Halloween

Our first Halloween together. We didn't prowl our own neighborhood, but instead tagged along with the kids' cousins in their community. Just the two of us had gone last year. It was fun.

Both dressed up in cute little monkey suits. We had picked one up at the consignment shop, then bought a matching one retail. Soon we got worried that it would be too warm for those snuggly heat-to-toe body suits, as we were in the midst of a Fall heat wave. And, the daycare said that we should dress them up in costumes for school on Halloween; so we had the added worry that the costumes would get dirty or fall victim to a potty accident (if you want to call them "accidents").

So we picked up a princess costume, and pulled out an Oscar the Grouch costume that we had bought at the consignment shop just for dress up. They wore those to school, and it was cool enough Halloween night to wear the monkey suits.

Traffic was snarled both going home from work and also getting out to the cousins'. Aunt Laura was looking forward to joining us, but she got caught in the worst of the bumper-to-bumper, so didn't make it in time.

We brought their wagon in case anyone got tried of walking. While I was getting the wagon out of the minivan, Gayle hit me over the head with the tailgate. She claimed it was an accident (see second paragraph above). I survived that potential concussion in a manner worthy of Wile E. Coyote, and we headed out with the cousins and lots of other kids, crisscrossing the quiet streets.

Bethany caught on immediately and quite boldly. She had no problem marching up to a stranger’s door (portent of both good and bad). Andrew wasn't so sure, much more timid (ditto). Gayle took him up to the second house we visited. The owner there was dressed in a scary costume. Andrew got scared. So, that was the little guy’s only try. Mostly I carried him the rest of the time. No more trick or treating for him, but he was happy to watch the others from a safe distance.

We got a bit of a late start, so by the time we called it quits, there were few kids left on the streets. Back to the cousins' for a fashionably late supper. B and A, of course, fell asleep on the car ride home.

Overall a good first time. What’s not to like about walking around in fun costumes, in the dark, with other characters and creatures all about. They forgot about the candy immediately afterwards, so we stashed it away. We’ve steared away from candy in general, so far.

“What was that you said earlier? Minivan?” Yes, we did take the plunge and bought a Hyundai Entourage (I always felt that I should travel with an entourage.) during the Labor Day sales. Gayle’s old car was newly in need of repairs. The timing was good. My Jeep’s hanging in there for now.

We are taking a parenting class now. Only nine hours, but it is really good. The Love and Logic method. We first saw a presentation during a PBS pledge drive a couple of years ago. We need the help!

They are teaching to set boundaries and apply discipline without threats, bribes, shouting and arguing. So far, those have been our best tools, so it's tough to let go of them. But we keep saying that in the last six months, we have done more bribing, shouting and threatening then in all our prior years combined. Got to be a better way!