Halloween

Caleb was a lion this year for Halloween. Unlike the monkey costume that he barely tolerated last year, he loved this year's lion costume. Every time I got it out or he saw it in the closet, he would point and growl with a big smile on his face.

We went to three costume-clad gatherings on Halloween this year: First, at 10 am, we went to a local place called O2B Kids where one of my friends is a member, so we were able to get in and participate in their baby class and Halloween party for free. Caleb enjoyed the puppet show and singing, as well as playing in the large play area. I didn't let him have any candy at the party because it was just before his nap, but he found the other costumed kids to be pretty fascinating.

The second place we went for Halloween is a local extravaganza called "Boo at the Zoo". The local teaching zoo goes all out, decorating the entire walkway through the zoo with Halloween paraphernalia and college students dressed up as everything from zombies to Disney princesses. Caleb was actually more interested in the real animals in their habitats than all the Halloween stuff, but I was very impressed with how much work goes into this community production each year. Caleb was also fascinated with the five M&M's I gave him during "Boo at the Zoo" (which ended up being the sum total of his Halloween indulgences, since the next party was at bedtime).

Our final Halloween party was our church-sponsored "Trunk or Treat." Apparently this is a popular and rather common church endeavor during Halloween, but I'd never heard of it until this year. Church members park their highly-decorated cars in the parking lot in an enclosed rectangle. Then they plant themselves behind their cars and pass out candy to young tricker-treaters. This set-up is especially attractive to parents of toddlers because walking from car-to-car is much easier than walking from house to house; plus there are no streets involved and toddlers can roam freely from one side of the enclosure to the other. Even though it took place from 7-8 pm and was therefore past his bedtime, Caleb loved seeing all of his friends and their parents in costume. Though he would never say anything close to "Trick or Treat", he thoroughly enjoyed selecting candy from each hand-out basket and placing it decorously into his plastic pumpkin. It never occurred to him to inquire after that candy after Halloween, and Mommy and Daddy have been indulging themselves for the past few days. I'm sure we will not be so lucky next year :).