Sunday, November 02, 2008






Justin's Second Halloween

Last year at Halloween we were in the middle of a move. We were in Ohio visiting Rob's brother and his family. Justin had a tiger costume and his cousin Missy took him trick or treating. Since she had control of him in the stroller, I was free to take lots of pictures.
This year we were at my parents' house for Halloween. Justin had an elephant costume. We went to the church for a party. Justin and I waited our turn and got up on stage to say his name and what his costume was. He was more interestd in checking out all the other costumes than being up on the stage and didn't give Grandma a good photo op.
He really liked the clowns, but he wasn't sure how he felt about getting right up next to them for a picture. In fact, my little elephant was so excited by all the costumes and everything that was going on that he hardly ever stopped moving. He ran everywhere on a constant basis. That meant someone had to be chasing after him so we wouldn't lose him in the group. The adults were really good about oohing and ahhing over the kids' costumes and Justin ate up the attention. He had fun labeling the costumes he saw too. Maybe Mommy wasn't so weird after all putting him in a funny getup. Everyone seemed to be doing it.
We were able to get him to settle down briefly to eat. Chili seemed a bit messy for a toddler in an elephant costume, so we had him stick to bread. He shared some with his costume by feeding the trunk. He just loved that trunk.
After dinner it was time for the trunk or treat. We went out to the parking lot and people were sitting in the back of their trucks or by their cars passing out candy as the kids went around. Justin quickly caught on, saying "tri or tree" (tri is with a short i sound) and enjoying the attention and getting something in his pumpkin basket. We didn't stay for the games. Justin isn't even two yet, and we were tired of chasing him around. Most of the games would have been too much for him anyway. I am sure he would have been happy to run around, but I was done chasing him.
We got back home and Grandma and I took him trick-or-treating to five or six houses. He enjoyed it, but seemed a bit put off that he was never invited in to explore. He was good about finding the houses with "lights on" that we could go to. As we walked back home he wanted to go back to the same houses, but we were able to get him past the houses without major incident. Poor Grandma was stuck with Justin for the rest of the night. I was DONE! That was way too much activity for me, even though I had rested up for it since Thursday. Will I ever have this baby? It's killing me!
Justin seems to be a candy fiend. He can tell when I am sneaking some and insists on having a taste. If only he were as anxious to try other new foods!