Halloween 2012

LO seems to really be getting into all things birthday and holiday related this year.  He has asked almost daily if it is his birthday again yet.  So we have been counting that down already, just 344 days left if anyone is wondering!  I think his new interest in holidays might, just might, be linked to a realization that extra yummy and (nutritionally poor) food is allowed on these days.  I struggle with this.  I want him to enjoy the festivities, and I'm afraid that denying sweets will only lead him to hoard them later in life.  I also want him to learn about enjoying things in moderation, and to have a preference for things that honor the body he has been given.  Of course he isn't going to understand any of the latter anytime in the next decade or two, so I struggle now to find the balance for him.  Ahhh, I digress.  This is a "Halloween" post and no one wants to read philosophy any more than I want to write it.

 Here is how we had fun this year....

LO's first time decorating pumpkins.  He chose to paint them, and had a great time.

I had read that tees could be hammered in then removed to make a "starry" pumpkin.

We decided to leave ours in, then LO had the idea to use the tees to paint the pumpkin!

Dressed as "Woody" from Toy Story to go to the Halloween festival.

I'd like to say that he was giving his best cowboy stare, but really he was just this excited to be at the festival.  You can't win them all!

That was all leading up to Halloween.  On Halloween day, LO had an early morning play date with Kristen and Nanny K.  LO was so excited to have Kristen here.  He eagerly shared his garbage truck and showed her how it worked.  He even gave her a hug and an unsolicited kiss when she left.  I think he's a little smitten.  Next, LO had a party in Kindermusik where he and all his friends wore their costumes.  LO balked at participating in the group shot, but I'm hoping his teacher will e-mail some individual shots she got of him.  After nap, we finally decorated the large pumpkin we had been saving to do with DH.  LO wanted to paint it too, so we all worked on it together.  LO wanted it to look scary, and I think, in the end, it did!

After dinner it was time to don costumes and trick-or-treat!  I explained the "trick-or-treat" procedure to LO during dinner.  He began to cry, say he wanted to be carried to all the houses, and waffled on whether he wanted to go.  I was confused and a little frustrated. We got the boys dressed and LO continued to whine.  Finally it occurred to me that he might be anxious about the trick-or-treating and the variation from our usual evening routine.  I asked if he was worried about it and he said he was.  I asked if he thought it would be fun or scary and he said "fun."  So we agreed to go to one house and be brave and try it out.  If he didn't like it we would come home.  Needless to say we knocked on the door of neighbors he loves and they gave him candy...he was sold. We hit just four houses total and called it a night. (We live in a small neighborhood and no one else seemed to be home)

LO's loot

 We let LO choose one candy for tonight.  We also told him he could have one piece of candy a night for five nights.  On the fifth night the "Halloween fairy" will trade the rest of his candy for a fun treat. He had been eyeballing a green sucker.  We let him have it in the bath...best decision of the night. He'd never had a sucker before, but he seemed to enjoy it.  Maybe because it tasted good.  Maybe because it made bath last longer and delayed bedtime.

Like the fun-loving parents we are, we made LO rinse out his mouth and brush his teeth immediately after this sucker.   With that, our Halloween fun wound down and the boys were off to bed.