Ten more to love

Here's another 10 I'm loving right now. Some are new to our lives, others mundane, but loved just the same.

10. Cranium's Bloom Neighborhood Sounds bingo. A birthday gift for Alivia, we've already played lots of this game. The girls love it. Listen for the neighborhood sound, cover the corresponding picture if you have it on your bingo card. It's simple, straightforward and relatively quick per game, allowing them to stay engaged.

9. Hope. It's surrounded Barack's Obama presidential campaign from the beginning, and has been a consistent message. He's encouraged voting over boo-ing. He's replaced mudslinging with rising above. Confident there's a way to fix this mess we find ourselves in. Hope. Who can't love that?

8. Our gift subscriptions to Highlights High Five, Ladybug and Cricket magazines. Always a pick-me-up for little ones when their magazines show up in the mailbox, and it provides fresh reading material for us that typically focuses on a specific topic. Activities at the end of each also offers lasting entertainment in the way of games, recipes or craft projects.

7. Hillary Rodham Clinton: Dreams Taking Flight. I love, love, love this book. The girls love listening to it. I can't say I've come across a better read for little girls in terms of inspiring and instilling in them a sense of reaching for the stars. Regardless of your opinions about the book's namesake, the story itself is empowering for little girl dreamers.

6. Small hands working puzzles. Trace has become quite a little puzzle player. He likes working them and has gotten skilled at distinguishing where the pieces go and how to adeptly fit them in their spaces. It's fun watching the gears in his head turn as he completes them.

5. Diapering one butt. It's been 20 months since we've had only one butt to secure a Pampers cruiser to. And for four of those months there were three diapered butts in our house. Please be forewarned, though, our lessening reliance on P&G's Pampers products might serve to further weaken the economy.

4. First attempts at writing. Alivia's interest in forming letters and drawing shapes has really started to develop. She proudly showed off a "y" she penned this week. Tracing letters and attempting to make her own is a source of pride for her.

3. The beginning of sentences. "Thank you." "Get down." "Help me." Alysse is starting to form short sentences with her words. Each day she comes up with a new combination and a better way to communicate her wants, needs and wishes. A chatterbox she's soon to become.

2. Hands willing to dig through pumpkin guts. While our children style their hair with yogurt, pulverize American cheese and eat syrup with their hands, in Halloweens past, we've had no takers in the pumpkin-gut removal category. They always take one look in the cavern and have no interest in sticking their hands inside. This year, however, Alena rolled up her sleeves and dug right in.

1. Halloween costumes that are sure to earn treats. Each of the kids love their respective Halloween costume. There's no crying when putting them on, quite the contrary, there's usually crying when it's time for them to come off. Photo entertainment of such to come soon!