SHOWING OUR MONKEY A GOOD TIME

We were Monkey in the Middle for Halloween.

Last year we spent Halloween passing out some candy before catching a Jimmy Fallon show at URI. It was memorable because it was our first Halloween in our new house and we were excited to see how many kids live in our neighborhood. Plus, I have a huge crush on Jimmy Fallon. Overall though, it was a grown-up Halloween.

This year, with the Little One in the picture, things were a little different. There was no trick-or-treating for our two-month-old (We'll drag him around as a wobbly one-year-old next year), but the holiday was fun again.

The weekend started with a Friday night declaration that we would not set the alarm clocks for Saturday. As it tends to go these days, the little alarm clock down the hall went off bright and early, ready to start the Halloween activities we'd been promising him all week. The main events included preparing for a retirement/costume party for our friend, Tim.

First up was making our costumes. The Little One was given a cute monkey costume by an adoring auntie, so we racked our brains to come up with ideas for costumes that would complement him. We considered sending The Husband as The Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George. Then we debated having the whole family go as a barrel of monkeys. Simplicity won in the end though and we decided to wear "the" and "middle" t-shirts, making us monkey in the middle.

We tag-teamed the events of the day, alternating who had parenting duties as the other person worked against the clock to get us ready. I started by printing out the words in a font that was big enough to see at a distance. After the shirts were made I realized that I could have saved a ton of time and paint by buying t-shirt transfer paper and making my own iron-ons. Oh well!!

Next, I stretched a white t-shirt over a flattened box of diapers and taped the print-outs to the board. This was easier said than done and I switched to two side-by-side cereal boxers after this.

The painting was relaxing and surprisingly easy. We worked in stages to spell out each word and moved from right to left across each shirt to avoid our left hands smearing our masterpiece. I goofed and didn't read the paint label before using it. Luckily a hair-dryer saved the day with the wet paint. Once they were dry I set up the ironing board to perform what the label called a heat setting. As I pulled it from the closet, I explained ironing to The Little One.

"Mommy has not used one of these since before you were born," I said.

Once the t-shirts were done, we moved on to making a dessert. The Husband will explain that process in a future post. Le't's just say that it was delicious and we'll be repeating it someday soon.

The party was by far the best part of the day. The Little One woke up as we arrived. Poor guy didn't know where we were or why everyone looked different. He was a peach all night though and we were able to celebrate with friends and family without any baby drama. 

Although he won't remember one thing that happened on this busy Halloween Saturday, the day was a good reminder to us to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Busy with a smile on our faces is its own reward.