This was the first year that Justin actually understood what Trick or Treating was all about. It was a bit of a process though. I bought his dinosaur costume at the beginning of October and would ask him every so often if he wanted to try it on. "NO" was always the answer. I was beginning to get nervous for Halloween. Eventually I wore him down and could get him to at least try it on for 30 seconds. It finally took several Halloween outings for him to get comfortable with it.
I took him to my company's Halloween party first where I got him to wear the costume for about 20 minutes. Of course, everyone at work was dressed up and was trying to say hi to him, which totally freaked him out. But after he discovered they were serving ice cream, all was okay in the world. Plus he got a caramel apple which I had to pry out of his hands and convince him we had to share it with Daddy later.
After the party, we went to downtown San Carlos where the stores were doing Trick or Treating. It was a complete madhouse! It's amazing what free candy will do to not only kids, but their parents! So many parents had no regard for anything but pushing their own child to the front of the line! Sheesh. I was just glad that Justin is a mellow kind of kid and hasn't quite figured out what "unfair" means. But Justin had fun regardless, especially since he got some lollipops - his new favorite sweet. He let me hold his trick or treat bucket while he held on tight to his lollipops.
On Halloween Day, Justin had his first Halloween parade at school. Most of the preschoolers, including Justin, had a dazed, "What the heck is going on?" look on their faces while parents shouted their names and took pictures. After the parade, most of the parents left, which threw many of their kids into a tizzy. Four little girls in Justin's class had meltdowns. Big props to his teachers who were trying to maintain order in this chaos.
Which finally leads us to Halloween night. Our friends Sean and Esther came over with baby Paxton (who, according to his mom was dressed up as "Some kind of bear" and then indignantly corrected by his dad). Justin was eager to get into his costume by now and had a great time walking up to each house and ringing the doorbell and saying Trick or Treat. We met many of our new neighbors so it was quite a nice evening all around. So far we've been able to distract Justin from actually eating any of the candy he got. He still doesn't know what chocolate candy is and we're working hard to keep it that way as long as possible. A parent can dream, right? We'll see what Halloween 2012 has in store for us...!
Justin has been in preschool now for about 8 months and I think he really enjoys it. It's been good for him to learn how to listen to a teacher and socialize with kids his own age. For me it's been a kick to experience all those "typical" school activities that I haven't participated in since I was a kid myself.
So Justin's first official field trip was to the Pumpkin Patch on the Friday before Halloween. You know, I've always driven by these random "patches" and thought they were kind of cheesy. But apparently to a group of preschoolers, it's great fun! There was a small petting zoo with a goat, some terrified rabbits, and some equally terrified chicks. There was also a tractor "hay ride" that went around in a small circle. For some reason Justin thought it was great and went on it like seven times! He was less interested in actually picking out a pumpkin. Boys.
Okay, so I'm bit behind in my blog posts...it's been crazy lately. We moved into our new house on Justin's birthday a couple of weeks ago, so between unpacking and the craziness of tradeshow season at work, all I want to do lately is sleep! But here we go...
Justin was a trooper on his birthday. We spent the whole day packing up our San Carlos house and unpacking into the Belmont house. Thank goodness for Cars 2 on tv, the iPad, and Uncle Kevin and his girlfriend Sandy who managed to keep Justin occupied all day long. By evening time, everyone was completely worn out, so it was nice to take a little time to have some cake and presents for our favorite three year old.
It's hard to believe that he's three already and can actually carry on a conversation with people. We celebrated his second birthday in Hawaii last year and that was when he really first started talking. I don't think he's stopped talking in the ensuing year!
So it looks like Year 3 will be filled with "I can do it myself!", attempts at potty training, and learning the names of all the trains on Thomas and Friends (fun). But our little Chubby McStinkerson isn't so little anymore: he's 35.5" tall and weighs 36.5 lbs! I'm pretty sure he's as big as some 5 year olds!
Here are some pics from our little birthday celebration:
