Halloween and Thinking Christmas

If you remember back a few weeks, Xander threw a fit in the store and did not get his Spiderman sheets. I decided that if he wanted them, then he was going to have to earn them through listening (since not listening was how he lost them to begin with: sweet justice, no?) and we did a sticker chart. He got his 40 stickers last night! So we went to the store and bought his brand new Spiderman sheets! I am extremely proud of him and made a point of telling him that.

We've also enjoyed the little boy who listens and the severe drop in time outs, so I am trying to think of another reward that will motivate him to earn more stickers.

Since we were out, we decided to get Halloween costumes. With all of the fuss over Spiderman sheets, I thought Xander might be leaning towards being Spiderman. Fooled again!

We thought about putting Liam in the costume Xander wore at his age, but then I mentioned to Ray that Liam gets a lot of hand-me-downs from Xander and he deserved to have his very own costume. So we browsed the wall of infant and toddler costumes and this it the one that we liked best.

Even I can't believe how cute he looks in it. When we try them on again, I will take pictures.

I know that some of you are shaking your heads over the price tags. I DO NOT sew. I would like to be able to say I do. Really. But sewing is fiddly and makes me a little crazy when I do it. I *can* sew if pressed to. I made the skirt for the crib, and it is cute. But it took me about 3 days to do it. And I was CRAZY the whole darn time. For me, the $60 was worth every cent. I'm at peace with this.

And since we are already almost at Halloween, Ray and I have been talking about Christmas and planning for the boys' presents. We've decided to go with a tool theme. My fantastic friend Lisa, who does sew, has agreed to make them tool belts/aprons for them. And we are thinking about either buying several tools or getting them this:

or this:

If any of you have either of these sets and have recommendations, reviews, or alternate ideas for me, feel free!