Days Twenty-three, Twenty-four, Twenty-five and Twenty-six

               On day 23, Brendan decided to wear his Halloween costume all day. He pulled it out of his closest shortly after he woke up that morning and tried to pull it over his head. I think it’s important to involve your child in decision making skills early on. Besides that, it will be fun story to tell him one day. We had many photo shoots and Brendan had fun trying to balance himself in the big suit. It was good practice for Brendan’s first night of trick or treat. He even learned a new phrase today-“Trick or treat!”

                On day 24, we took a walk and talked about different colored leaves. I explained to him that the leaves turn different colors in the fall, and fall from the trees. We also talked about why some trees have no leaves left and why some trees still have plenty of green leaves left. Brendan kept pointing to pine trees and asking, "Leaves?" So I explained to him the difference between leaves and pine needles. We made a collection to take home and then we raked leaves together. I never thought raking leaves would be something a toddler would enjoy but he loves using the little rake I bought him at the dollar store, he would rather be out raking leaves than indoors playing with toys. We made a nice sized pile of leaves and then played in them. This was something I really loved doing as a child, and I have lasting memories of playing in the leaves with my siblings.

                On day 25, I attempted to teach Brendan to count with candy corn. Of course, he had much more fun eating them. I know I’ve posted a lot about the treats we’ve made, but I really don’t allow him many sweets. With Halloween on the way, who could help to splurge a little bit though? He did learn how to count to three, and he’s awfully proud of himself. Now when I tell him no, instead of me counting to three he shouts, “One….two…….three!” I’m thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have taught him to count so early.

On day 26, we made cups of worms and cups of fish to hand out to our family members for Halloween. For the cups of worms we used chocolate pudding, gummy worms, crushed Oreo cookies, and chocolate sprinkles to make cups that resembled worms in dirt. For the cups of fish we filled clear cups with blue jello and inserted shark fruit snacks before we stuck them in the refrigerator. It will be nice for Brendan to have some holiday traditions when he gets older and I love involving our families and friends in his childhood magic.