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!

Just not into this blog

I know, I've been absent. I've had a lot going on, including another bout of croup for the little guy, a trip to the ER for me with chest pain (I'm fine), Halloween events, pre-Christmas shopping, planning ahead at work and so on and so on. I've had a million blog posts written in my head, and I never seem to get to sit down and write them. I wil be back next week.

So do I want to do NaNoWriMo, starting tomorrow? Leave me a comment and vote.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Stay safe, and may the election's results not scare ya.

Halloween at Casa Christine

As mentioned, Leominster is pretty strict about trick-or-treating between 6 and 8, so I drove home like a banshee to make it in time. I got home at 5:50, made sure the hoses were off the lawn, lit the jack-o-lantern and candles and waited for kid no. 1.

About 6:15, the kiddos started coming. They came in spurts at first, and then around 7, they started coming in waves. My observations:

Funniest costume: A kid in a Yankees shirt who looked like he'd gotten the snot beaten out of him.

Cutest: A princess who pulled up in her pumpkin coach (a specially decked-out wagon), complete with a streamer door.

Rudest: Since we get so many kids (at least 100), I ration the candy pretty strictly -- two pieces a kid. A bunch of kids came to our door, and one of the older boys (about nine) turns to me and says, "Can I tell you something? There's a house up there that lets the kids take four big handfuls of candy." I didn't really know what to say, but turns out the other kids said it for me: "That's rude!" "Don't say that to the lady!" "Make sure you say thank you!" The kid turned nine shades of red and said, "I was just kidding!"

We decided that once 8 hit, we were going to go to dinner. So since we actually had candy left this year (seemed a little lighter than in past years -- any other Leominsterites find the same?), we left the bowl on the steps with the lights on and went out. I persuaded M to give up his beloved peanut butter candy for the bowl, with the rationale of, "If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it's yours."

We came back from dinner and all the candy was intact. So now we have a bunch. For which you'd think a pregnant lady would be grateful, but I discovered last night that excessive amounts of chocolate give me heartburn like you wouldn't believe. I'm sure M will take care of it.

Happy Halloween

How many kids do you get for trick-or-treat? We usually get 100-plus. Leominster's pretty strict about 6-8, so I put the candy out this morning in case there's some kid hammering on my door when I get home from work tonight. My favorites are the little ones.