Childhood Magic

Today is the day that you see Frankenstein's monster coming out of your child's preschool as you walk him in and you are unfazed.

When Isaac had been home 10 months we had his first Halloween. A few days before in a practice session I showed him what he would be doing- walk up to the door, ring doorbell, say "trick-or-treat", get candy, say "thank you" and walk to the next house. Short silence… "Why?". He loved dressing up as a cowboy, though.

A Curious George collection of stories was his favorite book at this point, and a cowboy is what George was in the costume party story. So that is what Isaac chose as well. He was so proud of this costume.

Sam has loved every minute of dressing as a fireman over the last week and he brought his costume to school today for their parade and party later. He's excited to Trick-or-Treat tonight. Get candy? No questions asked.

 

I love seeing how much they enjoy dressing up. Sam wore his costume, including the helmet, ALL DAY on Sunday.

Isaac is a ninja this year. Some of his friends already think they are too old to dress up. I can't help but wonder how many more years I have to keep my guys little. These are the precious years where a foot race solves any disagreement. Saturday morning cartoons are the highlight of the weekend. Parents are still all-wise. Santa comes to our house. (Mick wasn't thrilled about that, but I insisted.) We all missed out on their first 5 years, so we're going to have as much innocent, magical childhood as we can now.

My friend Anitra took some family photos for us. (Mick thinks I am a little excessive on the family picture thing, but I don't want to miss documenting any seasons of life with them!) As soon as Sam loses his front two teeth we're doing it again. 

This one is on my desk. 

Can you guess which boy was goofing off, not wanting to follow instructions, and which boy was quite proud of following instructions? 

My boys. 

Last night my mom gave the boys each a ziploc bag of caramel popcorn. They were allowed to eat a little of it last night but I wanted them to save most of it. When we got home Isaac threw his in the pantry and I set Sam's on the counter. Sam went over to the windows and started pulling the curtains closed. I reminded him that kids aren't allowed to pull on the curtains and he unleashed a torrent of Chinglish on me. He was afraid someone would look in our house and see his popcorn. We decided to hide it just to be safe.

In parent- teacher conferences last week, both boys were described as a "delight" to their teachers. They work hard and share and help others. In addition, after only 3 months with us and one month in preschool, Sam is actually ahead of some of the other students in how many letters, numbers, colors, and shapes he can identify. He loves to be read to- books are a big deal. He likes to repeat after me as I read and he follows along with his finger. 

It is so much fun to see the world through their eyes. Everything is new and exciting. Add that to the richness of all they have taught me. I'm not dressing up tonight, nothing I can think of is better than being their mom.