This Halloween: Less spooky, more cutie

When I was a kid, I used to really love horror movies. One of my best friends and I would rent 'em from the video store (remember those?) after school. Really gross stuff, too, like supposed snuff films. They used to scare the shit out of me, and I loved it. I also used to obsessively read Stephen King, flipping through the pages with a flashlight under the covers until there was no hope of me ever going to sleep.

Now, all this means I've always been a really big fan of Halloween. The gory and the creepy were some of my favorite parts. I'd deck my house out with tombstones and all kinds of creatures of the night and gleefully pass out (and eat) the candy.

This year, things are a little different.

My son is almost 22 months old. He's walking and talking and aware of a lot more things than he was last Halloween. We walked into Lowe's the other day and the greeter asked him if he liked spooky stuff. Before he could answer, she showed him a severed head. I thought he was going to fall out of the cart. And in a related story, he keeps telling me he doesn't like the "spookies," including the hanging ghoul between my garage bays that he comments on every time we drive past it.

So I've toned it way down this year. I have a skeleton in my front yard, but he's more cute than scary. There are lots of pumpkins and fall colors around. His costume is fuzzy and adorable: A monkey, complete with tail and a "be-nana" in the pocket. I shield him from the spookies in the store, because he tries to climb out of the cart when he sees them. And what I'm finding is, all of this is making me like the "spookies" a lot less, too. Ah, motherhood.

Happy Halloween! Eat lots and lots of candy!