Trick or Treat Day

Even though this is his third Halloween, it's the first one where he's totally aware and involved. He even had a say in his costume this year. We received a Disney catalog about a month ago and he was fascinated with all the costumes. He would change his mind as to what he wanted to be as he flipped each page of the catalog. "It's a pirate! I want to be a pirate." [page turn] "It's a princess. I want to be a princess." We finally got him to narrow down his choices between Buzz Lightyear and Mr. Incredible. We ventured to the Disney Store about two weeks ago, all set to purchase one of the two. However, as soon as we walked in, he exclaimed, "It's Belle!" He was adamant that he wanted to be Belle from Beauty and the Beast. I knew how well that would go over with Dada, and had to work magic trying to convince him otherwise. He got pretty upset with me when I gave up and took the Buzz costume up to the register to check out instead of Belle's pretty yellow dress. He felt a little better about the decision when we went over to Aunt Tin's and had him try it on. This was all in preparation for today, or what he has been referring to as "Trick or Treat Day." Not just one event, but three!

My office holds an annual Treat Street, which allows the kids to come in and get loads of candy. It's nice because you never know what the weather will be like this time of year. Plus, who wants to wear a big, heavy coat over their costume? I picked Connor up from daycare right after he woke from his afternoon nap. He was so excited that it was time to party. Once we got to my office, I stripped him down in order to get him in costume. It took a good 15 minutes to convince him to put in on though. Why? He didn't want to be Buzz. He wanted to be Belle. Seriously. I had witnesses this time. At one point, he got away from me and went streaking through my office in just his diaper, laughing as he ran. He was finally convinced to be Buzz when I explained that was the only way he was going to get candy. Once in costume, he was good to go. He did stop for a bit to admire my handiwork with some cobwebs, but soon we were on our way. Before long, I had to carry his treat bag because it was too heavy. He scored big time with the loot! At one point, I had to carry him since one of the departments in my building set up a haunted hallway, which included a strobe light. It wasn't the scary skeleton or ghastly ghost that scared him. Just the strobe light.

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When we were done with Treat Street at my work, we packed up and headed to event #2: a pumpkin carving party at one of Dada's friend's house. Connor and I couldn't stay long. Just long enough to do some socializing. Unfortunately, we weren't able to carve the pumpkin we brought before we had to head out. We left Dada at the party, and headed to event #3: Treat Street at his daycare. He was very excited about this one since he watched the transformation of his daycare in the weeks before the party. Their theme was "favorite bedtime stories." Each classroom picked a favorite book and decorated the hallway in front of their room as the story. One of the first ones we walked through happens to be a favorite of Connor's: Goodnight Moon. The walls were green. There was a telephone, a red balloon, three little bears sitting on chairs, a comb, a brush, a bowl full of mush, and even a quiet old lady who was whispering hush. It looked like it was straight out of the book.

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Another hallway was based on Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. They even had Thing 1 and Thing 2 sitting in a box. But of course Connor's favorite was his own hallway, where they had decorated like The Very Hungry Caterpillar. There was an enormous caterpillar, and huge strawberries, plums, pears, and even a big butterfly. The highlight was seeing his teachers all dressed up. Once he saw them, a huge grin took over his face. But he immediately became shy when they started exclaiming how cute he looked as Buzz.

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Miss Jocelyn - Butterfly......................Miss Wafaa - Plum

Miss Ashley - Strawberry...................Miss Megan - Watermelon