Happy... Happy Halloween, D!

Halloween was fun. Really fun. Sam had a blast.

THE COSTUME
I screwed up with his costume. I had made a pretty alright wolf costume then covered him in this orange and brown striped sweatshirt (which to me I thought "Halloween" but when on him with a furry head totally screams "tiger"). Then Sam also got super into the idea of face paint and through various trials discovered that he would no longer be content with just a little painted nose so he had confusing face paint. Anyway, Sam chose to be the Big Bad Wolf but ended up as some sort of generic fluffy animal that was identified as either a lion, tiger, or bear (oh, my!). I felt a bit like a failure but then I realized that this happens with LOTS of costumes and is also actually part of the fun of homemade costumes. See, every year I have wanted to make Sam some amazing costume and never really find or take the time. Or maybe it's just that I feel like I SHOULD be able to make this amazing costume and then get performance anxiety and am scared of failure. Anyway, that coupled with my exhaustion and nausea from the first trimester of pregnancy, I just didn't have it in me to make much of anything. I decided I could probably pull off a "werewolf" with a hood and some mittens and a tail, so I tried to get Sam into the idea. Well, he took right to "wolf" and then told me he wanted to be the "big bad" wolf. Ok, not quite a werewolf but close enough!! I tried making a hood with little success and decided to take Sam out to shop for costumes. We lucked out at Goodwill and found a puppy costume. I did a little alteration and voila, we had something more wolfy than puppy but I guess really just fuzzy. Then we went to Target for face paint and a sweatshirt. We picked out the orange striped sweatshirt, and from that point on Sam labeled it the "Halloween" sweatshirt and would not wear it because it wasn't Halloween. So, of course we had to use it on Halloween! I also got him a flashing pumpkin reflector necklace for safety. I had forgotten about it and found it in a bag a couple of days before Halloween. Sam LOVED it. Didn't need it for trick or treating, but flashing pumpkin necklace is just cool anyway, I guess. All in all though he looked adorable, has been wanting to dress up as the wolf all the time, so he loved his costume, so I guess it was a success.




TRICK-OR-TREAT! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
We also practiced "trick or treat!". Sam got quite good at it, though the phrase (coming from Sam) sounds just like "choo choo train!", or pretty close anyway. So we practiced knocking on doors, saying "trick or treat", "thank you", and then Aaron taught him "Happy Halloween". He got SO good at saying "Happy Halloween" and said Happy Halloween to everybody and everything. Very cute.

HALLOWEEN NIGHT
Tom and Jeanette came to visit for Halloween. It had been about 10 months since Sam last saw them but he warmed up to them in no time, perhaps thanks to some video chatting. Their plane arrived during nap time so Sam pretty much completely skipped nap the first day of their visit and was super cranky all day. I was afraid they wouldn't get to see Sam as we know him. But on Sunday, despite a slightly rocky start, we maintained a good food/sleep schedule and he was our normal happy funny kid. We got him all dressed up and the plan was to meet with some neighborhood kids for trick or treating. Before we made it out the door, the twins from up the street (about four months younger than Sam) came to trick or treat at our house. So we all walked to the meetup at another friends' house. All together we had a group of seven kids, age 1-3, ready for trick or treat! We hit the neighborhood in furry toddler style and made everyone's night. Sam collected a lot of candy, said lots of "trick or treat" "thank you" and "happy Halloween"s to all the candy givers. He was usually one of the last of the pack to the door. At one prize moment, a house had a bowl of candy with a few packages of Ding Dongs in there. None of the other kids reached for the Ding Dongs and the adults were laughing at how no one reached for the "big" treat. Sure enough, as soon as Sam got up there, he grabbed the Ding Dongs. My man!! We didn't finish trick or treating with all the kids. Before the last cul de sac we planned to hit (a posh little pocket of $400,000 homes -- good candy MUST be there, right??), Sam told us he was ready to go home. So we did. (I guess the highlight of that part was a house handing out String Cheese! All the toddlers were very excited!)

The rest of the night was fun. Sam had a little bit of candy, played heartily with Uncle "Pom" and "Nette" and Aunt "Meh", including a dance party. Other zany moments included running away into the kitchen, waiting a few moments, then running out to our uproarious applause. This followed some game where he fell down and actually played dead, lying all limp and everything. He was hilarious. He went to bed late, but he went right to sleep. And didn't wake up until 9:30 this morning!

So it was a very nice visit. Sam loved Halloween. He keeps asking for "more again". I think the concept of waiting a whole year will be hard one to grasp. We're trying to get him excited for Thanksgiving.