October - My Favorite Month by Diane Burton

October is my favorite month. Here in the upper Midwest, the trees turn into the most gorgeous colors. The days are warm, while the nights are cool. After weeks (months?) of air conditioning, we throw open our windows and let the fresh air in. Yet, in some places, we turn off the air conditioner only to turn on the furnace without a break in between.

Besides the (mostly) gorgeous weather, the best part of October is birthdays. Mine, at the beginning of the month, was a big one. Daughter and daughter-in-law organized family pictures as my birthday gift. After nineteen years, I have a new photo, one that looks more like me.

Our twin grandsons celebrated their first birthday this past weekend. For our son and daughter-in-law, it’s been a long year, yet they say it went by so quickly. Like their cousins before them, the boys were anxious to be born, a month early. First one born weighed a little over 8 pounds, the second was almost 6 pounds. Now, they weigh in at 25 and 20. Each one is an armful.

As they grew, their personalities emerged. Boy #1 (age-wise) got his teeth first, all 6 of them. He crawled first, and now he walks. Still tentatively, arms outstretched, not too steady, but he’s so pleased when he reaches his goal. I love his ready smile, which lights up his eyes. After watching his brother crawl into my lap, he’s doing it, too. Probably the only thing he didn’t do first.

Boy #2 (five minutes younger) plays catch-up with his brother. Having four teeth hasn't slowed down his eating. LOL He’s a speed-demon crawler. Thank goodness, DIL has a kid “corral” so Hubs and I don’t have to race around the house after him. His smile is engaging as he speeds (crawls) to me as soon as I sit on the sofa. Then, using my pantlegs, he pulls himself up and launches himself into my lap. If I don’t pick him up fast enough, he grabs my shirt and pulls, too. That can be a bit risqué. 😊 Although he’s not walking alone yet, he makes it around the room by holding onto furniture.

Can you tell how enamored I am of those two? How much we missed when the older grandkids were this age because we lived four-five hours away, 2,000 miles away for Toddler Girl. I’ve mentioned before how thrilled we are to be living close to both families. As Hubs and I grow older and slow down, we still want to be able to share special times with all five grandchildren. Thursday is Grandparents Day at Toddler Girl’s preschool. You can be sure we won’t miss it.

Halloween brings October to an end. I’m not one for dressing up, but I love watching the kids as they race down the street, running up driveways, ringing doorbells, and hollering “trick or treat!” When it's not too cold or raining, Hubs and I sit at the top of the driveway, our bowl filled with candy by our side. The last couple of years, our next door neighbor sat with us, saving the kids a few steps. LOL We chat and try to figure out whose kids are whose. The costumes are so imaginative. From store-bought to homemade, the costumes remind me of Halloweens years ago when Hubs and I made them. Or when the kids raided the dress-up trunk and made their own.

For the past twenty years, we’ve lived in communities that restrict trick or treating to certain hours. Where we used to live, the fire/tornado siren blared the beginning at 6, then blared again at 8 to signal the end. Then, it’s lights out, and it’s all over for another year.

No matter which part of October is your favorite, tomorrow is the last day for 2018. Enjoy the last bit of Fall, because winter is coming. Brrrr.

My Daughter Is a MOB by Betsy Ashton

WARNING: Unrepentant proud grandmother post coming up.

You read that right. My daughter is a MOB. She's not in a mob. She's a Mother Of Boys. This woman, who as a child loved tea parties, playing the piano, and dancing, both ballet and jazz, who loved all things "girlie," gave birth to two boys. And what little boys they are.

The older boy Howie is now five and a half. He loves to run, yell in the house, and play with any toys that make noise. He also likes to color in his mother's coloring book. Inside the lines with a really good sense of what colors go together. He loves being a big brother.

The younger boy Cal loves trucks, motorcycles, running in the house, and playing with toys that make noise. Much of his quiet time is when he's asleep. When he's awake, he's always on. When he's focused on something of interest, forget about getting his attention.

Yes, my daughter's house is alive with the noise only boys can make. And she loves it. She's right at home in chaos.

Before you ask, the boys know the difference between indoor and outdoor voices. They can be quiet when they need to. They are young enough to like listening to stories at bedtime. Howie is learning to read in kindergarten. Well, he started kindergarten being able to read a lot of words. Both have solid vocabularies for their ages.

Howie is a runner like his mother and father. Dad is training for a 100K race. (You read that right.) Mom and Dad have run and finished a 50K already. And Howie has already finished his first 1K race. He ran most of the way, only had to walk a little. No one is sure Cal will be a runner, but he does like racing around the house.

This is a family that likes to do things together. Like Halloween, when they all dress up in themes. Star Wars one year; Indiana Jones with ninjas another. No pretty tutus.

I once asked my daughter if she'd thought about a third child. While she'd still love that girl, she said her husband reminded her that he's in the driver's seat when it comes to the sex of the fetus. She'd have another boy.

Can you tell I love them very much? Can you tell I can be an insufferable bore when it comes to the boys? Can you tell I'm glad we live 500 miles away and aren't around the yelling all the time? We get to be the Disney grandparents who drop in periodically and go home when the boys get messy.

I'm done for now. Got the bragging out of the way. Hope you didn't mind.

###

Betsy Ashton is the author of the Mad Max mystery series, Mad Max Unintended Consequences and Uncharted Territory. Her work has appeared in several anthologies including Reflections  on Smith Mountain Lake, Voices from Smith Mountain Lake, and Candles of Hope. Some of her essays and poems have been featured on NPR.

Favorite Halloween Costumes by Alison Henderson

I don’t remember many of the costumes I wore as a child, but one stands out—the turquoise fringed cowgirl outfit I received when I was five. In the late ‘50’s and early 60’s, Westerns filled the television screens of America, and I loved every one I was allowed to watch. I still remember perching on the red leather ottoman in my grandmother’s den every Saturday morning with my brother and sister watching Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Trigger. I also loved the Lone Ranger, Zorro, Paladin, Bonanza—well, you get the idea.

My turquoise cowgirl outfit had white fringe on the skirt and vest, along with a couple of silver-colored conchos. Of course, I also had a pink cowgirl hat and a double holster with pistols. They might have been cap guns, but I wasn’t interested in the noise; I only cared about the look. And let me tell you, I had THE LOOK. I was Annie Oakley. I wore that costume as long as I could squeeze into it, which was many years because the skirt had a highly elasticized waist. My mother was obviously thinking ahead.

I had even more fun with costumes when my daughter was old enough for trick-or-treating. She’s a girl after my own heart, a born romantic—as evidenced by the fact that she dressed up as Scarlett O’Hara at age three! Like most girls in her generation, she went through her Disney Princess phase. I bought a Cinderella costume when she was in first grade, but the next year, when she wanted to be Jasmine from Aladdin, I decided to try sewing one. Minnesota is just too cold at the end of October for gauzy harem pants. The resulting costume was a resounding success and the first of many mom-created masterpieces.

My favorite (and I think hers, too) was the cream brocade Guinevere dress, complete with purple cape, that I made the last year she trick-or-treated with her friends in middle school. It had an elaborate bodice and long, fitted sleeves that ended in points outlined with gold trim on the top of her hands. I really pulled out all the stops. That dress still hangs in her closet more than ten years later, and I hope it brings back as many fond memories for her as it does for me.