October-ing

Oh, October! You've were quite the odd one! Your trees said fall but your temperatures said summer. 

Also, you seriously went by in the blink of an eye.

We did get a few chilly days which prompted me to pack away all of Parker's shorts, only to unpack them a week later. At one point, the weather report actually said "You are going to need your entire wardrobe over the next few days!" as the highs were fluctuating by thirty degrees. Alabama weather, I still haven't figured you out. 

What have I figured out? Toddler activities, of course! And Parker is hip to this concept as well. The newly released If You Give a Mouse a Brownie arrived via Amazon this month. I heart Amazon. We opened the package and shortly after I had to hightail it to my barre class. While I was gone, Parker informed Dada that he and Mama would be baking brownies just like the book when I returned. So I had to oblige.

We made the same brownies that Max made for me from scratch while we were dating. At that time, I had never made brownies from anything but a box. I was smitten. Has he made me brownies (or any other baked good) since then? Well, no. The wooing is over. But he did pass on his mom's recipe:

(from the Helen Corbitt cookbook)

Ingredients:

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

1 cup melted butter

4 oz. bitter chocolate

1 1/2 cup sifted flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

With a spoon, slightly beat eggs; add sugar and stir. Add melted butter and chocolate. Mix flour & salt and add to butter mixture. Add vanilla and stir until blended. Pour into well buttered 9x13 pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-35 minutes. 

Add a three-year-old and your kitchen will be covered in flour :) On a side note, P loved the book. It also makes a great present since it's a new release and most likely not already in the recipient's home library!

We did the sweetest craft to accompany Five Little Pumpkins, an old favorite from my days as a teacher. I just had Parker go to town stamping orange handprints, which he was all about. With a three year old, the messier the better. Then I used markers to make them into jack-o-lanterms. Voilà! I heart October.

There were festive outfits to be worn...

And more crafting to be done...

And what better time to get a teeth cleaning than right before Halloween??

We enjoyed the (very few) cool breezy days - Parker was obsessed with the falling leaves.

And I was obsessed with this library book :) 

Add in some Pure Barre and you have a perfect October day :) 

Wishing you all the colors of the rainbow! 

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Laying Low

Fall arrived, and it was glorious. Crisp mornings, falling leaves, all the pumpkins...

I mean, autumn is just pure joy, am I right?

And then, the colds and fevers followed. Y'all, preschool germs are no joke. We have (all three of us) caught more bugs in the the past few months since P started school than we have in all his other years combined. I was hoping my almost ten years of teaching would have provided me a buffer, but alas, I am only immune to California and Arizona germs.

Did anyone else have this experience when their little one first started school? Is it just round after round of being sick for the whole family?? In the meantime, we've been taking it easy. This little guy's been in good spirits despite the fevers...

Partly because when he's sick he's allowed to watch videos, which is a big deal (we are normally screen-free with Parker). I propped my laptop on the ottoman in the playroom one of the mornings and Parker watched Room on the Broom (Netflix's animated adaptation of the book) for the first time! He insisted on bringing out the book so he could follow along :)

I think the book is a must for all Halloween collections. Parker liked it last year (age 2.5) but he loves it this year (so much so that he insisted on dressing as one of the characters for Halloween!). Click here to purchase it for just five dollars with free shipping via Amazon - we have both the board book and the large copy and enjoy each.



We also read Llama Llama Home with Mama, a perfect story since Parker was missing school and staying home with Mama, just like in the book. He actually asked if we had "a book about being sick" - and it was then that I remembered we were gifted this book when Parker was a baby! I tucked it away since he was too young for it then, but it was absolutely perfect to bring out this week. It was given to us with a collection of other situation-specific books that we've pulled out over the years, and looking back it was so thoughtful of the gift givers!

Since I was feverish too, I rested while P rested and read Truly Madly Guilty, the new release by Liane Moriarty (I snatched it last week from the Recent Releases table at the library - a lucky score because the new books of the more well-known authors usually have the crazy holds). I had only read one other Liane Moriarty book, Big Little Lies which I reviewed here, and I was game for another (on a side note, does anyone else think Dean Moriarty from Jack Kerouac's On the Road whenever they see Liane Moriarty?? I just can't help making the jump every single time). So back to Truly Madly Guilty - I think it was well written, it had (what I'm guessing is her signature style after reading a second book in this format from her) the interesting element of going back in forth in time via multiple accounts, leaving the reader trying to figure out a crime that isn't spelled out until the end of the book. It was entertaining, but it was sad. I don't mind dark and twisty (surprising, since, in husby's words,  I "live on a pink cloud"), but the circumstances and happenings in Truly Madly Guilty were heart wrenching at times. I just couldn't take it. I should probably note here that I also sobbed uncontrollably after seeing Disney's Wall-e. In my defense, the plot was a parallel for the devastating effects of Alzheimer's, but really I shouldn't be exposed to anything the least bit sad. It melts my pink cloud. 

 Here's hoping for more pumpkins, and fewer fevers! 

Wishing you pumpkin spice and all things nice!

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