#394 - Glow Stick

Happy Halloween, everyone! Tonight, we took our little Spiderman trick-or-treating, but the best part of the day for him was a new thing altogether: a green glow stick. We got the glow stick last weekend in preparation for today, and it's been killing him all week that we couldn't open it sooner. We got all ready to venture out in the neighborhood and got it out at the last minute. (It was like Christmas around here!) As for trick-or-treating, we only did our court and up one side of the next street over before TLG decided he had had enough... though after all the other Halloween festivities this week, I can't blame him. He did help us answer the door for a while, but mostly he wanted to play with the glow stick and eat candy. (Who can blame him?) The photo, left, is from bathtime - we let him take a "spooky bath" in the dark with the glow stick. I didn't know they could go in the water, but it didn't seem to hurt anything and he loved it. We had plenty of trick-or-treaters this year but between the leftover candy and the all the loot TLG collected this week, I do see some sugar rushes in our future!

#393 - Toy Story

Let me share with you today's "toy story": Grammy and Papa sent TLG $5 in a Halloween card this week, and we talked with him about how much that could buy in a store. We told him he could buy anything he wanted. He said he wanted a Buzz Lightyear toy, so knowing that they've re-released Toy Story toys, the two of us headed to a Wal-Mart Supercenter (guaranteed to have more toys to choose from than the regular Wal-Mart we usually shop in). And once we arrived, I told him he could take as long as he wanted to choose his toy. We spent an entire hour in the toy department, exploring and learning about price tags and how much things cost. It was actually the highlight of my day - we talked about the numbers on the price tags, and we walked every single isle of the toy department from bikes to Barbie dolls. It was fascinating to watch him play with every toy he could reach, discover new kinds of toys, and see what got him excited. I got lots of great ideas for his birthday and Christmas!

After learning the Toy Story toys cost quite a bit more than he had to spend, he spent the longest time in the Hot Wheels section, choosing the right one. He finally chose an "American Grafitti" collectors 1958 Corvette that came in a special display case. He loves it so much, he took it to bed with him this evening like a stuffed animal. The little man loves his cars!

#392 - Daycare Trick-or-Treating

Yesterday morning, I spent a few hours at TLG's daycare helping take the preschoolers trick-or-treating around campus. Originally, I was assigned three kids: my little dragon, plus Snow White and a pink cowgirl. Not having much (OK, not having any) experience taking three preschoolers out in the world, I didn't really think to tell them to all hold hands - though I did ask them to stay together. Silly me, what was I thinking? The cowgirl took off, making her hard to keep track of, and the teacher re-assigned her to another parent by the second stop on our journey. So the dragon, Snow White and I did it all ourselves, holding hands most of the way. Snow White recognized her mother's office when we got there, and when she couldn't find her mom anywhere, she got very upset and refused to hold my hand after that. Thank goodness for her mom showing up 10 minutes later! As for me and the little dragon, we did great. There was about 30 stops for candy in the 2-1/2 hours, and he was a trooper. No complaints, no asking to eat anything, not even any bathroom breaks. What a kid.

#391 - Pop Candy Featured Reader

As I think I've mentioned before, my favorite blog is USA Today's Pop Candy. Author Whitney Matheson has tons of great suggestions for people like me who love all things pop culture, and though I don't always agree with her (I'm not a big comic book fan, for example), I get a kick out of her writing and suggestions. Well, a couple of weeks ago she decided to start asking readers to submit pop-culture related "Top Five" lists. Of course I had to write one! I'm proud to share today's new thing: I am today's featured reader on the USA Today Pop Candy blog! I wrote a list of dream (fictional) high schools I wish I could have gone to, including the schools from TV shows Friday Night Lights, Glee, Gilmore Girls, Saved by the Bell, and finally Freaks and Geeks. I'm so proud!