He Did It!

No, I'm not talking about potty training. We got a long way to go for that one. But it's just after 7 am in the new fall back time and I've been up for the last 20 minutes because apparently Tommy didn't get the memo that you're supposed to sleep an extra hour. However, I don't care. I'm just basking in the glow of his first successful Halloween.

What?!? I think I hear a collective gasp from a few of my tens of readers. A pastor and his family celebrate Halloween?? If you're asking if we worship Satan, the answer is no. But we do dress up (as Superman this year) and go house to house begging for candy. Then we come home, fill up on sugar, and go to bed as we're crashing off the sugar high. If you've been a faithful reader for at least, well, a year, you may remember our Halloween experience last year. Well, my friends, this year was different.

Our Halloween started with MeMe's (Dean's mom) first grade class's Spider Fest at school. I brought Tommy to participate and he absolutely loved it. He rotated through the four classrooms with the rest of the kids (all twice his age... which I guess isn't a lot when you're only 3). He made a spider headband thing, then helped call out Spider Bingo numbers, made a popcorn hand, and also made a spider necklace and got a tick (it was supposed to be a spider, but it totally looked like a tick) painted on his hand. Between each rotation, the teachers read spider or Halloween themed books to the kids. Tommy sat right in the middle of them all (notice the only kid in costume- that's his Superman cape) and even asked questions about the story. I think the first graders didn't like him at the end because he proved that he was paying more attention than they were, thus making them look bad.



Last year at Spider Fest, he did ok until he saw all the spiders. That kinda freaked him out. This year he actually put on MeMe's spider mask!

Then came the real Halloween test: trick-or-treating. Remember, since he's been able to walk, we've been to a total of... um... no houses to beg for candy. He's completely choked two years in a row. But this year, he totally redeemed himself. He was a little nervous about going to the first house, but we went and knocked on the door. They were our friendly kidless neighbors, who apparently didn't realize that trick-or-treating is a real thing. The husband showed up at the door with an individual size of Mott's applesauce and apologized for not being prepared. Then as soon as we got to the next house, we noticed them jumping into their car and hightailing it out of there. That was probably for the best. Once we had gone to a couple houses and Tommy realized that they were handing out candy, he really liked this trick-or-treat thing. We did run into one or two kids with scary masks. And yes, I did ask one of them to remove it around Tommy. No, I didn't know him, but I guess I'm just one of those moms. I wasn't going to let this little snotty nosed kid ruin my son's first successful Halloween!

We made it all the way around the block and only shied away from one or two houses that looked really scary. He filled up a plastic pumpkin and halfway filled a ghost bag that we brought as as backup. So his teeth will be good and rotten by the time we go for our first dentist visit. But the real measure of his success is that when he woke up this morning, he cried a little because he wanted to go trick-or-treating again tonight. Woo hoo!