Well, Halloween is now over. We’ve all got chocolate smears around our mouths, candy wrappers litter the floor and the empty shells of costumes are slung over the dining room chair. Sigh.Violet was just the right size for Langston’s old pumpkin costume. I can’t believe it was 2 years ago that Langston wore it…it seems like yesterday! We are really getting our money’s worth out of the $5 Jeff’s mom spent buying it while I was still pregnant with Langston. It is my plan to just continue dressing Violet up in Langston’s hand-me-downs until she become
s old enough to say for herself, “Hey, I don’t want to dress up as Batman!”Langston dressed up as a dragon. Jeff called me from Costco and said that they had costumes for $10 and should he get one for Langston. Heck yes! It was actually very cute and we felt sure that the “2-4 year” size would fit him, as even though he’s big, he’s not as big as a 4 year old. Well, I guess these were sized for Chinese children because when we finally put it on him it was substantially too small. To the extent that about 4” of leg showed out the bottom, he had a massive wedgie and we had to cram the hood over his melon. But, rotten parents that we are we figured that he would only have it on for a short time and it wasn’t worth the trouble of returning it and trying to find another one. So, he went as a crammed in dragon.
First we went to Jeff’s mom and dad’s because Jeff’s mom is recovering from knee surgery and is still housebound. We thought it would cheer her up. We zipped both kids up in their costumes and took them outside for photos. Violet’s face pretty much told the tale of resignation and demonstrated a grim effort at quiet dignity. Which is hard to achieve when you have a pumpkin stem on your head. We did manage to get some cute pictures of the kids, though….particularly ones of the 2 kids together. It seems so weird that I now have 2 kids!
Langston then ran off wildly to the jungle gym and defied the constricting constraints of his costume and climbed all over, went down the slide, launched himself up the ladder…basically insured that when we unzipped his costume we would find him awash with sweat and stink J
Then we went home for some trick or treating. I had really been looking forward to this. I couldn’t wait to just swell with pride at my sweet darling boy and watch him thrill at the fun of his first time trick or treating. We drove separately, so I was waiting on the front porch when Jeff and Langston arrived home. They had stopped at Jeff’s sister Jill’s house since she had a little present for him. It was a Thomas the Tank Engine pillowcase for candy collection. I think he was more excited about that than anything else that happened that night. Anyhow, I knew we were in trouble when I could hear Langston wailing as Jeff opened his door. “I just want to go home! I don’t want to go to houses! I don’t want to trick and treat!” Oops. Um, sorry kid…you’re going and you’re going to have the time of your life!!! After a lot if cajoling and empty promises and what amounted to dragging him out of the house, we began our exciting night of trick or treating.
Langston is fascinated by our next door neighbor’s dog, so meeting Dizzy got the night off to a decent start. I don’t even think Langston had any idea what was going in his bag…he was too obsessed with “talking to Dizzy.” “Bye, bye Dizzy…I will see you later!” he yelled as we headed off down the street. This began the night’s fixation on what pets he would meet next. We went to about 6 houses (we had to keep promising Langston, just a couple more houses and then we’ll go home, I promise) and he had more fun getting to know the cats and dogs around the house than anything else. And, of course people appreciated this squashed little dragon petting their pets saying, “Don’t fall down, Maxwell…I’ll see you later, Snickers…etc.” So, he got massive amounts of candy.We finally consented to let a glum little Langston go home…Jeff put him up on his shoulders and I just about teared up at the sight of Jeff toting our own little dragon through the fall leaves. So sweet.
He was so relieved to finally be unzipped from his costume…he ran around the house with glee. But you should have seen the look of joy on his face when we dumped out the bag onto the table…his eyes glazed over in ecstasy. We agreed he could have 4 pieces before bedtime and in between bites he told his Aunt Julie (who had stayed home with Violet, who had said “uh-uh” to the prospect of going out with us) all about his adventures…Dizzy the dog…boys who “scart” him…riding on daddy…brown suckers! And then he went off to bed while the adults helped themselves to left-over candy.
I can’t wait for next year when Violet gets to wear Langston’s old dragonfly costume…and who knows what Langston will decide to be (I mean what his cheapo mom and dad find on sale).
