For the past few weeks, Benji has been getting ready for Halloween, including going to the pumpkin patch with Grandma and Grandpa, learning about pumpkins and spiders in preschool and storytime, and dressing up for preschool. So by the time we hit real Halloween, he was psyched and ready to get dressed in his costume and go get candy.
Mommy was able to get off early from work and the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so Mommy and Benji had some great trick-or-treating time in the late afternoon. He was very polite, saying trick-or-treat and thank you. Whenever someone offered him a choice of candy from the bowl, he considered his choices carefully but I think it was largely because he didn't know what many were. But once Mommy pointed out some favorites (i.e. which ones are chocolate), he quickly identified them at future houses.
Tons of kids were out and Benji got so many compliments on his costume. We saw the neighbor kids several times, but Benji was too slow to keep up with them. He enjoyed practicing his horse galloping and I enjoyed just spending time with my little guy. Even though we dawdled and generally enjoyed ourselves, we still got to visit so many houses (last year we only made it down our block and Benji was more interested in trying to collect landscaping rocks than in collecting candy). On the way back to the house, Benji decided he was done and just sat down on somebody's lawn. Of course we still needed to get back home, so I gave him a piece of candy "for energy" but that strategy backfired on me. He would walk a few steps and then sit down again and ask for another piece of candy.
By the time we got done trick-or-treating and having dinner, we didn't really have enough time to carve our pumpkin before bedtime. So we held off and did the pumpkin on Saturday. Benji was very excited about the whole pumpkin experience. He actually remembered carving the pumpkin from last year and wanted to know where his knife was (recall that last year after we finished carving he brought over his play food plastic knife and "carved" the face himself) so I had to bring it up from the basement for him this year. He was quite upset that his plastic knife didn't work. But after Daddy used the real knife to get things started, Benji finished cutting off the pumpkin top and enjoyed being silly with it. We let Benji draw the face, but he didn't like his first attempt. He's so critical; it was quite a lovely face. But, we cleaned it off and let him try again. His pumpkin face was so adorable! And Daddy carved it faithfully, even trying to capture any wiggles in the lines. What a good Daddy, and what a fun Halloween! I can't wait to see what he remembers next year.
Benji's costume was a cowboy, but if you ask him what he was he answered that he was a horse. Regardless, he loved it.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
