Trick or Treat...almost

I think one of the greatest joys of parenting is being able to dress your child up in an adorable, although uncomfortable, Halloween costume and parade them around the neighborhood for everyone to oohh and aahh over. The compliments on how cute your kid is somewhat makes up for the 16 trips to the naughty spot they will make the next day as you try to bring them down from their sugar high. Since I didn't give birth to Artem I don't have any of those, "I labored 3 weeks for you" kind of stories to threaten him with but I did fight US Immigration tooth and nail for his paperwork so that has to count for something and I was ready to use my trump card to get him into his heavy, somewhat constrictive, but oh so cute dinosaur Halloween costume.

I had been warned to bring a costume from the states as there wouldn't be many available here in UAE and I schlepped that thing across the Atlantic waiting for the big day that Artem could wear the over-priced, over-stuffed costume for an hour and collect a bounty of candy for his mother to eat, pardon me, for Artem to eat. Since arriving in Abu Dhabi the end of September, I've been promised over and over again that the weather is going to start getting "really" nice. I'm not sure what your definition of "really" nice is, but to me, 100+ degrees with 90% humidity in the middle of October is not "really" nice and I started having second thoughts about putting Artem in his costume. The week before Halloween I decided not to do trick or treating for Artem since it would be so hot and there was absolutely no sign of Halloween anywhere in this town. No pumpkins, no ghosts, no bats, nothing to indicate that Halloween was coming. I realize we aren't in the states but there is a HUGE expat population here in UAE and I figured there would at least be a smidgen of Halloween for them.

Halloween morning we were on our way to the beach, yes the beach and yes on Oct 31st, when we got a call that someone from Randy's work was going to have a Halloween party and we should bring Artem so he could trick or treat. Before the party we put Artem in his costume and he looked A.D.O.R.A.B.L.E. but was not having anything to do with it. After only a few seconds of wearing it, he told us, "all done" and that was that. So I dressed him in his skeleton tee shirt that his aunt Amy bought him and we left for the party, but I brought the costume along just in case. Once Artem saw the other kids at the party getting dressed up he started taking an interest in what they were doing. Kids started coming to the door and yelling "trick or treat" and Artem loved watching them. I asked him if he wanted to get his bag and go trick or treating and he got very excited and said, "yes". I asked if he wanted to wear his dinosaur costume and he quickly told me, "NO" and shook his head. Okay 1 out of 2 isn't bad, so I grabbed his spider bag and out we went.

Ready to Trick or Treat:

Artem says: TREAT!


Artem didn't really understand the concept at first. He would say "treat" when he got to the door but didn't think much of the candy in his bag, (Artem isn't allowed to eat candy of any kind so it didn't mean anything to him) and was more interested in going into the houses that we went to. After about the 4th house, he stopped trying to go inside and started getting excited about all the stuff they were putting in his bag and he started to strut his stuff around the compound looking for the next house to go to. Everyone still ohhed and ahhed over him but part of me was a little sad that he wouldn't wear his costume, especially since it was the ONLY dinosaur we saw that night; ballerinas, Spider Man, and witches seem to be the hot costume here in Abu Dhabi. But despite my son being sans costume, we still had a good time trick or treating and he enjoyed his first taste of mini M&M's, while I enjoyed his Twix bars.

Artem's very first house:

Artem can't quite figure out why that lady just put a bunch of stuff in his bag:

After trick or treating, the party got into full swing and Artem came to life. I think I've mentioned before that Artem loves music and loves to dance. Our son WAS the party and people ended up standing around him on the "dance floor" watching him shake his groove thing and cheering him on. A few ladies tried to dance with him, but he said, "no" and came running for me. That's my boy! By 9:00 p.m. we called it a night and took our little dancing machine home to be put to bed so mama could enjoy the fruits of her son's labor...Halloween chocolate!

Our dancing machine:

Doing a somersault on the dance floor, I told you he has moves!

Happy Halloween!