Halloween at Etsy.com!

It's October and I've been over at Etsy.com peeking in the windows.

Click on the image to take you directly to their wonderful shops.

Here are a few of my favorite things for Halloween!

Storytime and Milestones

An amazing thing happened today! My son sat down and read his first book all the way through by himself. He is two months shy of five years old, and has known his alphabet and all the consonant sounds since he was two and half (thank you Starfall.com). We have been working on sight words and he has been able to read short sentences and books (with my finger pointing under the words) for some time now.

This was different, this was without prompting by me and he even corrected himself if he got a word wrong the first time. It was only a short early reader, ten pages of two or three sentences each, but I couldn't be more proud of him!

What started it was the new kitten. Ever since his arrival, my son has been "teaching the kitten" all his lessons. Today he decided to read the kitten a story. I'm not sure how much the kitten has learned but I now know just how much of his own lessons my son has retained!

Paper Tree

Because nothing says fall like a paper oak tree on the wall!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

For more photo fun visit 5Minutes for Mom.

Hello Kitty!

Meet our new addition to the family! This little kitten is 9weeks old and we don't have a name yet. My veterinary friend asked if I was interested in adopting him because he was born with a birth defect and may need some extra care during his life.
It seems he was born without a patella on one knee and with a luxated patella on the other. He is able to walk and run, but with an abnormal gait.

You can see in this photo that he carries his knees close to the ground. He can climb into his litter box and his bed, but he may not ever be able to jump up high. Cats are amazing when it come to motility though, so I won't know until he is full grown whether it is going to be a long term problem.

He also does not appear to be in any pain.

He has already bonded with my son, which may not be a good thing because my plan was to have him live with my mother if he can get around well enough. She has two cats and one is very old and in the process of dying. However my mother is 81 and will not be able to handle a cat that may have problems.

Of course my son would be thrilled if he stayed with us, I just wasn't going to take on any more animals right now. Time will tell how this plays out. For now he will stay with us until he grows up a little and I can evaluate his abilities. Now we just need to find him a name.

How to Make an Easy Magic Wand

He asked for a magic wand. I looked around and realized

I was fresh out, so we improvised.

A cardboard star, construction paper, glitter and glue.

An old wooden spoon and two Velcro dots.

Tahdah!....instant magic wand.

Spells not included!

Changing Seasons

Officially fall doesn't begin for another two weeks. Not that it means much here in Florida anyway. The daytime temperatures will continue in the nineties well into December. Explaining to a four year old that he isn't going to have a pile of leaves to jump in like they do on television was hard enough last year. Every time we have a discussion about changing seasons and weather conditions, I have to add the comment "but that doesn't happen in Florida".

This year, he was ahead of me and suggested that we either drive to where the leaves do change or have the mail man deliver a big bag of leaves here. I have to agree I would love to travel north to see the leaves change, but I fear we would never want to come back. After the leaves changed we would have to stay to see snow and snowmen and fireplaces, etc.

Someday, that is my plan. Not this year.

For now, I will try to keep him busy with fall projects and crafts. He's already talking about Halloween. Maybe this year he will actually want to go trick -or- treating. Last year he got scared and changed his mind at the last minute. I'm also going to try again with the vegetable garden once the weather cools a little. He was very upset that the insects ruined our pumpkins. It would have been nice to have a home grown pumpkin to carve!

Many Thanks!

Happy Labor Day to all! Hope you are taking it easy.


A special thank you goes out to LaShan at A Lil Enchanted for honoring me with this award!
I do enjoy all the great new blogs I've found recently and I will be passing on the award soon.

Tadpoles

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

For more photo fun visit 5 Minutes for Mom.