Halloween Fun

Our Halloween 2011 pumpkins.  If you haven't already figured it out, they're characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas.  L-R: Zero (the dog), Jack Skellington, and Oogey Boogey.  Justin and the kids did these and I have to say, this is one of my favorite years.  Every year we carve several pumpkins.  We have people who remember that ours tend to be elaborate and visit just to see what we've carved.  This year was no exception.

Halloween on our street is a big deal.  Every year we get over 200 kids.  Most of the houses decorate for Halloween, and there are simply kids galore.  It is such a busy event that instead of shutting the door between kids, we rearrange the front porch furniture and hang out there.  We adults get dressed up as well, of course.  This year I was a witch, Justin was a priest, Shannon was a scary hooded guy, and Tristan was a skeleton.  Justin's brother Matt came over and we dressed him up as a zombie, make up and all.  (Really, I think I should start a Halloween Make-up business!!)

Along with the three pumpkins we had an "eyeball tree," the door to the house decorated with lights & usually open, the inside of the house decorated, and pumpkin & skull candles lit on the front porch.  Oh yes, there was the scary music that played as well, of course.  We always invite friends and family over for a Halloween party on Halloween, and so, as usual, we had a couple of kids who thought that our house was set-up as a Haunted House given the decor and the people coming and going. 

While the guys (and Justin's Mom & sister) took the kids trick-or-treating I assumed my role to hand out candy.  I had a goblet that I was drinking from, and took delight in playing up the role.  Most of the kids were very well behaved this year.  A couple of kids I saw darting across the road, not a wise idea on our road, and darting through people's yards, ignoring any landscaping that was there.  When they got to our house I was in full witchy mode.  I slowly took a sip from skeleton goblet, setting it down on the edge of my chair.  I turned my gaze (with my heavily made-up eyes) to them just as slowly and then fixed my gaze on them.  As I handed them their candy I had my voice eerily-pitched and scolded them gently, creepy, and with my gaze not leaving their eyes for darting into the road and for running through yards.  I warned them that they could get hurt.  I got two nervously sincere "yes ma'am"s from them.  I think the point was made.

So, a little after eight we got the kids in bed and took the party inside.  I left the lights outside on and even went back and relit the pumpkins when I realized kids were still coming by.  This is where it starts to get fun.

Normally I don't care so much for older kids, and I will readily refuse candy to those who don't dress up.  Also, we always put the dogs up in the crates during Halloween.  With the door being open so much it would be easy for them to get out. Also, and our main reason, Halloween can be a scary time to be a dog.  People in scary costumes make it hard to tell friend from foe and can scare a dog.  Any dog with an instinct to protect could easily assume there was cause to.  So, to be safe, our dogs stay up.  However, once we shut the door we let the dogs loose.

Older kids kept coming by, knocking on the door.  The dogs would go nuts.  And, though all dogs' barks are impressive and can be scary, Foster does have a .. well .. massive Mastiff bark. 

At first I would try to block the dogs as I went to the door, but with one group Layla, our 1 year old Bulldog, slipped by me and out onto the porch.  I shut the door behind me and went to get her.  She wasn't scared, she was curious as usual and simply walked around the kids.  No growling, nothing.  The kids were older middle-school or high-school age kids (hard to tell), and one boy simply FREAKED OUT.  It was hysterical.  He started jumping back when he realized she was a bulldog.  "She's a bulldog" he yelled, "those things will kill you!!!" 

I couldn't resist.

"Oh, no" I replied calmly and reassuringly, "bulldogs won't kill you. Mastiffs will kill you."  And with that I opened the door, shoved Layla in, and let Foster take a step or two out. "See?" I said. 

The kid tripped over himself running back to the sidewalk, while his friends, who initially jumped back as well, roared with laughter. 
Foster never growled, never showed any aggression, just took a couple curious steps through the doorway, with me holding his collar. 


BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Scary Moments & Thanks for Sharing

~Here are my boys: Tristan (3 1/2) and Shannon (6). They're licking the remaining batter for Shannon's Chocolate Zucchini cake out of the bowl, before Shannon's birthday party in January~

Kids aren't always known for their willingness to share, especially little ones who are still kinda in the toddler mode of "everything is MINE!" Hence the photo above, a captured moment of happiness, sharing, chocolate, and cake batter. Life is good.
However, kids ARE known for sharing something quite well: colds, the flu, and any sort of bug going around at the moment. This "Thank You" goes out to Tristan, who so kindly shared his nasty little cold with me. I am up and about today but still manage to feel like I've been hit by a bus? By the way, since when is "feeling like I've been hit by a bus" the definition of feeling better??

We had a feeling Tristan had caught a little bit of a cold after his playing outside weekend before last without any gloves on. He had the sniffles all week, so I tried to make sure to feed us lots of healing foods. By Friday though, I knew it was a cold. Lots of warm tea from Traditional Medicine's 'Just For Kids' teas (they'll drink the adults' version too). By bed time all the symptoms were in full-swing, so Justin gave him some night-time kid's cold medicine.
About 9:30 or so, while Justin and I were watching a movie, we heard him crying. It was the "I'm sick" cry. If you're a parent, you know the one I'm talking about. I was worried he may have thrown up in bed, but luckily he didn't. We got him up and took him into the bathroom to see what was wrong. He cried, but wouldn't tell us. He was really gassy. And it didn't make him giggle - a true sign that he's not feeling good.
His nose was stopped up but we couldn't get him to blow it. Although we thought he knew how to blow his nose, he seems to have forgotten that, or at least he had at that moment. I got some Eucalyptus essential oil, put it on a cloth tissue, and we held it under his nose to try and help open him up some. Finally, we took him out into the living room, on the couch with us.

Again, any of you with kids know this scene is nothing new. It's a heart-wrenching scene because you hate for your kids to feel so miserable and there isn't really too much you can do about it except be there for them. But still, it is not an uncommon scene.
Where is began to freak us out a little was how he would calm down some, letting me gently rock him, and begin to fall back asleep. Suddenly his eyes would fly open in a look of terror and he would jerk and kind of spasm about, for lack of a better word. It was like he was going into convulsions, which is REALLY scary! Then he would close his eyes again and rest, snuggling into me and the cool washcloth I was holding against his head. This repeated a couple times.
It repeated enough that both Justin & I were getting scared and were about ready to head to the ER with him.
At one point he said he wanted to go back to his bed, so we let him. Justin had put a bowl of water, with Eucalyptus oil in it, on top of the radiator to help add some moisture to the air of their room. I ended up on the phone with my mother, sharing my fears with her. ~She is also the person who watches the kids during ER visits, so I wanted to give her a heads up~

One of the things that had us worried was that Tristan has a neat little "trick." You know how kids say that they'll hold their breath till they get whatever they want?? Well, when Tristan gets upset enough, and so far this has only happened twice, he'll hold his breath/stop breathing until he passes out. Not fun. He's ok, and always comes to quickly, but still, not fun.
When we had gotten him up the first time he was making those quick & sudden gasps for air. Like when you've been sobbing for a really long time and then try to talk. We were both worried about his nose being blocked up, about him not being able to blow it, and how he seemed VERY terrified when he had woken up. But we were really, really worried about his breathing .. or the ability to quit if he's too upset.

He ended up waking back up again, maybe within a half an hour of having gone back to bed. We asked him if he would like to sleep with us that night, he said yes. Justin went and got his bears and blankets (all the must-haves for sleeping) and set them between our pillows on the bed.
He was pretty happy about getting to sleep with us. We were happy knowing we could keep an eye on him, he wouldn't wake Shannon up, and that he was more comforted by being with us.
The comfort of being snugly tucked between Mommy & Daddy seemed to do the trick, and he went soundly asleep.
Note, I say that he slept soundly. Not quietly. And not that we slept.
He snored. He managed to snore in through his nose AND out through his mouth - at the same time!!! It was a one-person snoring symphony!

The next day Justin and I took turns "arguing" over who had gotten the most sleep. We each accused the other of snoring just as loudly alongside Tristan, though I have a sneaking suspicion Tristan was able to "throw" the sound of his snoring symphony and make it sound like other people were snoring as well.
By Sunday I knew I was getting Tristan's cold. I had known I would get it Friday night when I looked him in the eyes, my face in front of his, trying to decipher what was wrong & he breathed that heavy, familiar, "I have a cold & I am sick" breathe on me.
Still, as miserable as this damn cold is, I'd gladly be the one with it and spare my kids the misery any day of the week.

Now where are my cloth tissues?