On to the trick or treating…we hyped that up bigtime as well. We told Ryan all about going door to door, asking for candy by saying trick or treat, and then going to the next house to do it all over again. He was excited. He got to try out his maiden trick or treat over at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the late afternoon. He donned his ghost costume and precariously made his way up their steps while trying to carry his treat bucket and not trip over his costume (this was a big hint to us that the ghost costume was NOT going to work out for the night’s trick or treating festivities).
As adorable as he was in the ghost costume, it was just a bit too cumbersome and impaired his vision a bit too much to really work out as his costume. FatJ had the marvelous idea of dressing Ryan up in his monkey costume from last year, and putting the ghost costume on over the top (a la Curious George Goes to a Costume Party…where Ryan’s costume idea originated in the first place). That way, if he got cranky in the ghost costume after 30 seconds, we could just whip it off and he’d still be in costume.
A Ghost in Monkey’s Clothing
Layer 1:

Layer 2: (see the monkey feet sticking out the bottom?)

He got really excited about wearing the monkey costume, which I had to CRAM him into because it’s a size 18-24 months!! He wore the ghost just long enough for me to take a picture as we were leaving the house, and then that was the end of that. Dad carried it the rest of the night. And I got to carry that teddy bear, who Ryan insisted come along trick or treating.
the back view:

Live action shots…walking down the sidewalk

Look how short those monkey pants are, hahahaha!

From the moment we started, Ryan LOVED trick or treating. He was in awe of all the other kids in costume walking up and down the sidewalks, and kept shouting and pointing out the different costumes. He was not shy at all about going up to people’s doors asking for candy, and did an awesome job saying “trick or TREAT!” every time. I got him to say thank you at most houses, but then toward the end when I’d remind him about what to say after receiving the candy, he started saying “you’re welcome!” instead. Each time we collected one treat and left one house, he’d start pulling me down the walk yelling ANOTHER HOUSE MAMA?!! ANOTHER HOUSE!!! We probably only went to about 10 houses- our closest neighbors and friends of ours in the neighborhood- but Ryan could have gone all night! At one point as we were walking down the sidewalk, out of the blue Ryan yells out “I’m impressed!!!” I had to ask him to repeat that one, but sure enough, that’s what he said. Apparently Halloween was a very important night for him.
We got home about 7:00 and Ry really got into helping us pass out candy. He’d stand at the door and squeal in delight when MORE KIDS, MORE KIDS COMING!!! approached the door. There were a few really creepy costumes that came by, but he didn’t get scared at all. He kept stepping outside the door to admire our lit-up pumpkin and to be on the lookout for more trick or treaters. At one point FatJ and I were on the couch and Ryan was leaning out the door shouting HAPPY HALLOWEEN to people walking by! Hahaha! He gave us some good laughs that night.
Ryan wanted to delve into all his candy right when we got home. We let him have a couple pieces, but ever since that night he hasn’t really asked to eat any. {So far he hasn’t seemed to notice that his candy bin is diminishing in size by the hour, no thanks to his mama.}
All in all, we had a really fun Halloween. It was so fun to see our little guy get so into all the festivities and have such a great time.