Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Although it's been many years since my trick-or-treating days, I can still remember the excitement of dressing up and going door-to-door wondering how much candy I would bring home. This year was just the beginning of this type of fun for Eli. For the past two years, Eli has participated in Halloween festivities like pumpkin patches, costume parades, Halloween parties, and pumpkin carvings, but until this year, he has never really been trick or treating or had any say in his Halloween costume. I'm sure he would have never picked out this pumpkin head himself, and I'm sure he will one day ask, "Mom, why did you put that on me?"

October 2007, Eli's First Halloween, 4 Months Old

October 2008, Eli's Second Halloween, 16 Months Old

Costumes sure have changed since I was a kid. Everyone always wore those plastic looking costumes that came with a mask. Wearing those masks always made condensation build up behind the mask. Do they even make those anymore? Eli's costume this year was adorable, and he picked it out himself. We went shopping in search of the perfect Halloween costume. When we didn't find anything at the Halloween store or Babies R Us, we ventured over to Marshall's where we saw a cuddly puppy dog costume. Eli wanted it immediately, so we went to the dressing room to try it on. I didn't think I was going to like it, but when I put it on him, I just laughed and laughed. It looked so cute on him. It was settled! Eli would be a dog for Halloween. He didn't want to take off the costume, so I took the tag off and did the rest of my shopping with a little puppy by my side.

Bella's costume was equally adorable. She was a little lady bug. This was her first time wearing tights. She looked so precious. She did not like the ladybug hat, but it was just too cute not to put on her. She got used to it after a while. It's like cute shoes that really hurt your feet, even if they are uncomfortable you have to wear them if they look good.



The week of Halloween, we carved our pumpkin. This was a very dirty pumpkin, so Eli gave it a sink bath.

After bathing the pumpkin, I told Eli that I was going to cut into the top of the pumpkin first. Eli became worried that I was going to hurt the pumpkin with the knife. After assuring him that the pumpkin could not feel pain, the carving began. Eli did not like the feel of the pumpkin guts and wanted me to pull everything out!

He did like using the spoon to dig out the seeds, and he enjoyed blowing out the candle inside the pumpkin over and over.

The next night, he wanted to carve another pumpkin, so we did.


Bella did not participate in pumpkin carvings this year. Sorry Bella! We did all of this after she was in bed. Next year, Stephen will be home and we can all carve pumpkins together. After having a lot of trouble taking the top off of the big pumpkin, I decided that pumpkin carving is a Daddy thing to do anyway.

Before going trick or treating, we went to Publix and to Whitesburg Baptist Church. We all had a good time walking around Publix watching Eli play the various games they had set up throughout the store. He was, of course, good at the games having to do with throwing and tossing. We all took turns holding Bella. Everyone, of course, commented on how cute she looked in her costume. Uncle James flew her around for a little while.

There was so much to at Whitesburg, but it was way too crowded. We walked around but didn't really do much. Mom did win some cupcakes in the cake walk, and Eli found a bear that he just loved. After seeing him once, he kept asking about him. We spotted him just before we left. Eli ran to him and was amazed by the bear all over again. Eli loves his Eddie the Teddy. Maybe he thought it was a giant Eddie?

As it grew dark outside, it was now time to begin trick-or-treating. I have to say there were so many people, too many people, in our neighborhood! People were driving their kids into the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. This made for a lot of sidewalk traffic. Eli was amazed, looking at everyone's costumes. He would look around and tell me, "Too much people out here." As we approached the first house, I was wondering what Eli would say when the door opened. He has a Halloween shirt that reads, "Trick or treat, smell my feet." When I asked him what he was going to say when he went trick-or-treating, that is the phrase he would repeat. I was happy to only hear, "Trick or treat," come out of his mouth when we went to that first house. We were only going to go to a few houses, but I kept hearing, "Let's trick-or-treat some more," so we ended up walking around the entire block. About half way around the block, we walked up to a house, just as we had done before, but this house was different. It had fog covering the sidewalk, spooky music playing, and a lot of decorations. As we walked through the fog, a person holding a candy bowl was walking toward us. I looked up and saw something similar to this. I wondered if it would scare Eli because it kind of scared me!

Eli must have really been focused on that candy bowl because he didn't notice the scary mask at first. When he did, he dropped his bucket and began taking steps backwards, away from the scary man. Since then, he has been talking about this scary mask. Anytime I ask him to tell someone about Halloween, this is the first thing he talks about. Oh brother! By the end of our 40 minute journey around the block, I was carrying Eli, who grew tired of walking.

The night ended with Uncle James coming by to show us his costume. It looked really good on him, but not as good at is it looked on Stephen when he was a gangster for Halloween several years ago. What a fun Halloween! Next year will be even better because Stephen will be here to enjoy it with us!