The Holub Times: "Tick-o-Teet!"

As usual, this Halloween post is a bit delinquent, but what can I say...better late than never, right? At least it's going up before Thanksgiving!

AJ loved Fall and everything Halloween this year. He noticed the leaves turning colors at the parks and on our walks, he pointed out the pumpkins on everyone's stoops, and he talked non-stop about "halloween bats" (as opposed to baseball bats).

The week of Halloween, Andy and I took him up to Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm, the same place we went for our pumpkin last year. This year AJ knew what was going on, though! He said, "pumpkin faaaarm!" all the way there, and when we got there he was all about the "yude (huge) pumpkin" on top of the silo.

Last year we basically just propped him up in the pumpkin pile, but this year he was all over the place! Luckily we went on a weekday, so the place was all but empty and it was pretty easy to keep track of him. AJ loved climbing into the wooden fire engine and the farm truck and pretending to drive. How exciting! He is so funny, turning the steering wheel and making the appropriate truck sounds. Other than the enormous tractors at the MSI (see previous posts), these were probably the most life-sized trucks he has ever gotten to "drive". AJ then picked out a perfectly cute little pumpkin for himself.

We also saw a bunch of animals like pigs, sheep, goats, llamas and chickens, but for some reason I can't upload the video of AJ and I feeding the goats. He loved it. I was repulsed. I think in the clip you can even hear me say, "disgusting" after the goat licked the seeds out of my hand, leaving behind his gross saliva. Next year Andy can feed the animals and I will man the camera. Afterward, I did get to wash my hands, and then we had lunch and left with the pumpkin and some delicious apple cider doughnuts, YUM!

On Friday, Halloween started out with a trip in costume to a big park near my old studio space.

AJ was a carrot this year (I know, I have some kind of fixation with orange vegetables...don't worry, next year he'll probably want to be Thomas the Train or something) and this is the costume in transition. Note the darker color of the hat. I had made an earlier version of the carrot suit via a different method and Andy and I decided it wasn't "OK" since we couldn't stop laughing when we tried it on AJ the night before. Let's just say it was a little too phallic.

So this is the next morning and I made the suit but was unable to make the new hat. No one cared, and AJ actually kept the hat on the whole time at the park! The party there was for my Stay at Home Mom's meetup group (SAHMs for short) and it was so fun. Tons of kids running around a park in costume is the perfect recipe for laughter.

Here AJ is playing on the equipment and going up for another turn on the slide with Elvis, a ladybug and a skunk. I have become friends with a lot of these moms, and it was so fun to see all our kids playing together and commenting on each other's costumes! Our friend Nancy was there too with her daughter Izzy and she was the cutest ballerina. Afterward, we headed home to rest up for the big night...

Here's AJ in his complete costume with matching orange felt hat.
My mom and Andy both ended up getting in on the trick-or-treating experience, as we took AJ to my friend Kate's old neighborhood near Ashland and Montrose. Since our neighborhood has lots of apartments and sketchy houses, I decided to take her up on her offer to meet us in her old 'hood, which she said was a great place to bring little kids. We started AJ off by telling him to say, "Trick-or-Treat", then putting his candy in the (my) bag, saying thank you and then telling the people, "Happy Halloween" on our way back to the sidewalk.

He picked up on it pretty fast, and after a few houses he was a pro. Some people mistook him for a pumpkin (a thin, pointy pumpkin?), but most people got it and said he was a very cute little carrot. He went to way more houses than I thought he would, and we worked our way all the way up and down the street!

AJ was very interested in everyone's decorations, and wanted to get a closer look by walking on everyone's lawns! He moves fast these days, and that's why most of my pictures are of his back. Good thing I made a 2-sided costume!

When Kate and her husband Carlos caught up to us with their son, Emilio, Emilio was not into wearing his costume. He was ok, however, with wearing AJ's carrot hat, so the two of them walked down the sidewalk together and shared the costume.

They were so cute! Here they are investigating a big pumpkin decoration. Kate was right and this was an awesome neighborhood to trick-or-treat in. Almost every house was participating and they were all decorated, some even had music and smoke machines! There were so many kids walking around in costumes it looked like a movie set, as I had never seen so many trick or treaters out in one place at one time before. What fun!