Candy, candy, candy, zoo!

In many ways having kids is like reliving my childhood...in bizarro world. After years of donning costumes and shlepping a pillow case of treats around the neighbourhood, it's very strange to be the parent hanging back on the driveway calling out "Say Thank You." (I also was all mommyish and made a pumpkin pie and roasted pumpkin seeds, although the seeds burnt).

Noone stayed to hand out candy, our entire family of four went down the street and back. (Despite the fact that we had two kids with us, my little cowgirl did not earn us double-candy). On the way home, William decided that climbing people's front steps in an over-sized horse costume was not worth the free candy. "How 'bout I just go home and eat some candy. How 'bout that?"

My parents put him to bed that night (we had a stag and doe to go to) but I can only assume that the sugar adversely affected the bedtime process. I'm torn about how to ration his candy. On the one hand he shouldn't have too much at a time, on the other hand he earned it so it doesn't seem fair to keep it from him. On the one hand he will eat nothing but candy to the exclusion of all else, on the other hand if we ration it too much the candy debate will go on forever. And the couch will be sticky. I will definitely have to eat some.

Today, we decided that we should go to the zoo. A sugar rush, followed by a day without a nap. Nice. At least we didn't bring the candy stash (just a few chocolate bars in our picnic lunch). Jadzia loved the zoo. I took her out of the stroller so she could see the animals and she was so happy. She even learned a new trick: pointing! I would point at a lion, or a monkey, or a rhino, and she would look at my finger and laugh, then immitate me by sticking her arm out. I think she liked some of the animals too, the tiger in particular. I enjoyed the giraffe, who was kneeling down bizarrely to eat the grass and the tigers, who we saw being fed (the keeper said that he was feeding them horse meat). On the way home, the kids fell asleep in the car, and the adults wanted to.

After dinner, William asked if we could go trick-or-treating again.

Mall Trick-or-Treating

Tonight we trick-or-treated at the Mapleview Mall. So did everyone in Burlington, apparently. The place was a zoo (and not just because most of the kids were dressed like animals). I was meeting some friends there but some of them I didn't end up seeing, and the rest I saw but lost them immediately in the insanity of the candy grab.

William doesn't quite get the concept of dashing from store to store grabbing as much candy as you can. Instead, he waited until I yelled "William! This lady's giving out candy! Say trick or treat!" then mosied over and silently held out his hand. This was followed by ten to fifteen seconds of examining his treat bag. Then he'd say "Mommy. How 'bout I go sit down at a table and eat my candy."

Needless to say our haul wasn't that great. (Especially since the stores were particularly stingy with the chocolate). Oh well, there's always Saturday.

I've been told I don't blog enough about Jadzia. She doubled her teeth in the last few days (her top front two came in) and still she doesn't get candy. William actually got more "Awe, how cute"s today than she did, so she must be growing up. Too young to eat candy, but old enough to complain about not getting any candy. No wonder she refused to wear her cowgirl hat for more than five seconds.

We left before we had hit all the stores because William was sweating to death in his horse outfit. I bought a tube of Thomas the Tank Engine toothpaste on my way out and William balked, proclaiming "Mommy! You said we were going home! Let's go home now, Mommy!"

On a sidenote, a CHCH News reporter was there pretending to trick-or-treat for the camera as we walked by. I doubt we got on tv, but you never know, we could be famous now.

Halloween 2008

Here is my independent little pachyderm trick-or-treating at the Burlington Mall. We gave up trying to get him to wear his elephant head.



He was quick to catch on to the taking candy from strangers and putting it in your bag custom. Until he remembered that he could eat the candy, then he just wanted to do that.



Unfortunately, this is the only shot I have of William with the elepant hood up. It was taken in the morning at the Early Years Centre and is slightly out of focus. My Mom took a better pic of him when he tried on his costume at Thanksgiving. It's on her blog here.

Congratulations Kevin and Kerri!

While William went off to do real outdoor trick-or-treating with his cousin Hunter and Auntie Robin (and Kevin, Robin's boyfriend), Adam and I donned Star Trek Uniforms and went to Kerri and Kevin's wedding.

Here's the bride looking fabulous in the dress she sewed herself out of black vinyl. Kerri owns her own goth clothing business and is very talented.

And the groom, also in a Kerri creation.

And here's Captain Adam and Lieutenant Me in our uniforms.

Showing some leg, because Original Series uniforms are all about the leg. Can you tell I'm almost 8 months pregnant? You couldn't could you?

As much as they tried to steer away from the tradional wedding, that's pretty much what it was. There was a ceremony, speeches, food, cake, dancing. Aside from the costumes, the decor, and this freak show performer they hired for entertainment, it was just like a regular white wedding.


Here's a shot of One-Armed Bob (who really is missing one arm) getting a note stapled to his tongue. Yes, he really did this. The blood on his cheek is real blood from another note. Among other things, he also put out a blow torch on his tongue, and stuck his good hand in a rat trap (I was the volunteer holding the trap). Ours is not to ask why, only to be entertained.

William's First Halloween

I went trick-or-treating tonight for the first time in ten years (yes, I trick-or-treated until I was 18) and this time there were no "Aren't you a little old for this?" comments. Sweet! Babies can be quite useful in scoring free candy.

The pictures above were taken at the Ontario Early Years Centre near my house. It was a Halloween party there today. Kind of exactly the same stuff went on as any other day, except all the kids were dressed up. For those of you who can't tell because the disguise is so clever, William is the one dressed as a dinosaur/lizard/Godzilla-thing. His best friend Aedan is the lion.