Crazy freakin' clown!

I'm not the kind of person who is especially scared of clowns. I mean, I don't always find them particularly amusing, but so long as they don't hop out of the pages of It, I remain relatively coulrophobia-free.

But the other day, I was walking through the aisles at a local discount store (you know the type, with stuff piled up high leaving little visibility). As I pushed the cart with both of my boys in it out of the aisle, AHHHH, a clown popped out. I'm not sure if he was trying to rock the hungover-hobo-clown look, or if he was, you know, a hungover clown in a threadbare costume. He offered to make balloon animals for the boys. His offer, and I quote,

I can make swords, guns...

Um, can you make anything a little less disturbing? So I asked if he could make them dogs. Sure. I was just hoping they wouldn't be killer attack dogs. He made the first one and gave it to me and explained that he had to give it to me instead of the kids for liability reasons and that I had to take the responsibility of giving it to my kids.

Huh? What the heck is in this balloon? Does he fill them with laughing gas? Does he buy special discount balloons that advertises "Exrta Lead in evry baloon"?

He then proceed to inform me that he's available to do parties. Anyone looking for a slightly disturbing clown able to shape balloons into any weapon you'd like? Because boy do I have a recommendation for you!

Random unrelated thoughts: I love the age my boys are at now (almost 3 years). Their personalities are really starting to shine through and they're so much fun. Last night before bath time, I said to them, "Guess what we're going to go do in the bathroom?" B-man pipes right up "Take a bath!" while N-man simultaneously happily guesses, "Fix the toilet!"

This captures them so perfectly. We always take a bath at that time of night. B-man loves schedules and knowing what happens when. N-man, however, believes that anything is possible. The toilet wasn't broken, nor has it been broken recently. However, about two months ago when it wasn't flushing right, N-man got to see the toilet being fixed. He hasn't mentioned it since, but apparently it left an impression. He was very disappointed we were doing something as run-of-the-mill as taking a bath.