Daddy’s View

Before I give you all the details of Halloween, let me back up a few days and tell you about “the box”.

Last weekend, Grandma and Grandpa D. visited for the weekend.  Grandpa had a new pair of shoes.  So, of course, he brought the empty box for Eric.  On past visits, Grandma and Grandpa had brought toys and such for Eric, and they used old shoe boxes because they were a convenient size.  Eric enjoyed the boxes at least as much as the gifts that were inside.  Eric played a game with Grandma and Grandpa by putting a toy inside the box and asking, “What’s in the box?”  He then opened the box to reveal the toy.  This caused much laughter and entertainment for Eric and his grandparents.  On this particular visit, Grandpa brought his empty shoe box for Eric.  Eric loved the box.  He played with it for hours.  Even after Grandma and Grandpa left to go home, Eric kept playing with the box.  At one point that evening, he was determined to get in the box.  He layed the box flat and sat in it, but he could not close the lid.  He stood the box up on end and crawled in, but again, he could not close the lid.  Eventually he gave up closing the box and just enjoyed sitting in it.

Tonight, Eric went trick-or-treat-ing for the very first time.  Time had crept away from us today, so I was still in the middle of a household project when 5 O’clock arrived.  I hurried to finish, at least enough to stop, and started getting Eric into his costume.  Mommy was in the kitchen fixing dinner.  Eric had just been up from his nap for a short while, and so he was a little cranky.  It takes him a while to wake up from his naps.  When I asked him if he wanted to put on his costume and go trick-or-treat-ing, he said “no”.  So, we started by changing his clothes to wear his black sweat pants and his black sweatshirt.  It was cold outside, so we needed to be sure he was warm while walking the neighborhood.  After he was dressed, he still was fussing and crying.  He did not want to put on his costume.  Mommy and I were sure that he would enjoy trick-or-treat-ing and getting all the candy, so we dressed him in his costume anyway.  This did not make him happy.

With all the crying and carrying on, I felt guilty making him wear the costume.  I asked Mommy, “Is this child abuse?”  She could not answer for sure.  We went with our instincts and put on our coats to leave the house.  Eric continued with his fits.  He walked and cried all the way to our neighbor’s house.  We rang the bell, and Eric seemed to calm down a little while we waited.  When they did not answer (not home), he got upset when we started to leave their driveway.  I distracted him by asking if he wanted to go across the street.  Two women were sitting in their driveway with a row of Jack-O-Lanterns and some candy bowls.  I pointed to them and asked Eric if he wanted to see the Jack-O-Lanterns.  He cried, “ye-e-es!”  So, we walked over.  They were very nice and complimented Eric on his costume.  He had stopped crying, but continued pouting.  They offered him some candy, and I prompted him to say “trick or treat!”  He hesitated, but finally said it.  He also thanked her for the candy afterward.  By the time we left this first house, Eric had stopped crying and was anxious to “get more candy!”

Eric soon was walking happily from house to house and saying, “trick or treat!” to everyone who answered the door.  He always said “thank you” after receiving the candy.  He repeatedly told Mommy and I to go to the next house for more candy.  At one particular house, the man who answered the door said, “Happy Halloween!” as we were leaving, and Eric replied enthusiastically with the same, “Happy Halloween!”  After a few houses, he started saying “we have to go back to work!” as we left each house.  This had become serious business for Eric.  He was having so much fun!

Mommy and I are glad that we forced him to get started.  He really did have fun.  His costume was very popular.  Everyone made many good comments about it.  People were impressed with its originality and of course how cute he was in it!  Grandma D. had made this costume about 20 years ago for my niece, who was about Eric’s age at the time.  It is a perfect fit for Eric.  Many compliments were given to Eric for his costume.

Eric was in a much better mood after trick-or-treat-ing!  We can hardly wait for next year!

Here is a picture of our Jack-O-Lanterns sitting across our front porch.

Thursday night, we watched the classic Peanuts Halloween special.  Eric watched some of it and ignored some of it.  But yesterday, when Mommy mentioned the “Great Pumpkin”, Eric recognized it and kept repeating, “It’s the Great Pumpkin!”.  He ran into the office where I was on the computer, and he told me all about the “Great Pumpkin”.

This afternoon, we went shopping at Costco.  On our way home, we stopped at another store to pick up some vitamins.  When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a big setup for Halloween.  They had a big bouncing castle, a basketball hoop, and some other games for kids to play.  Mommy ran into the vitamin store while Eric and I parked the car.  Of course, Eric immediately noticed the bouncing castle and wanted to go.  I got in the back seat to help him out, and we waited for Mommy to get back.  Mommy asked on the way back to the car how much it cost, and she was told that it was all free.  The karate school in the strip mall was providing all of the activities for the kids.  We went inside the school to get a ticket for the castle.  It was free, but we needed to get a ticket.  When we went in, we were greeted by a very friendly young girl who was painting faces.  Eric initially said “no.”  but after I explained to him what it was and pointed out another boy with his face painted, he agreed to get his face done.  Now he had to decide what to have painted.  We finally settled on a red star.  After his face was decorated with the star, we went outside to play in the castle.  We waited for another kid to get out, so Eric could go in.  They were limiting the number of kids inside the castle.  Eric climbed in and immediately wanted to get out.  The other kids in the castle were much older than him, and they were running and jumping wildly.  So, Eric climbed out and immediately wanted to go back in.  Mommy and I helped him climb in again.  This time, Mommy stayed just inside the entrance and held onto him while he stood up.  I went around to the side and waved at him.  He let go of Mommy and started to walk toward me.  He was having a great time.  He bounced up and down.  Then the other boys ran past him, and he wanted to get out again.  Eric really enjoyed himself, despite the bigger kids.

Tonight, we carved our pumpkins.  This is Eric’s first time.  He will also go trick-or-treat-ing for the first time tomorrow evening.  Eric and I picked out 3 pumpkins at the store a couple of weeks ago.  They have been sitting on our front porch, just waiting to be carved.

We started with Eric’s pumpkin.  I cut out the top, and Eric and I scooped out the seeds and other “gooey” stuff.  Eric thought this was really cool!  Even though he did not really touch the “gooey” stuff.  He did use his spoon to “scoop” out some of the innards.  He also helped to draw the face and other designs on the pumpkin.  I did all of the actual carving.  Eric’s pumpkin turned out very nice…and scary! (insert evil laugh here)

Next we carved Mommy’s pumpkin.  Eric helped with drawing the face and other designs on the pumpkin.  Mommy drew a really frightening face on her pumpkin.  I did my best to carve the curved lines that she so artfully drew.  Mommy did not draw the mouth, but gave some very vague directions as to how she wanted it to look.  I improvised, and Mommy liked it!  Eric again helped with scooping out the “gooey” stuff…without actually touching the “gooey” stuff.

Time for bed, so I will have to carve my pumpkin without Eric’s help.  I wonder if it will be scary…or funny…or just ordinary?  We will have to wait and see.

Be sure to check again after tomorrow night for a full report on Eric’s first trick-or-treat-ing experience.  Mommy and Daddy are very excited!  Eric is also looking forward to it.  He has been watching all of the Halloween episodes of his favorite cartoons.

Check Eric’s website for the video of his pumpkin carving.  It is a must see video!

It has been so long since I posted that I almost forgot to include this event.  (See my earlier post from this evening.)

Aunt Deborah and Uncle Jeff had their annual party last month.  Mommy did not feel good with her allergies really acting up, so Eric and I went by ourselves.  We had a lot of fun.  Eric played with the bean bag toss after the adults were finished with the serious games.  He enjoyed tossing the bags into the hole.  Even more, he enjoyed rolling a ball into the hole.  The ball belonged to Lady.

Lady is Aunt Bev’s and Uncle Mike’s new puppy.  She is adorable!  Eric loved playing with her!  He tossed her ball to her and played with her toy bone.  Eric also made a “tunnel” for Lady to crawl through by standing with his legs spread apart.  Eric loves tunnels.  Mommy and Daddy are constantly making tunnels with our legs while standing, sitting, or crawling.  Eric and Lady played for a long while.  They both had lots of fun!

Eric has started playing computer games.  Mommy convinced me to let him play some games by himself on the computer.  Up until now, I just let him watch and point to things on the screen as we browsed some of the kid sites.  We browsed to the NickJr website for kids, and Eric played the Max and Ruby hide and seek game.  He has a little trouble with the mouse, since it is so much bigger than his little hand.  Every time he tries to click the mouse button, the mouse moves.  He is also clicking the right button frequently when trying to click the left button.  This just confuses him when strange menus and other things pop up on the screen.  Mommy and I are looking for a smaller kid-friendly mouse for him to use.  Eric is having so much fun and feeling very independent with his new entertainment.  Daddy supervises closely, especially since he still needs some guidance on how to use the mouse and when or where to click.

Mommy and Daddy went out of town this past weekend.  I took a 4 day weekend from work to spend some time with Mommy and Eric.  Eric spent Friday and Saturday night at Aunt Carol’s house with Uncle Rob and Tyler.  He had so much fun.  He was very happy to see us when we went to pick him up on Sunday afternoon, but he did not want to leave.  He was stuck between a pillow and a soft place 🙂  Mommy and I bought Eric a new toy train while we were travelling.  It is one of the wooden tracks with the magnetic-coupled cars.  We bought it at an IKEA store.  I opened it for Eric this afternoon, and he loves it!  He played with it for hours until bed time.  I had to nearly drag him kicking and screaming to take a bath.  Eric normally loves to take a bath and rarely resists.  He usually will drop whatever toy he is playing with and run to the bathroom at the first mention of a bath.  But tonight, he really did not want to take a bath.  Of course once in the bath, he settled down and had fun.  After his bath was finished, straight to the train again!  Chugga Chugga Choo Chooo!

This morning, I took Eric to the doctor to get his flu shot.  Mommy had her own doctor appointment, so I took Eric.  When I woke up this morning, it occurred to me that we had a conflict with transportation.  Mommy’s car has a dead battery.  We discovered this last Thursday night, but we had not been home to do anything about it.  We left Friday morning and returned yesterday evening.  The problem:  Mommy needs to drive the Lincoln, but I also need to take Eric.  Mommy can only drive an automatic transmission, so she could not take my Camaro.  But the Lincoln has the car seat for Eric.  I woke up this morning and immediately put the charger on Mommy’s car, but a couple hours later it was not showing any sign of taking a charge.  So, I asked Eric if he wanted to ride in Daddy’s purple car.  He said, “Yes!”, and he jumped up to go for the door.  Okay, so this plan was going to work.  I went outside and moved the car seat from the Lincoln into the Camaro.  The cars were ready.  We had just finished breakfast (Daddy made pancakes, of course!), so we started getting Eric dressed to go.  He is getting very excited about riding in Daddy’s purple car.  This is the first time he will get to ride in it.  He talks about Daddy’s cars all the time!  “Daddy’s purple car” (the Camaro),  “Daddy’s orange car” (older Camaro), and “Daddy’s brown car!” (the Lincoln).  The car seat fit nicely in the back seat on the passenger side.  I moved the front passenger seat all the way forward to give him plenty of “kick room”.  Eric talked about the purple car the whole time we were at the doctor’s office.  He was really excited!

When we got back from the doctor, we took another look at Mommy’s car.  The charger appeared to be working now.  Apparently the battery needed to warm up a little before taking a charge.  It had sat for almost 2 weeks with the headlight switch in the ON position.  I had been driving the Camaro to work for some time, so Mommy had been driving the Lincoln, instead of her little Mazda.  Anyway, Eric was eager to help, so I explained to him that we were fixing Mommy’s car, and we needed to see the green light on the charger.  He said, “It is only yellow!”  I agreed and explained that we needed to wait, and we could check it again later.  So, we checked it frequently, and each time Eric would say, “It’s not green yet!” or “It’s only yellow!”  After we checked a few times, he started reminding me to check it.  “Let’s check Mommy’s car!”, he would say very enthusiastically, and we would both go over to check the charger lights.  Most times I did not check them myself, I just asked him if it was fixed yet.  “No, not yet.  It’s not green!  It’s yellow!”  He is such a good helper!