Halloween 2013!

James didn't understand Halloween (or much of anything) the last two years. This year, however, thanks to some very Halloween-themed Disney cartoons, he was talking non-stop about bats, spiders, ghosts, and witches. He wished me a "Happy Halloween," on an almost daily basis. He talked about his pirate costume, and other costumes the cartoons were wearing. He heard "Trick-or-treat" a few times, but had no real sense of what that meant. Kevin played Halloween music for him to dance around to.

James trying out his pirate costume before Halloween

It is November 1st now, and even though we have told him several times that Halloween is over, he continues to wish us a Happy Halloween, ask us to wear his costume, and ask to go trick-or-treating. It's going to be a long November.

Adding to his confusion is that he was lucky enough to get to celebrate Halloween twice this year. First, he spent Saturday afternoon in Arlington, Virginia with Jaime, Janice, Darren, and Fudgie, wearing his costume at a local kids' Halloween festival.

Walking over with godmama Janice in Arlington, VA

I just love him so much.

I didn't want to be creepy and photograph kids I didn't know, but here's James and his favorite dog Fudgie.

Fudgie as a spider- James is showing him his parrot

We let him enjoy the playground in costume too, which resulted in some wear-and-tear on the costume. But whatever, pirates often look a little castaway.

Pirate on the swing

Digging for treasure in the sand pit

Enjoying Janice's candy stash with Darren, Janice, and Jaime

Then on the actual day of Halloween, James got to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood for the first time ever! We had a little practice run before we left the house, asking him to say "Trick-or-treat!", take only one piece of candy, and say "Thank you," but that's a lot of steps and he didn't get the whole system correct at any of the houses we went to in our neighborhood. We ended up saying it for him mostly.

He loved every minute of it though, and he had no complaints about the number of houses we visited. His main issue was that he was able to take the candy himself and put it in his bag without assistance. This sometimes took forever, but he had a little fit if we tried to help.

Practice run at our place

The careful art of putting candy in your bag

Heading out

James really enjoyed the decorations.

We lost his hat from Saturday, but since I used to be huge into Halloween myself, I had another hat from my costume in 2006. Kevin said, "It's a little disorienting that last time I saw this hat it was on a sexy pirate girl."

James leading the charge.

So cute, his bag hardly has anything in it but it's "too heavy"

He still didn't totally "get" candy. While he was pleased checking out and counting his little stash when he got home, he seemed to think the pieces of candy were actually toys. He understood the popcorn, pretzels, and the lollipop from past experience, but the chocolate was mostly a mystery, and his favorite item was a Halloween-themed Ziplock baggie.

Checking out his candy haul

Fell asleep early but didn't want to give up his lollipop before bed!

Happy Halloween from the 3.5 Clous!

See James's first Halloween 2011 and the Hurricane Sandy Halloween 2012.