Trick or Treat...Can I Fix Your Door?

So after last year's debacle when AJ did not want to wear his costume, I took a note from my friend's page and decided that it would be a good idea to come up with a costume this year that involved everyday clothes plus a few extra props that he could carry around if he felt like it. The natural fit was something with his beloved tools, which led to Bob the Builder. AJ has reached a point where he can talk about something that will happen in the future and get that it is coming but is not today, and for about two weeks when we discussed Halloween and how he was going to dress up as Bob the Builder, he was pretty psyched. Even more psyched when we discussed that people would give him candy if he rang their doorbells and just said trick or treat. When we talked about how he would carry around his tools, he got the idea that Halloween involved a pah-ject when he would fix things, and he came up with the idea that he was supposed to ring doorbells and offer to fix people's doors for candy. "Trick or treat...can I fix your door?!?...Then I'm gonna bam! bam! bam! on their doors with my hammer!!" Points for enthusiasm, but I am not sure if the neighbors would appreciate all of the tiny dings in their doors.

The highlight of Halloween for AJ was getting to interact with our next door neighbor, who AJ calls Mr. Bwuce. Mr. Bwuce is the cool guy who is a professional musician by night and who loves to fix things around his house during the day. This is pretty much AJ's dream job--banging on drums and messing around with tools all day--super-cool. AJ obsesses about Mr. Bwuce and talks about him often, especially after spotting Mr. Bwuce up on top of his house patching his roof--"Mr. Bwuce was up high on top of his house!!! He had some tools up dere!" Once last summer when AJ was getting ready to take his nap, he spotted Mr. Bwuce in his backyard working on something on a table with a vice, or as AJ called it at the time, his bice. AJ laid in his crib for about an hour that day, talking to himself about Mr. Bwuce and his bice being completely unable to fall asleep for all of the excitment. So a large part of AJ's anticipation about Halloween was that he now had a legitimate excuse to talk to Mr. Bwuce--he was gonna ring Mr. Bwuce's doorbell and do his shtick about trick or treat and tools. So imagine AJ's utter delight when Mr. Bwuce's nice wife invited us in to their basement to see the real, live Mr. Bwuce practicing with his drums, vibraphone and marimba. AJ was simultaneously delighted and completely speechless about being in the presence of Mr. Bwuce.

David was an adorable little elephant wearing the most adorable Halloween costume ever handmade by his Grandma Francie. It was first made for AJ when he was four months old, so the 10 month old David was just barely able to squeeze into it. He was definitely not a saggy, baggy elephant.

We were lucky to have the boys' Grandma Julie fly in for Halloween on a last-minute good deal plane ticket. Hoorway for e-saver fares! We are all waiting on pins and needles to meet my sister's baby who is due tomorrow and scheduled to make her appearance on Tuesday at the latest. I promise to post picture ASAP. This will be the boys' first girl cousin. We are also waiting with anticipation to see our very first cousin, Baby Johnny, who is going to make his Chicago debut later this week.