David Weekly, #36, Halloween Edition

Happy Halloween! For Halloween this year, David was an elephant. And his costume was a hit! Amanda made the trunk and a friend of mine did the ears. And his shirt and pants were gray. Everywhere we went to get treats, David would say, "Trick or Treat, I want candy"...No matter how many times I told him it's just "Trick or Treat," he would say his thing. So I let him, it really wasn't a big deal. People got such a kick out of the trunk and ears, and then he would always surprise them with his "elephant noise", consisting of his lips put together, and then forcefully blowing air out from between his lips. People laughed, and just thought he was great! He's a very polite child, too, saying "Thank You" each time he got candy. We had gone to maybe 10 houses and decided he was done, and wanted to go home. I convinced him to go a little longer, which we did. He didn't like being scared, though! We went to one house where the people had put on the music from the original "Halloween" movie, and this by itself was too much for David, as he was whimpering how hed didn't want to go to that house! But I told him was safe as long as he had on his costume, which he frequently did not want to put on. It was still a struggle, but he was brave. :-) At another house I told him that if HE's scary, then the things he's afraid of will be afraid of him instead. So he chased one man around his yard (who played along quite nicely), until he "got" him. And then it wasn't so bad. After we got home, we watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." There's a scene where Lucy is bobbing for apples, and gets one...on the other end of this apple is Snoopy, and she says, "Blakch, ach, poison! Dog Germs! Blach, Ach" and then David says, matter of factly, "It's just Snoopy." I remember last year we watched this special and he got too involved in the Snoopy fights the Red Baron part to where he was crying! This year, he just watches, and says, "Snoopy -- TouchDOWN!" Basically, this is Snoopy landing his "plane."

After the show, he went down to bed pretty easily. He was yawning when we were out and about. Strange thing this year: not as many houses with lights, and not as many people out trick or treating. This is the second year that the time change is AFTER Halloween, but it doesn't seem like it. I don't remember last year's Halloween being with more light, but I suppose I wasn't so focused on that.

I realized that last week I forgot to mention that David went to a wedding, to watch Jesse, the lady who watches him on Saturdays, get married. It was not a concept he understood very well. But he enjoyed all of the activity. We had a pretty good night. He wanted to be in as many wedding pictures as he could. Or as many as they would let him in, and every time they would snap a picture, he was so excited! He would shout, "I took a picture, daddy!"

More recently, this most recent Saturday we went to a Halloween festival in Zephyrhills with my mother, sister, and her kids. David was calling it Halloween, as in, "We're going to Halloween, daddy!" And my reply was, "No, Halloween is a holiday." And he says, "It's a Halloween, not a holiday!" Okay, so it's a Halloween. He's a funny kid, even if he doesn't mean to be. Sunday I was more diligent in potty training David, by going to the potty every so often, and having him without his diaper/pullup on...but this child is very resistant to this process! I joined a Meetup.com single parents group, and went to the Aquarium as there was an event there...and met up with other single parents and their kids. It was very crowded, so it was hard to get to know anyone, but a few of us went to dinner afterwards, and that was nice. It was good for David and for me, because he got to play with the other kids a bit, and I got to be a bit of a grownup. We will attend more of these events, and I've been assured that they are fun, and safe.

A few tidbits: I asked David the other day if he was cold, on our way to Dot's, and he said "No, I'm windy." Very funny child. He now says, "Oh my god!" But I don't know where he got it from. Today he said, "You're funny, daddy," with a big smile on his face. He counted his fingers on both hands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 fingers on one hand, and 1, 2, on the other. He's also able to really express emotion: "I'm so happy!" or "I'm sad." In the second case, it's because I wasn't driving faster. He's able to express what he thinks makes me happy or sad, too. And he's able to explain why when I ask him why: because I want to, or because there's a cat out there, or a noise I heard...David has lately been coming into my bed in the middle of the night, and rolling on me, laying on top of me...and this has not been a good thing. So I'm telling him either to go back to his bed and sleep, or at least lay on the other side of the bed and be still. I don't know what's going on with him lately, to cause this...It's definitely having a bad impact on my sleep...we played a live version of Blues Clues, because in the back yard he finds a maple leaf (several now, actually), and from there we start trying to find the tree that it goes with, and not much success. But the process of finding a matching leaf has been fun. And he calls it a clue leaf. :-)

So here's hoping that you find whatever it is you're looking for.

Rusty