Today is Halloween and as Walker was going to bed he told us that he had a “happy day.” Thank goodness. We’ve been preparing him for Halloween over the last few weeks. We read him stories about the holiday, talked to him about Trick or Treats and put his Batman costume on a few times. (You will note that he is not wearing the Batman costume. He put it on twice for no more than 30 seconds each time — not even long enough for us to get more than a Walker sized Batman smear across the digital photos — despite the fact he talked about being Batman for Halloween.)

Walker has decided the holiday has some scary parts to it. He has us change the channel when the “I don’t like Candy Corn” song comes on TV on Noggin. He gets nervous when it’s dark and talks about monsters (and he talks about the monsters in the back yard during daylight too…) And as mentioned before, he’s not terribly receptive to wearing a costume. So, we’ve taken to making costumes out of things he’s familiar with. Last weekend he went to Boo at the Zoo as a Zookeeper and wore his “Junior Zookeeper” vest (which he wears every time we go to the zoo) but we embellished it with his safari hat and a few Beanie Babies

Today we decided we’d whip up a Construction Worker costume. As I was trying to get him dressed, again trying to convince Walker that wearing underwear and pants is required before venturing outside, he brings in the Batman costume and says, “let’s go Halloween.” Well, OK. That was unexpected. I pick up the costume and he says, “NO! NO!” and then won’t let us remove his Captain Spooky shirt or put anything on over it. So, Walker created his own Pirate Construction Worker and he owned it as he knocked on doors.

For knocking on only a few doors, Walker came home with quite a significant candy stash. We’ve decided to borrow a wonderful tradition a good friend established with his kids — the Switch Witch. She comes on Halloween and takes kids’ candy but leaves a present in return. We sat Walker down and told him all about the history of the Witch and how she would bring him something really nice in exchange for the candy. He was fine with taking out all his candy and choosing the two pieces he could keep (he chose his favorite — lollipops) but when we went out on the deck to leave the bucket, he got very scared and asked to go to bed. (Larry and I told the Switch Witch that Walker would very much like a Thomas the Tank Engine Lego set. We’re hoping that’s what Walker will find under his empty Thomas the Tank Engine candy bucket.)

Despite going to a truly fantastic pumpkin patch last weekend — it had a small choo choo train, pony rides, an amphitheater made of hay with sword-fights and magic shows, and an enormous hay maze with a Minotaur who gives out golden gourds (Walker calls it a “Minotorn”) — we didn’t have a pumpkin. So we bought one at the very last minute and whipped up a bat in five minutes with some black construction paper and toothpicks. Walker loved it.

He had a happy day.

Cold and Flu
About two weeks ago, I wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t have the flu but when I awoke, I was not eager to jump out of bed. Walker was up and running around and I absentmindely mentioned I was cold. I hear Larry say to Walker, “Yeah, that’s the one.” The next thing I know, I see my small boy walk into his room wrestling a very large red sweatshirt. He’s trying to hold it up as the arms are falling down and threatening to trip him at any moment. He sheepishly walks over and hands me the sweatshirt and I was so surprised. I didn’t recall saying I was cold and I was convinced he was a mind reader. I embarrassed him by how much I was proud of his thoughtfulness. I gave him lots of hugs. The next day he woke up and immediately brought me my sweatshirt.

Barricades and stairs
As mentioned before, Walker has definite opinions about many things. He continues to demand that I wear my hair in a ponytail — even voicing concern that it’s not up from the moment I step out of the shower. He’s also taken to telling Larry and me where we should stand when we play. One day, he wanted us to play in his room but I had to go out and make his breakfast. As I walked toward the door, he quickly shut it and stood in front of it. That was the first of many human barricades he’s taken to creating in order to get his point across.

It’s not just the human barricades we have to maneuver. Walker has two wooden step stools he’s been moving around the house in order to reach the light switches — he must turn on all the lights in the morning because he’s afraid of the dark — or to get on the bed or wash his hands and brush his teeth. The stools are large and heavy and he must move both in tandem which generally means he has one and either Larry or I must move the other and place it on the floor to his exact specifications. While he can step up on both — one is tall and square, the other is short and long — he likes to have them next to each other so he can step up on one to the other. He also likes to stand on them and play ball in the hall. Suffice it to say, Larry and I must do some reconnaissance before turning in at night to ensure we don’t stub toes or trip and break an important bone or two.