Halloween :]

Finally in a better mood! I hope to eventually upload so pics onto this blog but who knows if that will ever happen so if you want some pics just jump on over to Facebook, they will be there soon!
Okay so Halloween. It started off with me crying into my breakfast (I've been doing this far too often lately, I once again blame pregnancy hormones) because I couldn't get Ryder in his Halloween costume which I swore he was going to wear all day because well um it's Halloween and that was the plan! I woke up with a headache that day and Rydes woke up a crab so there were already forces working against us as I tried to hustle Ryder out the door to meet Heather for coffee at 10:30. Yes, I have to really hustle in the morning to get out that "early", don't worry I'm working on it. Needless to say we arrived late and costume-less and a great deal cranky. But it's amazing what good, sympathetic company and a mug of amazing hot chocolate (I'm caffeine-free now, it stinks) can do to improve your mood! Shout out to my amazing cousin and friend Heather here!! She listened to me complain and rant and complain and complain some more, all with a smile on her face and assurances that I wasn't being too much of a downer. Plus she bought my hot chocolate. Who could have a better friend than that?!
After coffee we headed over to where Heather was nannying (how is that not a word?! whatever it is now) so the boys could play. She nannies for a 1 1/2 yr old boy and a 3 yr old boy...so they were the perfect playmates for Ryder! He loved playing with boys around his age that were just as willing to play cars and football and "running running" for hours on end as he was.
After playing there for a couple hours it was time to head home and take a "happy nap". Because when you are crabby you take a happy nap so you can wake up happy. It doesn't always work. This was one of the days where it didn't work. His happy nap was actually a crappy nap and he woke up crabbier than ever. (and no I don't say crappy in front of him, just maybe I call it that in my head lol) Anyway, I decided to stick him in his costume regardless of his obvious resistance. I calmly stuffed him, kicking and screaming, into the lion costume and let him bawl and throw a fit for 45 minutes until he got over it and calmed down. And yes, I did somehow manage to stay calm during all of this. I must have really wanted him in that costume. (For those of you remembering that he was terrified of lion costumes he had gotten over that fear before I put the costume on him or I never would have done it!) Once he had somewhat calmed down we headed over to my mother-in-law's house to get an early start on trick-or-treating. He started bawling when she asked him if he wanted a treat for Halloween. Sigh. After, we picked up John and headed to Houghton for supper and to stop at my Grandma and Papa Raasakka's but with trick-or-treating starting around 4:30 we didn't have as much time as we thought we did so we ended up just eating and hauling back home to get ready for the kids. John took Rydes to Liz and Dave's and his Grandma and Grandpa's while I handed out candy and then the fun part...
I took Rydes trick-or-treating to a couple houses on our street and the whole time he was asking to go home (he was scared of the other kids in costumes and was a little timid walking up to the houses) but when we turned into our yard he told me "More trick-or-treat house mom!" I guess he realized that the more houses he went to the more treats he got! So we walked around to the street behind us where we met up with Lanette and Tara. Rydes and Tara were so cute! They both tromped up to every house and held out their pumpkin buckets for the treats. Ryder even said "Trick-or-treat, put it in my pumpkin bucket. Okay thank you!" a couple times. He was only a little nervous of the other costumes once he decided he liked trick-or-treating and the little trooper even hauled his heavy treat-filled bucket the whole time! He only got freaked out when a kid in a mask and gloves (I think he was Batman) tried to give him candy but that was the only incident. I had so much fun bringing him house to house and seeing his reaction to all the people and candy, especially since he used to be terrified of costumes and started off not wanting to go. Afterward, we headed back home to finish passing out candy and then headed to my aunt Suzy and uncle John's house (Ryder was pumped to learn that John was Steve's dad, not so impressed that Suzy was Steve's mom lol) and then to "Hezzer's house" my aunt MaryAnn and uncle Mark's.
By the time we went to bed our Halloween had turned out happy after all!
ps sorry for the long post. Sometimes I just get in the novel-writing mood.