Urban Jungle

My little jungle animals, ready to head out for the night.

This is the first year we've really done Halloween in the city...last year, we were in Birmingham, and the year before that, Little Guy was so young that we just went to our building Halloween party and called it enough.

We had a last minute scare that the Mister was going to be tied up with an 8 PM conference call, but then his boss came by and told him to go do Halloween with his kids instead.  Isn't that nice???  We were so relieved!

We were hanging around outside the Mister's office, waiting for him to join us, and Little Guy started a round of his most favoritest game..."Where's me, Mommy?  Where's me?"  He usually hides in plain sight, employing the "if I can't see you, you can't see me" theory.  If I dare find him too early, there are great tears.  Instead, I am to make all sorts of guesses as to his location, many of which are suggested by the one in hiding, such as "Oh, he must have gone to CVS."  Or the grocery store, or to take out the trash, or to the Building Museum.  Sometimes, I am to comment on how I can see his little toesies or his little bottom, but I still can't figure out where he is.  And then, the climax of it all is when Little Guy prompts, "Say, 'I can't 'magine, 'magine where he be.'" So I do.  And then, lo and behold, he appears!  And we do this at least forty times a day.

 So, after our rousing game of Where's Me?, we hopped the Metro to Capitol Hill.

Where there are a lot more children than in our neighborhood.  And where Hilloween was being held, with bounce houses and hay rides and a balloon man.  Such fun to see so many friends and their children!

 And then it was on to trick-or-treating on the Hill.

Little Guy was a good bit more timid at first than I thought he'd be, but after a few pieces of candy hit the bottom of that bucket, he started to warm up.

Thanks to his keen interest in everything his brother does, I never had to teach Buddy Boy how to brush his teeth or climb onto the sofa or get down from my bed or apply lotion or go down slides or build Legos or any number of other things.  And now we can add to that list that I never had to teach him to trick-or-treat.  We had him hanging out in the stroller for the first couple of blocks, but it soon became obvious he was not going to stand for being left out.  We released him, and he jumped right in.  It was so hilarious to see him toddle up each walkway, with his topsy turvy walking skills, climb the steps on all fours, and then regain his balance in order to stick his hand in an outstretched bowl of candy.  He always took just one piece and he always gave a big smile of gratitude before turning around and toddling back to drop the candy in his bucket.  My 14 month old is a champion trick-or-treater.

For the parents of peanut allergics, Halloween is a bit scary.  About 2/3 of the candy the boys received was not peanut-free, and even with constant vigilance, we were worried that somehow a piece of it would get into their mouths.  Little Guy is extremely careful about checking with us before he eats anything suspect, and very cheerful about foregoing anything with nuts, but of course Buddy Boy doesn't know to be careful.  It's nerve-wracking for your children to be handed something that could potentially kill them...over and over and over again.  Starburst and Skittles and Epi-Pens are our friends.  But on the bright side, now I have a quite large, well hidden-away stash of Reese's and Snickers and Butterfingers and I am no longer nursing a peanut allergic!

 It was a really fun night, one I'm so glad that the Mister was able to part of.

 And I think both the boys had a blast.

Kind of funny to hop on a Metro train after trick-or-treating...just another reminder of how different my children's childhoods are from my own.  But they're every bit as happy, I think.

 I mean, how could they not be, drifting off to sleep, sucker in hand and passy in mouth?

Hope your Halloween was just as much fun!