Shades of Gray: Halloween with a Toddler

I'll admit it.

I totally glorified Halloween in my head.

I had these illusions that Brooks, Kevin, and I would be strolling through our neighborhood, hand in hand, visiting with all of our fav neighbors. We would also get some quality family pictures that would be IDEAL baby book material.

However, I never took in the account ANY of the following...

1. The weather forecast

Rookie move.

Of course it was the coldest Halloween we've had in 18 years, complete with a lovely rain & sleet mix.

PERFECT weather for a 16 month old, who walks around like a drunk sailor 90% of the time, to clomp around in, right?

Furthermore, romping around in 28 degrees is 110% miserable for a parent too.

Why on Earth Kevin & I didn't think to take ~~cocktails~~ Hot Chocolate with us was a huge fail.

Thats obviously the only way to get through such an event.

No wonder all of the other parents looked so happy & calm as they accompanied their children around our neighborhood.

Hmmmm...I wonder if thats how my parents dealt with the craziness of Halloween all of those years?

2. I love his costume, but does Brooks?

Well, HELLLLLL NO, he didn't like his costume.

What land of delusion was I living in, thinking that he was gonna be thrilled to wear massive Mickey Mouse ears all night?

EARTH TO CAROLINE. Homeboy will barely keep a hat on in 20 degree weather, let alone a headband with Mouse Ears.

I also didn't take into consideration that drawing a black mouse nose on the child would take an act of Congress to accomplish.

Once again, another clown move on my part- little man doesn't sit still for more than 2 minutes ever, so why I thought it would be easy to draw something on his face is beyond me.

Heres a pic, pre-Mouse nose....

He's still decently happy, right?

Here's post Mouse nose....

Holy Hell, attitude. The nose clearly cramped his style.

Yall would have thought we were strangling him, given how loud & dramatic his screams were.

Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

3. We were gonna wind up with the CUTEST family Halloween pics ever.

Once again, my little fantasy world completely got the best of me with that unattainable thought.

It is damn near impossible to get a great picture of Brooks on a normal day.

Add in a full costume, a sugar high from candy, AND the door bell ringing constantly?
Trifecta of Terrible.

Lets put it like this...

Kev & I have a better chance of winning America's Next Top Model, Couples Edition vs. getting a fabulous family picture with everyone smiling at the same time.
Not to mention the fact that by the time all the festivities were over, I felt like I had run a flipping marathon.
Between working that day, buying candy, fixing dinner, wrestling his wild tail into his costume, and rushing him to the neighbors homes before we got soaked, it's kind of a miracle that I was still able to keep my eyes open & my makeup hadn't totally gone to hell in a handbag.

The only halfway decent picture we were able to get was accomplished by bribing Brooks with a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode and Marshmellows.
Don't judge me.
In all honesty, I'd tap dance in a Mickey Costume, while juggling flaming batons, if I thought it would make Brooks smile for any length of time & we could get a quality picture.

On the flip side......

Halloween wasn't a total waste.

-Brooks LOVED watching all of the Trick or Treaters come to our door.

-He would get sooooo excited to hear the door bell ring/knocking, and then he LOVED putting candy in their treat buckets.

(Brooks might have also tried to ditch us & run after some of the kids that were wearing cool costumes at various points throughout the night. While I tried to tell him that his moves were slightly stalkerish, I can't say I blame him. Those Duck Dynasty outfits were pretty legit.)

-He also got a huge kick out of putting the Mickey Mouse Ears on EVERYONE, but himself.