Battle of the Autumn Leaves

Once upon a time there was a little boy who was in a bit of a "mommy mood" after his first day of preschool. He wouldn't let mommy out of his earshot so they spent a few hours eating cheeseburgers, reading books and playing in the leaves.
While playing in the leaves, the little boy discovered that they made a really fun crunchy noise when he stomped on them with his new boots.
After stomping and crunching for some time, he grew curious about how the leaves felt, he decided he would explore.

They felt funny in his little hands, he giggled and so did his Mommy. When he heard her laugh he decided she was too far away and crawled through the funny, crunchy leaves to get her...
It was a long journey but finally he reached out and there was her hand.
He had braved the leaves to reach his mommy. He raised his hand to the air and declared victory over the crunchy, funny things.
Then, the mommy and her little boy went inside for a snack and nap time. They lived happily ever after.

***be sure to check out the video from his first day here.

Falling in love with FALL!

When I was a child summer was my favorite time of year, as I got older (and more warm-blooded) the new flowers of Spring always struck my fancy. I would still consider spring my favorite season but the beauty of Autumn has been pulling me in more and more as a 20-something year old. The colors, the smells, the food, the weather, it is all so wonderful.

And then when you include the fun and excitement of Halloween, you have tons of my favorite things wrapped up in the magic of fall.

Last Halloween, we got tons of questions about Colton's dragon costume, mainly "Where did you get it?" The answer: One Step Ahead. This website sends us a catalog monthly and they have some amazing toys and some of the cutest costumes for children that I have EVER seen.

I have a few favorites for this years costume...

The Spider

The Monkey

and the Lil Monster

They are all so cute, it is just so hard to choose. What's your favorite?

Teeth and Halloween!

FINALLY, I have a picture where you can actually see Colton's teeth, he has tons but it has been hard to get a good picture of them until now! I was beginning to think they were camera shy. This weekend while watching UK beat Auburn Colton was grinning ear to ear and I snapped this pic.
I love that smile!

We have been in the Halloween spirit around the Darnell household, watching spooky movies and reading haunting books. We are participating in the National Federation of the Blind's early literacy program; Braille Reading Pals. We read every night for about 15 minutes (print/braille books) and then log what book we read on our chart. At the end of the program we can send it in and Colton will get a prize for participating. Early literacy is incredibly important to me so I jumped at the chance to take part in this program. Colton loves to feel the "bumps" (braille) as Mommy reads. This is how visually impaired children begin exploring words, the same way young sighted children see the words in the books. Anyway, we are reading Halloween/Fall books right now so I thought I would share a few of our favorites and maybe you too can check them out.

A Very Brave Witch by Alison McGhee

Five Pesky Pumpkins by Marcia Vaughn

Goodnight Goon by Michael Rex

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

Too Many Pumpkins by Linda White