Why is this woman smiling?
Finally. The convergence of low expectations and my children’s age and understanding. We had a fun time over the weekend.
Our first Halloween sucked. I tried to force Holden into a chili pepper costume. He cried. I tried to rally him to be in a stroller so I could trick-or-treat with my friends, show him off, and earn candy. No go. We did dress him up in a few costumes like our own private baby doll so that was a little fun. He refused to leave the house. I sat around mopey in my Clifford the Big Red Dog costume and almost cried. How can a five month old be the boss of me? Wah wah wah. (this site was two weeks old)
chili pepper costume of doom
sleep sack + cap = less crying
Our second Halloween sucked. I bought him a more comfortable costume (froggy from Old Navy that went on like a sweat suit) but between oblivion and bedtime, there was also zero chance for trick-or-treating. This picture was taken outside of a playground. He doesn’t know he’s wearing a costume. The night ended with me on the couch wishing we could have fun like everyone else. Big red dog costume no doubt.
the one wear I learn about comfy costumes
Our third Halloween sucked less. Both boys (yes, now there was a new baby in the stroller!) dressed in skeleton jammies (cute!) for the preschool party. A daytime opportunity for costumes and merriment helped me keep all of my eggs out of the Halloween night basket.
matching costumes easy, photo hard
Our fourth Halloween was fine. We went out with Whitney’s posse to a family-friendly street and trick-or-treated at five houses in the drizzle. Is this what all the fuss was about?
Holden is happy to go trick-or-treating
Milo gets some use out of the froggie, I have crazy eyes
I have to admit its getting better. We took Milo to five houses and he helped Daddy pass out candy to big kids (like it was an honor). We trick-or-treated in our own small neighborhood with one other family. No great expectations. No great drama.
We confiscated most of the candy after allowing 5 pieces a night for 3 nights. We mocked our friends who bothered with the Halloween Fairy (AKA switch witch). Holden was a Superman/Pumpkin for trick-or-treating and just a pumpkin at the preschool party. Milo was a skeleton (jammies for ever!) for trick-or-treating and a puppy for the daytime party.
Homemade pumpkin costume by request (nose on top please)
Toddler puppy costume as borrowed on Facebook at last minute
But this one was fun! The boys helped carve pumpkins and decorate the house. They had full command over their choice of costume. I just did as they asked. Milo wanted to be Spiderman (he lost the mask because of pre-Halloween dress-up play despite my repeated warnings not to lose it); Holden wanted to be a ghost-witch-goblin (whatever that means!). I tried to make plans with friends but we also kept it loose — since you can’t really predict what might happen on Halloween night.
I stuck a wire in my hair and went as Pippi Longstocking. Festive!
The boys were in love with the spirit of trick-or-treating and decorations and staying out in the dark. They each netted 45 pieces of candy in about 20 houses so I really need to give another thought to the Halloween Fairy idea.
Ok, if you’re still with me… please tell me I’m not alone! Please tell me what you’ve tried and failed with your kids for Halloween. And if your stress level is going up or down each year.
I always say starting out with twins is the best thing to happen as a parent because you ALWAYS have low expectations. Our boys were about 5 months old around their first Halloween and we were honestly just happy to be showered and out of the house.
It’s gone uphill every year since for us. That is the nice part about having two the same age, you get past the young age fairly quickly.
This was my second rookie mom Halloween. I made a super hero costume the first year for our 6 month old, this year, to keep with the “less stress=happy mama” theory, I purchased one costume from a garage sale, price tag still attached, score! And the other from the store. I also put our 18 month old down for a nap and waited for him to get up before attempting trick or treating, which worked out great!
My daughter is almost 2.5 and my son is 5 months and this is the first year we went out trick or treating. When my daughter was a baby, I couldn’t deal with it. We dressed her in a puppy costume, took some pics, put a bowl of candy on the doorstep with a “sorry we missed you!” note and ate pizza on the couch. Last year she refused to wear the lion cub part of the costume on her head and I was newly pregnant and ill. So we took some pics and did a repeat of the previous year.
This year we got her doggy costume early so she could wear it around the house to get used to it–it was just a doggy thing on her torso (so she wore her own pants and shirt) and a doggy head with ears that she ended up loving. We dressed my son in the old baby puppy costume, buckled him into the stroller and walked around the neighborhood. She loved it, he fell asleep.
Instead of pretending there’s a fairy who takes the candy, I just told her that she could pick a few pieces of candy to keep and then she could trade the rest of it to me and her Daddy and we would give her a present. She happily obliged and ended up with a cute talking Cookie Monster. I ate some candy last night and gave it away today.
I’d rather be up front with her about what happens to the candy. It’ll be bad enough having to explain the Tooth Fairy/Santa/Easter Bunny in the future. I did get the idea from the Halloween Fairy post on this site though, so thank you for that!
Oh man, I hear you. Our son was four months old last Halloween, I got him in a baseball onesie and a hat and took him to 3 houses of people we knew from church, and that was it.
This year, we went out of town and came back late last night, no costume, no trick-or-treating, nothing. But the 16-month-old who doesn’t know what Halloween is didn’t care. It honestly bothered us, the grown-ups, a little more – mostly because of all the Facebook posts of people with younger kids than us posting pictures of the cute costumes and how much fun they had. But I keep reminding myself not to beat myself up – the kiddo isn’t missing anything, and he’ll probably have a lot more fun next year anyway!
Hear hear!! I think this about sums up ours. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1HkbMLGxUL0/TM7Q0EXrk1I/AAAAAAAAFKk/Rt5nSAsvzek/s1600/h2.JPG
As I sat on the front steps passing out candy with a fussy 2 month old I heard my 2.5 year old daughter – returning from brief trick-or-treating with her dad – happily shrieking “mommy mommy i have CANDY!!!” in a sugar-induced tone of voice I’ve never heard come out of her mouth before. All I could think was: “next year will be better.”
Lol. So good to know we weren’t alone. Reilly threw a fit in the Strawberry swaddler and didn’t even last long enough for a picture (5 months). We got to walk around the neighborhood for a few with her nephews, but she was sleeping in the stroller. Honestly, Dad and I were just happy to get home to see the end of the baseball game
. Figure we have years of costumes and festivities ahead!
I was a hamburger and my 5 1/2 month old son was mustard (check us out
http://sunsaturatedsidethoughts.tumblr.com/post/1475717611/the-boys-first-halloween-i-was-a-hamburger-he#notes) – for about 5 minutes. I stayed up late the night before to finish my costume and literally gave up on finishing his about an hour before leaving for my sister’s to go trick-or-treating. Halloween day consisted of lots of screaming and teething and tears at our house.
Trick-or-treating was freezing. I wore my coat over my costume and the boy wore a fleece suit and a tiger hat with ears, under a blanket in a stroller. We went out with my sister, her fiance and my niece (the only one who got any candy) for a good hour before the hail hit. Next year my husband and I want to collect candy!
@Ariana, I feel you. I like that you took your picture early, before your (patty-)meltdown.
Ha! Totally know how you feel! I’ve never liked this holiday…pretty strange event for someone who wasn’t born here. Here’s a post that explains my full feelings about it!
http://third-culture.org/2011/08/12/hating-halloween/