David Weekly, #73, Halloween Edition

I think David just likes noise in the morning. On a typical morning, he will have the TV on, and then play the Blue's Clues game, and occasionally turn on some toy that makes noise. All going on at the same time.

On Monday I as I'm picking him up from daycare/preschool, I "catch him in the act." What was he doing? Standing on a bench singing the ABC's for everyone, about 30+ kids. All were quiet while he sang. It was very impressive. I was so proud of him! He had a funny half-smile on his face, and was not looking at anyone as he went. He made it all the way through.

Tuesday night, we're going to the grocery store, and David sees the rain. He says, "It looks like a shower!" I've also discovered that if he wears Crock-type shoes (my mom bought them for him, along with some stuff for Halloween), without any straps for the heels, it slows him way down. He can't run, or run away, and he walks at a much more pedestrian pace. And is less excitable!

He tells me what he did in dancing every Tuesday, though it's sometimes out of context. "If I spin and spin and step I become a hippo!" He does tell me he put on his tap shoes when I pick him, though.

So we're watching "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown", and he says he's Charlie Brown, and then says he's a blockhead, because that's how they insult each other on that show. I tell him he's no such thing! Besides, I tell him, he's Linus, because of the blanket thing. So now he's Linus, and in the next one, "You're (not) Elected Charlie Brown" he's Linus, because he wins the election, and that makes David the winner. David likes to win anything and everything, and never lose. He complains bitterly that he didn't win at whatever competition there is at school. I tell him over and over (and over and over) that he doesn't always have to win to have fun, but he's convinced otherwise.

Thursday night I go to pick up David from Rachel's house. Avery has a costume where she fits her legs into the costume, but it looks like she's riding an ostrich. Ollie the Ostrich. When Avery is in this costume, David doesn't see Avery anymore, he sees Ollie. Avery becomes the ostrich, and David no longer reacts to Avery like she's his cousin. She (the ostrich) made a face at him, and David got really scared! She can't really run in that costume, which is a good thing for David, but he was still genuinely afraid! When Avery put the costume away, David asks Avery where Ollie is...when she's got the costume on, Avery is gone, and vice-versa. It was quite a thing to see!

And a typical conversation when in the car: "Are your lights on? Did you lock the door? (to the house) Turn on the blinking fing! (when making a turn) We're going fast! You have to beat that other car, daddy!"

Friday, David got the first of two H1N1 flu vaccine shots. The other will be on November 21. He did not like it, of course. He only cried for a minute, which was good. I got my own H1N1 shot just to show David that it didn't hurt. He said, "You got blood." He said this because a little drop of blood came out after the injection. David said that his shot hurts. He said that his daddy didn't cry to the clerk at the doctor's office, but that he did. He also gave me one of his stickers because I got my own flu shot. We had a discussion about being brave, and I told him that he could cry and still be brave.

At school he went on a field trip to the local high school for a celebration, in his costume. When I picked him up, he said, "I went to a high school..." He got lots of candy...He also got a card in the mail from Cinnamon, telling him "Happy Halloween!" And some stickers, of course.

I saved this Weekly for Halloween night, since it didn't seem to make sense to wait a week to talk about it. David has been watching "The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" non-stop, on DVD. Then for Trick-or-Treat, we went out with Jesse and her 6 week old daughter before sunset. He was not very good about getting pictures of himself taken. David complained. "It's supposed to be dark out!" It's hard to have him out in the dark with an all black costume, but there we were in the day light instead. After dark I had him with a couple of glowsticks attached to his outfit, so that worked out. It's hard to determine who's giving out candy when the lights aren't on yet, because it's still light out. David ended up being Batman, by the way. The thing is, though, he has the Batman mask, which was extremely sweaty for him, so we ended up taking it off. He also refused to say "Trick or Treat" or "Thank you" for the candy. After about 10 houses, David had had enough. "I have enough candy, daddy!" and "I want to go HOME!" "I don't need anymore candy." All of this was surprising and disappointing to me, because I had expected him to be more excited about all of this. Eventually, I convinced him to go out again, because it had gotten dark by that point. I also convinced him that I'm the one in need of the candy. It worked out because the boy across the street, Adan, wanted to go with us. He's 9, but had never been Trick or Treating before. So the three of us set out. David decided he didn't want to be scared. And he was telling everyone that I really needed the candy. David was really happy when we got home again with that much more candy. He liked the eyeballs, but told me that they wouldn't fit me. Lastly, we had to have insect repellent on, since we were getting attacked by mosquitos!

I hope your Halloween was fun.