Spooky, Spooky, Spooky!

Halloween 2013 will go down as the first highly successful Halloween for the Langford kids. Let me give a quick recap of the previous years:

2012: Milo was terribly sick, which actually turned out to be a good thing because he was so scared by the entire holiday he didn't want to wear a costume. I don't even recall what he had planned to be before he a) changed his mind, b) got too scared to dress up, and c) got sick so it didn't matter anymore anyway. And Olive was so young she wasn't walking yet, she couldn't eat any of the candy, and she just didn't give a shit about any of it. She did look pretty cute in the chicken costume I forced upon her though. When she wasn't crying, that is.

2011: Milo was a bumblebee. The costume was fleece, and it was HOT that day. He roasted. I was pregnant, and I roasted. Milo didn't get the trick-or-treating thing at that point, and he got so bored. He sort of played along during the daycare party, but then we made the mistake of taking his costume off to eat dinner. He did NOT want to put it back on to go real trick-or-treating. I think we made it to one, maybe two houses before giving up.

2010: Milo's first Halloween. Too little to get it/eat candy/care. My first Halloween as a mom, so of course I put way too much pressure on the whole thing. He wore both a kangaroo costume for some early photos in the leaves, and a pumpkin costume for trick-or-treating. We went with some friends who had older kids, and we had to basically carry Milo up to the doors each time. Not so fun, really.

So! That brings everybody up to speed. This year was fantastic. Milo was Captain Hook. He had been requesting this costume since August, so I bought it for him in late September. In early October, he decided that Captain Hook was "too scary" and he wanted to be a pumpkin "with a smile and happy eyes, not a frown or mean eyes." Thankfully, he returned back to Captain Hook. Our neighbors gave us a little girl pirate costume. My mom gave us a watermelon costume for Olive. We let her pick. For weeks she refused to wear either. Well, frankly, she didn't try either of them on. On Halloween we sent the pirate costume to daycare and hoped that Ms. Kristin could get her into it.

We showed up for the daycare Halloween extravaganza at 4:30. Lo and behold, both Milo and Olive were in their costumes, and they looked awesome. Milo even had his hat and his hook on. Olive wasn't wearing the head scarf that came with hers, but no surprise there--she does not like stuff on her head (except for hoods...and some hats... OK, she just doesn't like having her hair done. But either way, I wasn't surprised about the lack of scarf.).

They sort of let me take their picture. Awfully wiggly and not very patient, those two

They did the daycare trick-or-treating. For awhile Milo didn't seem too into it. They were handing out little toys and stickers and such at the "houses" and I think Milo just wanted candy. As soon as they did get a piece of candy, they wanted to eat it right then. It was hard to explain that no, you can get MORE candy if you keep following the other kids. But overall, they both had a good time.

We came home, had dinner. This time I was smart enough not to take Olive out of her costume. I hadn't planned to take Milo out of his costume either, but he really wanted to take it off. I figured that was probably for the best, since his costume had these dangly sleeves. Anyway. Dinner. Then everybody get excited because it's trick-or-treating time!!

We set out with no expectations of how many houses we'd hit. We started with our cul-de-sac. Then a couple houses up the street. Then Ms. Kristin's cul-de-sac. Then down the hill to that cul-de-sac. Total of 10 houses, I think. Then the kids were getting worn out and started to be less happy about the whole thing. Back up the hill to home. One piece of candy to eat, then off to bed.

I was so stinking proud of these kids. Especially Milo. He rang the doorbells, said "trick or treat" every time, said "thank you," waved goodbye, and was just generally very agreeable. He kept his hat and hook on. Just such a nice guy. He did try to open doors and even walk into people's homes at first, but he got the hang of it before too long. Olive was so cute too. She started out just holding out her basket and saying "my candy!" as they dropped a piece in her bag. She did say "thank you" and "bye!" while enthusiastically waving. About 2/3 of the way through the evening, she started saying "chickee cheet!" So so cute.

Milo still got pretty nervous about Halloween this year, so I am especially proud of the way he didn't let his fears stop him from having fun. From the costumes to the trick-or-treating to the excitement of the whole thing, he participated--and he can often be the kid that hangs back and does his own thing.

Last night, sometime in the middle of the night, he came into our room upset, saying "Is Halloween over yet?" So even after having lots of fun, getting to eat lots of candy, he still worried about Halloween. I'm hoping next year he remembers all the fun and doesn't let the worries slow him down. And I hope Olive tries on her costume before the day of the holiday. Milo has already informed me that next year he wants to be a rubber duckie for Halloween. We'll see, kid. We'll see.