Halloween Happenings

This is Little Man's third Halloween. For his very first spooky holiday, he was still a squish baby and had no idea what was going on--except that he did NOT care for the pumpkin costume I squeezed him into. We did not go trick-or-treating for his first Halloween, but we did attend a Halloween puppet show at the theater where Husband ran the front of house. Little Man dressed up as his Daddy--little blue jeans, collared shirt, tiny house manager flashlight. He was quite a hit, and it was quite enough Halloween excitement for a three-month-old.

Last year, his second Halloween, Little Man continued his preference of not being put in an adorable costume. And so he dressed up as Charlie Brown, which suited his little curl of hair and his round little face perfectly. We ventured out with friends, trick-or-treating around their neighborhood.

But this year, Little Man really started to get into the action.

He doesn't like Jack O Lanterns, so I've spent the month avoiding creepily cut pumpkins all over town. We sought out fall activities rather than Halloween ones. We went to "Boo at the Zoo", where the highlight was the trick-or-treat train. We continued our tradition of going to the Stone Mountain Pumpkin Festival, adding the train ride to our adventure this year. Little Man enjoyed that train ride so much that we took a road trip to North Carolina last weekend to go on the "Great Pumpkin" train--a nice long ride on a real train out to a pumpkin patch where there were tractor rides, music, marshmallows to roast and a mock street where kids could trick or treat. It was an awesome day, and something I think we'll find ourselves doing next fall.

(Are you seeing a pattern here with our family outings? They all involve trains. Little Man is obsessed with trains.)

It was also where we learned that Little Man got a major thrill out of trick-or- treating. We weren't planning on going this year, but after seeing how much he loved the trick-or-treat test run, we decided to go for it.

He still hates "costumy" costumes, so I found a Mickey Mouse hoodie at Target (complete with ears on the hood!). Paired with black sweatpants and his little felt Halloween treat bag, he was the cutest Mickey our neighborhood had ever seen. Once he realized he got to knock on doors and pick out something to put in his bag, his eyes lit up and he was urging Husband and I on during our trek out this evening.

He loves being outside in the evening as the sun goes down, and could have easily done several more laps around our neighborhood if we had let him. He trucked up and down hills, stomped through the leaves, and practiced being very polite--only picking out one piece of candy and waving a "thank you!" afterwards, since he doesn't have those words yet. He especially liked the houses that had a few stairs to climb up.

And even though he won't eat it, he was very excited to come home and dump out his haul of candy on the table. He surveyed it proudly, picking out all the lollipops and putting them to the side. They make excellent sticks to bang on the table. And the boxes of nerds and milkduds make great shakers.

And so we'll pack away our friendly Halloween decorations until next year. I can't wait to see what Little Man thinks of the fall festivities a year from now--or if he'll have more of an opinion on a costume besides "no!".