Oliver had been having a rough time at school for the past few months...lots of "incident reports" for biting other kids and usually on the face. He bit us a bit at home too, but nothing like at school. We had a few meetings with his teachers and the director of the center but nothing seemed to help. So around this time, I was trying to think of a costume for Oliver. When I was looking at the options for toddlers, most require a hat to make the costume make sense and Oliver is very anti-hat at the moment. So I got the idea for him to be a vampire! No hat and with all the biting...fortunately, when we transitioned him to the toddler room at school he stopped biting overnight and hasn't had an incident report since. The costume was still cute.
The week before Halloween we went to a pumpkin patch with Mike's parents and sister, Laura. It was pouring rain most of the day, but rain can't stop the fun in Seattle or there would never be any fun! Oliver didn't mind at all and in fact loved the pumpkins and the hay ride (and spending time with his grandma!). He picked out a pumpkin and we went home to carve it. Oliver watched intently and when it was done showed his new found love for pumpkins!
Everyday when we got home from work he would exclaim "pumpkin" with delight and want to sit on the ground and watch it and look inside. About 2 weeks after halloween was over and the pumpkin was getting pretty moldy, we had to say goodbye...Oliver was very distressed and said "Halloween go sleep?"
On Halloween, we went to the Zoo to see the animals play with pumpkins and to show off Oliver's costume. He had a great day and really enjoyed seeing all the animals. Every time we go he seems to get more out of it. We then had a halloween party to go to at my friend Erika's house. She has a 10 month old and her sister has a 9 month old so there were LOTS of little babies all over. Oliver was one of the oldest kids there. It was fun seeing how much he has changed since that age.
After the party, we stopped by to see Derek, Dawn, Trent and Grace, who were just about to go out trick-or-treating. TTrent grabbed Oliver's hand and the three of them trotted off to get some candy. When Oliver is with Trent, he will do things he would never do with us, like walk up to a perfect stranger and take food from him! He went to about 3 houses and had a few candy bars clutched in his little fists. He was yelling "more candy!" the best part was that when we offered him a little taste of kit kat, he wouldn't even try it! He likes the idea of candy I guess. I will enjoy it while it lasts.
Oliver had one more opportunity to wear his costume - to our PEPs dinner a few days after. It was like hearding cats to get a photos of them this year - last year they just sat there. What a difference a year makes!
It was so fun to see Oliver really get into a holiday and the traditions around it. We are really looking forward to Christmas now...
