By the way, none of these items are sponsored—these are just things we're excited about this month. However, this article does contain a few affiliate links, which means we might earn a small commission if you make a purchase. We only recommend items we've personally used and loved or researched thoroughly. 

1. Muppets Haunted Mansion premieres on October 8 on Disney+

We have to start this list off with something Halloween for October! And frankly, you had us at Muppets. Throw in Halloween, the best ride at Disneyland, and Ed Asner's final screen appearance—now all you need to do is make that Halloween Chex mix and plan a date with your family and your couch.

2. Holiday Planning (and Shopping)

If your family loves advent calendars or Polar Express trains, these are both things you need to plan for well in advance. The coolest advent calendars (like Lego, Playmobil, Funko Pop!, and of course, the Aldi wine one for parents) are all long gone by November 1, so get those orders in this month. Also, the popular Polar Express at the Grand Canyon is mostly booked already! So check the Christmas trains and other top holiday activities near you and buy your tickets now.

This water bottle actually gets kids to drink more water. Photo courtesy of Nefeeko

3. The Nefeeko Collapsible Water Bottle

Back-to-school shopping is always fun, but sometimes you don’t know what you really need until after school has started. This year, I found that my kids weren’t drinking enough water during the day, because it’s more of a pain while wearing a mask. So while looking for anything that might make them drink more, I discovered the Nefeeko Collapsible Water Bottle, and my son is officially obsessed with it. He actually does drink more now, because he enjoys being able to squish up the bottle. And it takes up less room in his backpack on the way home.

 
See Dr. Seuss when he comes to your town. Photo courtesy of experienceseuss.com

4. Seuss Is on the Move

While this is currently only for Chicagoans, it's still good news for everyone: The Seuss Experience is coming to Chicago. That means this traveling exhibit may be coming to your town soon. I had signed up for email notifications for when this show would come to LA, where I live, a few months before the pandemic. Now, the show is trekking across the country, and we couldn't be more excited.

A new Rick Riordan book is cause for celebration. Photo courtesy of rickriordan.com

5. Daughter of the Deep comes out on October 5

This is the new Rick Riordan book, and the day a new Riordan book comes out is basically a holiday at my house. A new Mo Willems book is also cause for celebration, and his newest, Opposites Abstract, comes out on October 19. I pre-ordered this one for every family on my holiday list. I don’t care if their kids are 6 months or 16 years, everyone loves Mo Willems.

 
Get all the bottles you could want to try at once. Photo courtesy of Babylist

6. Babylist’s sampler boxes

I get a lot of baby product pitches. And I’m kind of a "let babies sleep in an empty drawer" mom, more than a "buy all the latest goodies" mom. But that’s why this jumped out at me. My kids are long past the baby stage, but I remember trying to find a bottle or pacifier that my very picky daughter wouldn’t reject. I bought a lot of products before finding the brands that worked for her. The idea of getting one sampler box with a variety of shapes and styles to test out at once seems like the answer I didn’t know I had needed. They come from Babylist, the baby registry destination, and boxes that are currently offered include the Bottle Box, the Pacifier Box, and the Swaddle Box.

 
Jaden Michael as a young Colin Kaepernick. Photo courtesy of Netflix

7. Colin in Black and White premieres October 29 on Netflix

If you’ve got a sports lover in your family, this new series from Ava DuVernay and Colin Kaepernick about his childhood, adoption, love of football, coming-of-age, and activism looks pretty great. I was just lamenting with a friend about how few coming-of-age stories are aimed at boys, and then this popped up. Nice timing, Netflix.

8. Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty Forever Wear Eye-Lighter

I am not the TikTok target demo. However. I saw this floating around on social media, and the idea of "winky, blinky, makes you look wakey" had me. I’ve spent too much time on Zooms this year staring at my under-eye circles. Since neither Zooms nor circles show any sign of letting up, I drove to Ulta on my way to school pickup and bought one. You know what? I love it.

Smells great and detangles—it's the Holy Grail of hair care. Photo courtesy of Pipette Baby Hair Care

9. Pipette Baby Hair Care

This comes from Jody, our NYC Editor: "I was a skeptic at first, thinking it was more a 'baby' line, but my middle daughter—age 12—has been using the trio for the past couple of weeks. It's gentle on her fine hair, but provides so much moisture. Her hair is so shiny and she loves the smell, which is reminiscent of a creamsicle. I love the way the detangler lets the brush glide through her hair on busy mornings and gives it a little extra conditioning between washings."

As an avowed obsessor and self-proclaimed expert on hair detanglers, I immediately ordered some. I can't wait for it to arrive.

10. The vaccine for kids

In what might be the biggest news of the month, Pfizer has announced that it is ready to seek FDA approval for the vaccine for kids ages 5-11. It looks like this just might get emergency approval in time for trick-or-treating, which would be a nice relief for parents of younger kids who have not yet had access to the vaccine for any kid under age 12.