I am SO addicted to eBay.

Granted, since I stopped working eBay has been a Godsend, that little extra bit of income over the course of a tight month. It also lets me keep buying some of the little perks I enjoyed when I worked - expensive facial cleanser, nice shampoo. Stuff I would feel guilty paying full price for when I know I should be saving money for the next kid outing or school fundraiser.

But the voyeuristic side of me so loves to look at auctions! The best recreational search to do is "haunted -(video)". With the number of haunted dolls for sale on eBay I'm shocked I don't happen to have a few in my own closet. (Maybe I do; maybe it's not actually the dog I hear in the middle of the night, thunking off of the guest bed, gagging and falling down in a snoring heap next to my husband's side of the bed. Perhaps it's Haunted Bitty Baby...) There also seem to be a whole lot of dead voodoo princesses who bequeathed their magical estates to hapless eBay sellers who are charged with selling this good magic throughout the world. But the best part is the ever-present disclaimer, "This item will not work unless the buyer absolutely, 100% BELIEVES it is authentic." God, I love that!

I also get kind of a kick looking at that little tiny slice of someone else's life you get in a listing picture. The acre of granite countertop holding up the "only used twice" electric breastpump. Or a crowded, tiny bedroom with a lot of maternity clothes hanging on a microscopic closet door. Sometimes it kind of pulls at my heart - at the very least it stirs my imagination.

WHEN GINGERBREAD MEN ATTACK

Usually Elizabeth will start to show adjustment problems after she really gets into something and reality sets in. In this particular case I think everything came to a head about a week into kindergarten. The class read "The Gingerbread Man" story and then baked their own gingerbread men for snack the following day. But to their amazement, when they returned to the kitchen the cookies had run away! The teacher sighed, "They do this to us every year," and the group embarked on a scavenger hunt to find them.

Elizabeth's imagination was completely engaged with this idea. She bubbled over with the story the minute she got off the bus and kept talking about it until bedtime. At some point, however, her imagination took over full time and reason left the picture altogether. She became more and more uneasy and the gingerbread people took on a more and more sinster tone, and when it was time to take her bath she refused to go in alone because they might come get her. (I'm thinking scenes from the preschool version of Psycho.) By bedtime we were in full-blown cookie angst - they were an inescapable, relentless army of cookie people and she was right in their crosshairs. The fact that the class had already eaten the cookies was apparently irrelevant. She was doomed!

On the one hand I really can't blame her. I mean, can you envision an army of kindergartener-created gingerbread cookies? Armless, mutant frankencookies dripping frosting and lurching their way unseen through the halls of the school. That really is frightening, if you ask me.

Fortunately we happen to posess Weapons of Mass Gingerbread Destruction. The Labrador Retriever.

You need to understand our dogs' relationship with food. They take binge eating to dizzying heights. We can't use the "five second rule" in our house because food hitting the floor has no chance of making it that long. They are silly, furry piranahs trolling the waters under the highchair for the stray Cheerio, that unlucky bit of Ritz cracker.

Duke and Cleo would like nothing more than to be the suicide bombers in their own little Gingerbread Jihad. I envision their strategy; "You take the front door, I'll take the back. We eat until we burst! Go!"

Elizabeth is a smart kid; reason and humor almost always prevail if you can wait long enough for her to process things. Eventually she saw the light here and I think she was relieved to find an emotional steampipe so she could get the stress out and move on. I am proud of her, really proud!

But in the back of my mind I'm also a little worried about the Christmas cookies.

We are a family of changes.

All families are, really. A family is with you from the moment you're born until the moment you die. So there are bound to be a few developments every so often!

This past year or two our family has grown leaps and bounds. My husband got a new job and I suddenly find myself married to an auditor. (I believe I woke up screaming from that dream a few times in high school, but no matter.) This has been a good, no wonderful, change for us because it gives him security and ends the uncertainty of the World of Consultants. While he doesn't always love the work it gives our family a stability that was lacking for a while.

My son was, well, born. I guess you don't get a bigger change than that one! Alex is 14 months old and full of trouble, trouble, trouble! He bites, he climbs, he falls and above all, he eats! And eats some more. Honestly, he is a dream baby and I couldn't ask for more. That's his little face peering out the window on his tunnel. Do you think he knows he's cute?

After Alex's birth I made the difficult decision to leave my job and be a stay-home mom for a while. At times I struggle with this change. Always before I felt torn between work and children - the part-time schedule meant I didn't invest my full energy into either one and both probably suffered. Now I can invest my full energy into being with the kids but I'm still learning exactly how to do that. How much should I "entertain" them? Does this mean I have to do all the laundry? And geeze-o-pete, what are we having for dinner?! Ouch. But I'm there for the moments, for the firsts, and that feels so important! Alex's first wobbly standing, his first cheerful little, "Hi!" Elizabeth's first loose tooth. Elizabeth's first swear word, but that wasn't one I will particularly cherish. Nor will she, I suspect. The time when Elizabeth drew all over herself with permanent magic marker, took off her clothes and plastered a County Fair "I milked the cow" sticker to her bare bottom. I will cherish these memories for the rest of my life and hope I can record some of them here to share with you.

My Elizabeth is starting kindergarten this week. This one has a tough time with change! She has been angry with me over the changes in our lives and I suspect she blames me for taking her out of daycare and away from her friends. Elizabeth finished her first unstructured summer this year, and she was a trooper about it. She survived on playdates, pool time and an abundance of imagination. But she made it! Now we will see what school has in store for her.