Baby Gator: Baby's first Halloween

Yesterday was Olive's first Halloween. I went back and forth between feeling like we should make a big deal out of Halloween, and feeling like we should just be low key. On the one hand she is 7 months old, she doesn't have a clue, and we could have gotten away without celebrating at all. On the other hand, it's her first Halloween, and maybe we should have made a really big deal out of it, gone to the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins with her, taken her to Halloween event(s) over the weekend. Instead, we found a happy medium; we got her a curious George monkey costume from Once Upon a Child for $5 (score!) and went to the Patrick/Emmert Halloween Party.

The Patrick/Emmert Halloween Party is thrown by the family I used to nanny for here in Atlanta. I began working with them when their oldest, Grace had just turned 3; now Grace is 12. It's amazing how time flies.

Anyway, every year they throw this great, very family friendly Halloween Party on Halloween. It's from 5-6:30; the last time I went it consisted of George, grilling hot dogs, and people bringing side dishes to share. Now it consists of George making pulled pork, sausage, brisket, and a bunch of other meats I don't remember (meat is still not my strong suit). Plus sides, and all kinds of cookies, and cupcakes. We brought Mark's famous mac & cheese to share. The food was delicious, and it was lots of fun seeing people and kids I hadn't seen in a couple of years. And of course Olive got to take part in her first Halloween parade, when all the kids march around the cul de sac in their costumes. Olive managed to enthrall the cutest little boy with down syndrome, and he held her hand as we marched.

We were actually running late yesterday. Mark got stuck at work later than usual, so I had to pick the baby, and my students were all kinds of nutty yesterday (probably due the excitement of Halloween), and of course we got stuck in traffic on the way there. We finally arrived around 5:45, Olive was immediately confiscated from me by George, and she was completely happy to be passed around from person to person. We received several compliments about what a happy baby she is. Which is funny to me, not because she was such an unhappy baby before, but in last couple of months she has just become so congenial. She smiles at people a lot and just in general seems to be happy a much larger percent of the time than she as before.

Overall, I would say Olive's first Halloween was a booming success. Even though Mark and I had both had stressful days, it was the perfect laid back way to celebrate Halloween; without feeling overwhelmed.