Halloween ’09

I had Ankle Biter over the weekend and yes, that meant I got to spend Halloween with him.  It actually took me a few minutes, but I remember that I had him last Halloween, too…but that was a bit different. 

A year ago, he was only two…and I believe Halloween fell on a Friday night.  That meant The Ex had him all day (she took the day off) and I picked him up that evening.  Well, he wasn’t interested in going out trick-or-treating and was more interested in who was coming to the door every few minutes.  In addition, he went to bed around 7pm so what I did was turn off all of the house lights and left the candy outside with a sign saying to please take three items and leave the rest for others (which worked like a charm, actually).

So this year I was excited.  I had plans for the entire day and couldn’t wait to see how everything ended up. 

Yeah...nothing says "I'm having fun, dad!" like a trip to get the winter tires put on the car.

First up was getting the winter tires put on the car.  Yeah…not the greatest father/son expedition, but it’s certainly “that time of the year”. Ankle Biter was in excellent spirits and was fascinated by the entire process.  Right after that, we went to visit my folks.

My parents wanted a picture taken…a “professional” picture…so after lunch we got our stuff together and went to the local Wal-Mart.  Yeah…I know…professional, right?  Anyway, we spent a good hour there taking some pictures (she wasn’t a very good photographer, with only about three poses worth choosing from).  In the end, my mom decided on a ‘serious’ photo of Ankle Biter (she liked how he looked with a black background) and we all decided on a great pic of him and I together (it’s pretty awesome, actually).  The bad part?  I’ve gotta wait two weeks before it gets here.  The good part?  I’ve got a scanner and I’ll make sure to upload it for the world to see (I’m an attention whore, remember?).

AB took a bit of a nap on the way back home and we prepared for a night of Halloween spookery.  I wasn’t entirely sure when to start, as I know really young kids should probably go out a bit early.  So I decided on about 5:45pm.  It was still light outside and I knew exactly where to get started: at the Halloween-crazy neighbours across the street from me.

Ankle Biter was a Power Ranger.  A SUPER Power Ranger.

Super Ankle Biter Power Ranger!

Super Ankle Biter Power Ranger!

So off we went across the street to the Halloween-crazy place.  They do this every year for their huge Halloween bash, but it really is an incredible sight for trick-or-treaters…and I’m glad we saw things during the day because AB would have been totally scared if we went there at night.

Ahhh...my crazy Halloween-lovin' neighbours.

We went to another next-door neighbour and he was already getting tired.  Uh oh…not a good sign. 

So I decided that we’d go visit The Ex’s nephew and his girlfriend, who live just down the street.  I drove there because the weather was getting progressively worse, and because Ankle Biter was not acting like he wanted to do much walking around in his Power Ranger outfit.  Once we got there and he was invited inside the house for a few minutes, he immediately took off his mask and tried to rip off his outfit.

This is my haul...get me outta here!

So that was it.  That was our Halloween.  We went back home and he eagerly got out of his outfit. He then stood at the doorway and watched for the little ghosts and goblins to visit looking for treats.  I really should have taken a picture of that, but the camera was already hooked-up to the computer and away for the evening.

All told, we hit three houses.  But with a little bag of treats from the babysitter and a very appreciated and very cute bag from Sunshine (not to mention a few leftovers from my own stash), his haul wasn’t too bad for a 3-year-old.

The haul

Yeah…I’m definitely looking forward to more Halloweens in the future.