Yesterday we celebrated our second Halloween in Portland and despite the gloomy, rainy weather - it was a good one.Of course our Halloween adventures really started back in September when one day I realized, "Oh cr*p, Halloween is coming up!" which means that in order to remain on the list of good mothers, I knew I'd better locate and purchase a costume. And then I proceeded to do what I do with everything in my life - think about it for a few weeks before actually taking any action.
Finally, I decided that he should be a dinosaur because, well, he's kind of into dinosaurs right now. Great, dinosaur it is! So I spent exactly one whole afternoon researching dinosaur costumes online. At which point I realized that the rest of the moms in America were also apparently interested in remaining on the good mother list because most of the dino costumes (that were cute, anyway) were already sold out. Dammit. Time to move along to Plan B - as soon as I figured out exactly what "Plan B" was. Thinking, thinking, thinking - I've got it! He's really into the Itsy Bitsy Spider (or is it the Eensy Weensy Spider?) and we seem to sing that tune a lot around this house, SOOOO, I'll just acquire a spider costume and we'll spin it (again, it's the whole PR thing) as the Itsy/Eensy Bitsy/Weensy Spider - or as Ian says, the "Eense and the Fider." And that's exactly what we did.
It didn't take too much searching before I found a cute little spider costume at, where else, Pottery Barn Kids or again, in Ian language, "Potty Barn". (Yes, we drove into the mall parking lot one day and he said, "Mommy, we going to Potty Barn?" Like I go there all the time or something. Paaleese.) My thought was that at least something related to the potty is sticking right now. But, I digress. So yes, the perfect costume was located at PB Kids and while I won't go into the gory details - ha!, gory, get it?? - let's just say I got a good deal. Because that's what happens when you wait to purchase your kid's Halloween costume - you get it on sale, which was exactly my intention from the start. I of course wanted to purchase the "treats bag" to match it, but I decided that instead of paying some ridiculous amount for it, that I would take a gamble and wait until the last possible minute when everything was on super saver sale with the hope it would still be available. (And just so I don't keep you in suspense, I gambled and I won. Yes sirree, I got the last one the other day for a total of $3, thank you very much.)
Spider in hand, I made the introduction to Ian, which went something like this, "Look Ian! You're going to be the Eensy Weensy Spider for Halloween this year!! How great is that??? This will be so fun!!!...and all of your friends will be dressed up at school, too!!!" Just like that with lots of exclamation points and question marks. "Do you want to try it on and check it out?" At which point I got a resounding, "No!" followed by running out of the room. Hmmm, okay, well I wasn't going to panic yet. We'll just try again a little later. Next day - "Ian, check out your Halloween costume here. It's the Eensy Weensy Spider!!! Do you want to try it on?" Again, "No!" followed by running out of the room. Hmmm, okay, well, still no need to panic - we still had a week to go. But by then I was getting the distinct feeling that maybe he just likes to sing it, not wear it. Food for thought.
Moving right along, we went through about five more rounds of that before I brought in the big guns: Teacher Liz and Teacher Stella. This past Monday I said, "You know, if you have the chance, you might want to talk up the whole costume wearing thing for Friday because so far, he's not really going for it." Well, once I said something, they were on it like a cherry on a sundae and by the time Thursday rolled around, Ian was happily modeling the Eense and the Fider in anticipation of the big day on Friday.
Okay, so finally we get to Halloween morning. (Sorry, but I never said I was succinct in my storytelling.) I flip on the light and well, the very first thing I hear is, "Oh mommy, it's so bright!," which is the same thing I hear every morning now. But the second thing is, "Mommy, today Halloween?" Yes, today is Halloween!!! "And I wear the eense and the fider?" Absolutely, today you are going to wear your Eensy Weensy Spider costume! (Whew. All appeared to be a go at this point with crisis clearly averted.) So we go through breakfast, teeth brushing, etc. etc.. As we near departure time for school, I asked if he wanted to put on his costume then or wait until we got to school. "I put it on now!," he said eagerly. Okie dokie. So not only did we put it on prior to leaving, but he even smiled for the camera (this appears to be an exciting new trend) AND as an extra special bonus - kneeled down like he was actually a spider. I don't know where he pulled that one from but when things are going your way - it's best not to ask questions.
Of course the school scene was adorable with lots of ghouls, goblins, DINOSAURS, and Sarah Palins running around. (Just kidding - I think that last costume was saved for the adult Halloween parties.) When I picked him up, Liz and Stella said he had a fabulous time and they practically had to tear the costume off of him for lunch time. They did a parade around the school, a special Halloween "treat" which I assume meant candy and did some Halloween version of the Hokey Pokey. Does it get better than the Halloween version of the Hokey Pokey? I think not.And the day got even better because around 2pm I put him in his room and immediately - SILENCE - which was the first nap he'd taken since I started this blog a little more than a week ago. Three hours later Jeff and I went in to wake him up for a snack and trick or treating. I'm pretty confident that even though he had not a clue what trick or treating was, he couldn't wait to participate. We had that costume back on, complete with the clearly uncomfortable hat to match, before you could say - "Boo!". Before venturing out, of course we took a few pictures to commemorate the festivities, but we also practiced the all-important trick or treating "script", if you will. I even attempted some role playing. "Okay, Ian, so I'm you and you're me. You hold the candy bowl and I'll knock on the door and you open it, okay?" So I knock on the wall. Ian looks at me and proceeds to knock on the wall. "No, I knock on the wall and then you pretend like you are opening the door, okay? "Okay," he says. So I knock on the wall. He knocks on the wall. Oh geez, just forget it. "Here's the deal, when we go up to the door, they open it and you say 'trick or treat', open your bag and then when they give you the candy you say 'thank you'." Got it? "Yes," he said. Alrighty then, here we go.
First stop was our friendly neighbors Mike and Connie who have a little granddaughter about Ian's age. Surely this will be an easy one, we thought. Door opens and it's Mike. "Oh, look at how cute! Who are you?" Ian says nothing, just staring like he's forgotten his lines - which he has. "Ian, do you remember what we practiced?," I said. Nothing. Okay, well clearly this is a learning process. But despite the slow start, I'm happy to say that by the third house - we were saying "trick or treat" AND "thank you" on cue. What can I say - he's a fast learner. We hit a few more houses - just about enough to acquire approximately three Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, two Snickers and one Twix bar (which Jeff later ate unauthorized) - before heading back home to order pizza and hand out candy to other kids in the neighborhood.
While we had quite a number of kids who came around last year, I have to say that this year was a bit of a bust on that front. We only had about five groups come around, but Ian really liked helping me hand out candy. In true form, I think he actually may have enjoyed that more than collecting the candy himself. The highlight of the candy distribution though was when some teenagers came to the door - of course all with really scary costumes on and one with a weird voice under a mask so you couldn't see his face. Ian wasn't quite sure what to make of him, but I don't think he cared for his costume. He stood there frozen with eyes as big as saucers until I took the candy out of his hands and put it in the kids' bags. When they left and we closed the door he said, "Mommy, those were scary big kids." Yes, that's right. Unfortunately you'll probably run into a lot of those, until you of course become one yourself someday, I thought. One last highlight was that after dinner Ian has his first taste of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup after dinner. Now, again, this is a kid who doesn't normally like sweets, but we'll just say this one went over well.I hope your Halloween was as spook-tacular (for full disclosure, I heard that word from someone else) as ours was. For a complete chronicle in pictures - from the patch to the treats - you can visit the photo album in Kodak Gallery:
(With apologies that the album isn't exactly in chronological order this time.)
Until I write again.
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