Happy Halloween!

It was Peanut's first Halloween, and he spent it surrounded by family...and monkeys! :)The first time we ever discussed Halloween, we knew we wanted to dress P up as a peanut, for obvious reasons. However, to our dismay, we couldn't find a peanut costume to fit our little Peanut...well, that's not entirely true. There was a peanut costume out there, but it was fairly intense, as the only part of our Peanut that would have shown through their peanut costume would have been his face. While I'm sure it would have been precious to see those sparkling blue eyes framed by a peanut costume, it just wasn't a possibility for the following reason: our child HATES clothes going over his head. HATES it. While one might assume that this is a learned behavior from having one too many shirts get stuck on his 75th percentile-sized head, I can tell you that I believe it to be an inherited trait, as I used to be terrified of getting stuck in my clothing when I was little and HATED things that had to go over my head, so I can totally empathize with the little guy.

With that being said, we decided that trying to get this full-contact peanut costume on and off P several times as we made our way around the metroplex to see his adoring fans, in addition to him experiencing the sensation of a piece of clothing that just wouldn't fit over his head, could all add up to a nervous breakdown for him...and us. So instead, we took our inspiration for somewhere else.

You may not know this, but I am married to a model. Those blue eyes that my baby inherited from his dad made his dad some money back in the day. That's right. J was a baby model...and a darn cute one at that, and one of the tricks used to get J's attention at photo shoots was a sock monkey. Well, that sock monkey stayed around long after the cameras were gone. I learned of the sock monkey while we were dating, and I even received a necklace for a Christmas present around the neck of this sock monkey 6 months before we got engaged.

So the sock monkey has some history, which I like. So when we decided the peanut costume wasn't going to fly, we opted for the next best thing...but it turned out the next best thing still had a design flaw. There was a hat involved. Never mind that our child wore a hat all the time this summer. For some reason, the hat portion of this costume drove him crazy, and the moment you put the hat on, his little hand would fly up to rip it off. This would not be that big of a deal, except for the fact that the hat really was the costume. Without the hat, our baby was just dressed in a weird bodysuit. The hat was kind of crucial, but P didn't seem to get that memo.

Each time he ripped the hat off it kind of looked like a Broadway move...just replace the monkey-faced beanie with a top hat.

This is right before he turns into a kid wearing a weird bodysuit... sitting on the front porch...surrounded by monkeys.

We started off the evening with a visit from Grandma Judy and Pops (who somehow managed to escape without being photographed with the little monkey/ kid in a weird bodysuit (depending on the timing)).
And while they weren't photographed, they were nice enough to take this picture of our little family. :)

Then we headed over to Aunt KiKi and Uncle Bear's house where we were joined by GiGi and Gramps! I love this picture...what a face! I'm sure he's thinking something like, "Why are you all staring at me? Haven't you ever seen a kid in a weird bodysuit before?"

See? Without the hat, the costume is nondescript. Maybe he could have passed for an astronaut?

Dad's loving hands might also be holding P's arms down for the photo-op...

"Oy! How many of the pictures are you going to take, Mom?"

"Why are you all looking at me like that?"
"Do you think they can tell I'm not really one of them?"

Stoic sock monkey.

He loved seeing his GiGi and Gramps.

"I know I acted like I didn't want to wear the hat, but now that she has it on, I'm questioning myself..."

You know your Aunt is crazy about you when she'll wear your sock monkey beanie for a picture.

With dad. :)

Then we made our way over to Grammy Share and Gpa Ron's house. In this picture, P is playing with the doorknob, a favorite past-time. I love it because the ghost hanger that is on that doorknob was something that K and I fought over as kids. There was a black cat and a white ghost, and we both wanted the white ghost on our door...thanks, Mom, for always having - and continuing to have!-such fun Halloween decorations.

Hanging out with Grammy Share and Gpa Ron.

The all-important hat.

"You look awfully familiar..."
P is pictured here with the original sock monkey.

Cheese! :)

A happy bunch.
Sweet monkey.

Doing one of his moves where he tilts his head from one side to the other...kind of looks like something a dog would do. :)

The whole family!

This picture was taken to show that the sock monkey costume came complete with a removable tail...but I'm much more entertained by the faces on my dad and J. :)

Very excited about his candy corn balloon. :)

We finally made it home close to 7:45, just in time to get hit up by some trick-or-treaters. :) We were actually doing pretty well until Justin opened two more bags of candy, and then, of course, the knocks on the door ceased. Guess we'll just have to eat Snickers and Reese's PB cups for breakfast. Sigh.

It's weird to think that this time last year, there was no Peanut, and I was looking like I had been eating too much Halloween candy. :) Even without a little person in years past, J and I had some Halloween traditions. For the past 6 years we've always carved a jack-o-lantern, eaten some kind of soup/chili for dinner, and watched Halloween classic movies from our childhood (like Garfield's Halloween and It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown), but this year was different.

This year we got to dress up a little person and parade him around and take pictures of him and open up his trick-or-treat bag and say "Trick or Treat!" and then eat his candy. :) This year we didn't have time to carve a pumpkin or make soup, but thankfully, mom and dad had carved one so Parker could "experience" it, and Halloween didn't fall on a Sunday this year, so we could eat at Chick-fil-a. :) And to really change things up, we didn't watch our classic movies (although we did watch Hocus Pocus, an old Disney movie I remembered loving...I think my taste may have changed :)). And even though it was different, it was still great, in fact, it was better...because this year we had a little peanut (make that sock monkey/ baby in a weird bodysuit (depending on your timing)) to share it with.

Happy Halloween!!! :)