night, happens upon a pair of pale green pants with nobody inside them. the story unfolds with boy and empty pants happening upon each other over and over, until finally the boy realizes that the pants are just as scared of him as he is of them. it all ends happily with the boy and empty pants becoming friends.



my husband in particular enjoys reading this story to the boys, and they act out the different parts with the kids arguing over who gets to be the boy and who gets to be the pants. the quote, "poor empty pants with no one inside them!" has become a catch-phrase in our house.

so anyway, a few mornings ago i woke up and noticed this sitting in the corner.



ha ha, i said. poor empty pants.

a few days later i walked out of the kitchen in the morning and saw this:



okay, that was a little creepy. the empty pants standing in the corner was a little too reminiscent of the blair witch project. still, pretty funny.

then this morning arrived. the baby was crying so i trudged into his room with my eyes closed, changed his diaper, and started to trudge back to bed. then i stopped, and looked down the dark hallway. and i about soiled myself.



i'm embarrassed to admit that it actually took me a minute or two to actually move the few steps to the hallway light switch, and even after i saw it with the lights on i didn't really want to walk past it. here it is with the lights on--still creepy as anything.



i have to admit, it was ingenious using the oval rack from the roasting pan to make the pants three dimensional. after i got done having a heart attack i laughed till i cried. then i waited for the kids to wake up. that was pretty rewarding, i must say. both of them were scared silly, and then laughed at their funny papa.