Happy Halloween!

Last Saturday afternoon David and I carved pumpkins. Well, David didn't really carve a pumpkin. I had bought a kit at Fall Festival of wooden parts to stick into a pumpkin. I thought that it would make it easier for David to participate in making a jack o lantern if he could help without holding a knife.

I cut holes into the pumpkin and he stuck in the part.

He really enjoyed the finished pumpkin, especially, I think, because it was a very small pumpkin that he could pick up on his own.

Here we are with both our pumpkins (pretty good photo considering that I took it!)

Here's a photo of David in the shirt that he wore all day today. The piece of candy is saying "Sweeeet."

David all dressed up in his monkey costume, complete with fake banana. I know four other children with the same costume, but they all looked SO cute!

He's a photo of David standing up in his costume. The way the extra padding bunched around his middle was cute.

I took David trick or treating tonight with my friends the Carmeans and their two children. Mackenzie was a monkey like David (by coincidence, not planned) and her baby brother Jack was a banana. David had a lot of fun running around. This is definitely the best weather we've had for Halloween since we moved to Minot (this is our FOURTH Halloween in Minot), so we stayed out treat or treating till David got tired. It also helped that this year I got smart and bought David a warm costume. Last year we got him a thin pumpkin costume and he ended up in his snowsuit while we trick or treated because it was so cold. The monkey costume kept him nice and warm for the hour and a half or so that we were outside.

He didn't really understand what he was suppose to say, but he figured out pretty fast that he had to go to everyone's front door and someone would give him a treat to put into his bucket. He was not shy at all about going up to strangers, but that's very typical for him. David is very outgoing. Most of the time he would say "hi" and "bye" to our lovely neighbors who gave him treats. One time he said "thank you" very clearly. If someone put a treat directly into his bucket he would take it out and hold it in one hand while holding the bucket in the other hand until he got to the next house.

He rode in his stroller on the way home. That's his treat bucket with him in the stroller. The cashier at the commissary gave him the bucket today since he couldn't have a piece of candy.

Speaking of David not having candy, I should tell everyone before I continue: Yes, I was planning on letting David have some candy that he is not allergic to, but while we have been out running errands the past couple of weeks a lot of the service people have wanted to give him candy and I've just said no. I don't really want him to get use to eating candy or taking food from strangers for both health and safety reasons.

The best moment for me tonight was another spouse who got David two little rubber toys, a frog and a spider, so that he could have something to play with instead of worrying about if he was allergic to the candy she was handing out. David held those two toys in his hands once we got home until he went to sleep.


Here's a video of David's laugh. It's really dark, so you can't see anything, but the first thing you hear is David laughing. He laughed like that all night long; he is such a happy kid!


After we got home I took this video of an excited David playing with his candy and with the banana that is attached to his costume.

Here is David eating his first piece of Halloween candy: a smartie.

He ate the entire small package of smarties. He'd put one or two in his mouth and then take them back out and look at them. I think he kept wondering at their sour taste.

Here's a video of David eating his treat - the smarties.

David put the smarties on his zoo toy, which has a track that spins in circles. He's such a funny guy.

David must have had fun because by his bedtime, 8pm, he was unable to get to a standing position from a sitting one without really working hard at it. He hasn't gone to sleep this quickly in a long time. All in all a very enjoyable evening.