House of horrors

Halloween brought D to the scariest house of horrors imaginable for a one year old - the dentist's office. Yes, we had to get another cavity filled ON HALLOWEEN (at least it wasn't Friday the 13th too). It was especially tragic this time since D started screaming not when the dentist began drilling, but when the dental assistant called his name to go back to the room. Like the last time we did this, the whole process was very quick (props to the dental team), but I'm sure it felt like an eternity to little D (and to everybody else in the office that had to listen to his angry cries). But after the sobs subsided and he got his "prize" and we were on the way home, he had forgotten the whole thing (probably not, but it makes me feel better to think that!).

We did not dress D up for Halloween this year. We're not anti-Halloween, in fact it's very fun to see all the little kids trick-or-treating in their smart costumes. Here are some reasons why we avoided major participation in the pagan holiday this year:

• D is one and so we're led to believe that he couldn't care less if we dressed him up or not (we'll follow up on this one in 20 years).
• We aren't such crazed Halloween fans that we needed the excuse of dressing him up to participate in Halloween-related activities.
• We think D is more cute in his civilian clothes than he would be in any costume (see pic below).
• D doesn't eat candy and neither do we really.
• It's really cold outside at night now.
• D would probably be petrified with fear if he caught sight of himself in a costume (even if it was a pumpkin).
• D would probably be petrified with fear when he saw all the kindly people opening their doors and forcing candy in his bag (heaven forbid one of them be dressed up).
• We have decided to forbid participation in any "trunk-or-treat" (or is it "trunk-and-treat"?) activities. We just don't think it's good to put the idea into small, trusting heads that it's fun and a good thing to take candy out of strangers' (we might know them, but to D they are all strangers and will be for many years) car trunks.