The Brighter Side: I'll take Productive Monday for $100 Alex

We kissed October farewell last night, hosting only a few dozen trick-or-treaters, or as my comic of a husband likes to say treat-or-trickers (because if you don't give them the treat they'll play a trick on you and therefore the treat part should come first) I was grossly disappointed with the miniscule number of children who graced our front steps last night. We live in the burbs people, and in my opinion there should have been at least a hundred little costumed creatures asking for candy until we ran out and had to give then granola bars and apples. But no there were only those few who came and so what if I didn't answer the door anytime it was a little boy dressed up as something scarey but called for Jared as soon as I was close enough to see the black cape or Scream mask. I gave up on the festivities half an hour before trick-or-treating was do to end and we gave the little one her bath. I left the front lights on just in case and sure enough when we were in her room lotion-ing her up and picking out which footie pj's to use there was a knock on the door and there stood two girls, probably in middle school, and man did they think they hit the mother load, I dumped the rest of the candy into their pillow cases. They looked at me like I was crazy and I said, "I don't want to eat it so you're taking it." Jared had already picked out all the good candy and it was sitting on our kitchen table. So really they got the rejects of all the other kids from the evening but hey they still got more than the three pieces we had been handing out.

It's November folks.
I love November.
Chills in the Air, the first fire in the fireplace, Thanksgiving, Sweaters. Ah blessed November.

So It's monday and the first of the month all at once so I decided we were going to be productive and boy were we: 4 loads of laundry, dishes, clean house, dinner, raked leaves, and nails done! How 'bout that for a Monday?

It's not that it's hard to get stuff done, She's a good baby, and trust me I've seen the spectrum and I know how lucky we are, but there are these perfect moments when she's tummy timin' it, scootin' along the blanket reaching for toys, flipping over to keep herself occupied, but really she's just wondering when someone's gonna to come hold her. And right when she's just to that point of boredom where she's gonna scream for something more exciting, than a plastic ring I'll walk by. And she sees me. And she lights up like she just won a trip to Hawaii, and we'll stop and look at each other, her with her legs all a kickin' and me with my heart all a racin' and then it starts the seriously-can-I-bottle-this-feeling? kind of way. And I usually say to heck with the dishes and who really cares if all the laundry gets done in one day and sit and play with her till she's so tired she buries her head in her hands like she's beggin' for me to just leave her alone.

This Weekend flew by, Friday was a carnival at Church, Jared and I were in Charge of the Cake Walk, there were no cakes-don't even get me started! We took turns running the game and appeasing the baby. These sweet little grandmas stop you at things like this, with their sympathetic smiles and their eyes that hold memories and the way they pat their chest like it holds a treasure. They say, "I remember those days and they go by all too fast."

The final round of games for the evening instead of choosing one kid to win a prize he let everyone that was playing pick one "because he wanted to make sure everyone went home with something" (like any kid who had been playing free games for the past 2 hours hadn't won at least one prize) and the kids who weren't even playing but just walking by saw what was going on and ran up to get a prize too, and you bet he gave 'em one. And that's when I realized he's gone soft on me and she's not only got him wrapped around her little finger but she's transformed him into one of those dad's that totally breaks the rules and lets the kids have cookies before dinner and stay up way past bed time till they hear the garage door open and know mom's coming home and rush to put the kids to bed and tell them to pretend to be asleep.

Once upon a time he was scared of kids, seriously, totally cold around 'em, had no idea what to say, how to act or what to do, but you better believe he can hold a conversation with a 3 year old now! He's a daddy now through and through.

Saturday we drove around for 2 hours in the afternoon looking for just the right kind of Donut for my crazy self, and someone else got her first taste of cereal!