Halloween!

Halloween was on Saturday and I cannot believe that it is already over and November is upon us! We had an interesting holiday this year with some highs and lows...it all started a couple of weeks ago when I tried to put Colin's Spiderman costume on and he refused to go for it. He asked specifically to be Spiderman but for whatever reason, he seemed almost frightened to wear it. I bought his black skeleton t-shirt on a whim at Gymboree a couple of weeks ago on sale, so he wore that to the first Halloween party of the season. I hoped that with time his real costume would grow on him, but that was NOT the case. As we prepared for the big night on Saturday, I tried in earnest to put it on, but he had a screaming fit over it complete with back arching and hysterics. I even brought the costume along to the trick-or-treat party, but he flipped out again at the sight of it and I finally threw in the towel. Colin was a skeleton (sort of) with a spiderman bag for Halloween. I am very thankful that I purchased the t-shirt and really thankful that I bought the $23 costume instead of the expensive astronaut costume that I really wanted. I think I would have taken it a lot worse if I had spent a fortune. ;-) Halloween was also a little sad for us because Jer had to work on the big night and was forced to miss trick-or-treating. Luckily Colin is still too young to really know that Daddy missed something important and everything was fine, but I missed him a LOT. I don't like to spend holidays of any kind without Jeremy and it certainly dampened my spirits.


We were invited to a fabulous party at Dana and David's house and it was an absolute BLAST! There were around 6 two year olds and a couple of cute babies in the mix and we had a little feast before taking all the kids around their neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Dana throws a great party...her decorations were ADORABLE and there was a ton of yummy stuff to eat. Colin was also very pleased to take apart Gabby's playroom and go crazy with all her toys! He was not his normal self for a good portion of the party simply because he gets pretty easily overwhelmed in a new environment with all new people. He was at a new house surrounded by all new people and things, so he was pretty quiet at first and kept to himself (and Gabby's toys). He barely touched a bite of food and I will admit that when trick-or-treating first got underway, I was starting to sweat. He did not really understand what we were doing and did not want to follow the kids up to strange houses. He started to shut down, which is very hard to get him to recover from. He started running away from everyone and me...inching away from me so that I would not be able to grab him and sitting down asking to go home. He quietly informed me in my ear that he "don't want trick treat" and I was pulling out the keys and getting ready to jump ship. Then Dana's incredibly sweet mom (she is honestly the nicest and most comforting person that I have met in a long time) back tracked from the crowd and started to help me. Between the two of us, we managed to get Colin up to a front door where the candy was sitting out on the porch. It finally registered to him what was going on...if you walk up to a house and say trick-or-treat, they will give you candy!! His transformation after that was amazing!! He was quickly running with the kids to each house and even got ahead at one point! There were a couple of scary houses and spooky adults in costume, but he was undeterred. He was not stopping until everyone under the sun gave him candy. I was laughing to myself at the end...all the kids made one block and went back into Dana's house for cake. Colin, however, would have kept going all night long. I ushered him back into the house, but I am pretty sure that he would have kept going until he passed out! I am very glad that nobody seemed to mind that he was not exactly in costume. :-) The whole party was wonderful and I am so glad we were invited. He has been talking about Gabby's house and candy ever since we got home, so I know the night ended up being a hit for the little man. Here are some of the pictures:

Gabby and Colin sitting at the table...they were alternating between eating candy and Oreo cake. It does not get much better than that!

Two cuties!!

How cute is this?!?! A bunch of trick-or-treating toddlers!! Please note Colin's anti-costume.

This is at the beginning of trick-or-treating. You can tell from Colin's expression that this is before he figured out what was going on. :-)

Colin and Gabby during the "picnic" dinner. They are so precious together!!