Halloween

By the time Halloween rolled around, Mac and I were both suffering from some serious inadequate parent guilt. I had been telling Megan we'd carve pumpkins for three days, but we still hadn't gotten around to it. And Mac forgot to send Megan to school in a costume for the Halloween party the day before.

So by Halloween, we were ready to put forth some serious Halloween-is-going-to-rock effort. In the afternoon, Mac dressed Megan up and took her to a local park Halloween fest, where Megan pretty much shied away from all the activities. When I got home from work, dammit, you better believe we were carving a pumpkin. Megan spent te entire time waiting to get out the paint to make a face. My "Ta-da! it's a Jack-o-lantern!" was met with a completely non-plussed stare and another inquiry about the paint. In the end, I let Megan paint two of the birdhouse gourds from our garden. She did get a bit more enthusiastic over Jack when she learned she got to blow out the candle.

Later we drove to a small neighborhood and hit about ten houses. I was surprised that Megan was more excited about ringing doorbells than getting candy. The activity was a good social exercise for Megan, who did a great job answering questions about her name, costume, age, etc. and with dispensing the niceties such as thank you and happy Halloween (with a few cues). Plus Megan was very impressed by all the new construction houses. At every stop, Megan would comment,"This is a nice house." or "This is a nice plant" or the ultimate compliment,"This is a nice doorbell."

Our parenting guilt was assuaged by our high blood sugar levels at the end of the night!