Halloween frights
You're probably wondering why we haven't yet posted anything yet about Halloween, right? Well, I thought about writing part one during the middle of the day when Anya was sleeping, but I decided to wait until the day was over for a complete evaluation. And then we got busy with other things. So, here it goes...a little late...and yes, it's long...haven't you come to expect that by now...
In the morning, I took Anya downtown for the "Tiny Tot Halloween" parade, which basically involves a huge amount of kids and their over-excited parents walking around in costume past the downtown businesses and getting candy from the employees standing outside their shops. It sounds like it could be fun, but a little chaotic, right? Well, scratch the fun.
First a little background...last year I took Anya to this same thing because some of the moms in my playgroup wanted to take their kids. I didn't want to be a party pooper, so in a completely festive spirit I said, sure, I'll bundle my sleeping nine month old baby who isn't really eating much besides breastmilk and push her around in her stroller acting like an idiot asking for candy that is most obviously going to be consumed by me and not my little ladybug. It felt incredibly stupid and I was glad when Anya fell asleep and I could skip the actual candy begging and just try to keep together with the other playgroup moms who were somehow really into this whole experience. It was fun to see all the kids in costumes and see a wide variety of parents out there, but that's where the value stopped.
So, when our playgroup suggested going again this year, I should have stood firm and not even bothered to go. But I didn't want to deprive Anya of some sort of Halloween exposure, so I somehow convinced myself that for the togetherness of the group, we should go again.
The first problem was that there are so many people that come out for this thing that parking is a kind of a mess, so we parked at one of the other mom's houses and walked a brisk 10 minute walk to the downtown area. When I left my car at her house, the thermometer said 28 degrees! We met up with the others in our group and proceeded to fight the crowds going up and down the streets, however, the same thing happened last year, it seemed like everyone else was going down the street and our little group was somehow going upstream fighting against the huge crowd. I don't know how that happened, but it was annoying. I pushed Anya in the stroller and she actually held onto her plastic pumpkin this year, but she was too overwhelmed to say "trick-or-treat" or "thank you" or really anything at all. We still got some candy and it did feel a little less awkward now that she was at least awake and looking at people.
We fought our way up one street and then decided to wait in line for some hot cocoa. I think this was our biggest mistake. The kids got restless and we were in the shade, which makes quite a difference on a below freezing Colorado day. But we stood firm and got our cocoa. By that time, Anya was understandably whining to get out of her stroller. I eventually threw my cocoa away so that I could pick her up while the one dad that came with us pushed my stroller for a few blocks. Something was not right with Anya. She would just not calm down and acted like there was something specific wrong and just not general boredom or overwhelmedness. So, I somehow logically thought the best idea was to put her back in the stroller and begin the cold walk back to the car. The others were actually ready to leave by this time, too, so we headed back, but Anya did not stop crying. She was sobbing so hard that she couldn't really talk and her nose was running profusely. I honestly did not know what to do with her, but I just kept thinking that I should power on and get her back to the warm car as quickly as possible. So, we kept on walking and she kept on screaming/crying/sobbing. It was horrible.
We eventually made it back to the car and Jessica offered for us to come inside and warm up, but I just wanted to be alone, so I said I would see if I could calm her down in the car and if not, then I would go inside. I sat her on my lap in the front seat with the heat going strong and tried to calm her down. She was still pretty hysterical and I was actually really worried about her. I took some of her clothes off and checked her diaper just to make sure nothing was pinching or wet. But I really think she was just cold. I don't think I had enough clothes on her while we were outside and I think she got so cold that things were numb or something and they were just hurting her. So, of course, by this time, I felt completely horrible because I could have prevented it by bringing more clothes or blankets or something. And it made me hate the "Tiny Tot Halloween" even more. I regretted having given in against my better judgement and taken her somewhere I knew she probably wouldn't enjoy in the first place and then made it worse by not adequately protecting her from the cold. So, we sat in the car for a while and eventually she calmed down enough when I read a book to her (dad, it's the rainbow ribbon book you gave her...thank you).
I dreaded putting her into her carseat, but somehow I had to get home, so when she was pretty calm, I put her in and headed home. She wasn't hysterical on the ride home, but she wasn't happy either. We got home and I brought her inside and sat with her bundled on the couch with me. Her mood improved greatly, but it took a little while before she wanted to get up. When she did, she actually had trouble walking. I think her poor little legs and feet were still hurting from being so cold. I quickly picked her back up and under the blankets on the couch and put my hands on her icy legs and feet to warm them up. By this time she was in such a good mood that I wasn't worried anymore, but it was kind of a hard experience for me. Eventually, she was fine and playing and happy.
We still needed to get some candy for handing out at Steve's work, so I let Anya play for a little while and then bundled her up in the car again and went to Walgreen's. She fell asleep on the way home and I transferred her to her bed where she had a good nap for a couple of hours.
At three, we headed over to Intel where they have trick-or-treating among the cubicle farm. We took her last year and we just stayed in Steve's cube and handed out candy, but this year, we weren't sure what Anya wanted to do. I was determined to let her do whatever she was comfortable with and not push her at all, especially after her miserable morning. We got there before a lot of the kids had arrived, so she actually had fun walking around without huge crowds. It was kind of shocking to me because I thought that the cubicles would have freaked her out. It just feels like this giant maze to me. But she just started wandering around the place with Steve and I trailing behind her just letting her take us where she wanted to go. She didn't like the dead ends where she had to turn around and go back from where we came. And she really did like any time she could go through a door into another part of the lab. Any time she got scared by something, she wanted me to carry her around. And by scared, I mean, people coming up to talk to us. Not scary people, just ordinary friendly people. Anya's mood went immediately from happy explorer to timid child. It really is amazing to see it happen so quickly. But as mentioned before, Steve and I completely identify with our little introvert.
We made several trips out of Steve's cube and then would go back to make sure the candy bowl was full and give Anya (and let's be honest, us too) a break from all the people. I think she thought the idea of the whole candy exchange was kind of amusing. We actually did convince her to go up to a couple bowls and choose a piece to put in her pumpkin and I was shocked that she actually did it a couple of times without us suggesting it. Overall she maybe picked up 8-10 pieces from people's cubes.
So, I was happy that she had a good time at Intel. It was good to see her being herself after a difficult morning.
On Halloween evening, I decided that since we had candy leftover from Intel, we would actually turn our lights on and answer the door. This is actually the first time we have ever done that in the five years we've been out here. So, this was big accomplishment. Steve didn't want to take part, so I took care of it all, but we really didn't get that many rings. We eventually just decided to go play upstairs and turn off our light so we didn't have to run up and down the stairs to hand out candy.
Steve went upstairs first and Anya was on her way up, but at the very top, she realized that she wanted something from downstairs and started heading back down. I was still on the couch downstairs and looked up to see her stumble slightly and fall down a couple of stairs, but then caught herself from falling any further. I screamed, Steve jumped up (you know his flailing), and Anya got really freaked out. Partially from the small fall, but probably mainly due to the freaking out of her parents. Steve went down and picked her up and I came up the stairs with the blankets she had been trying to go down to get. We were all a little spooked, but eventually we were all settled upstairs. Steve was on the computer. I was on the couch. And Anya was having a great time, spinning, running, jumping, etc. At one point, she started running (this isn't an actual run, but it's the fastest she can move) toward the top of the stairs. As she got closer to the stairs, the image of her almost falling down the stairs earlier overwhelmed me as I looked toward the open gate we just recently decided to leave open at the top of the stairs. I screamed, Steve jumped up, and unfortunately, Anya got the most scared I have ever seen her. She was terrified. She stopped immediately, turned around, screamed (seriously!), covered her face with her hands, and started crying. It was awful. I don't remember which one of us picked her up, but she was so scared, it was heartbreaking. I felt so horrible that we had done that to her. We were all still so nerved up from earlier that we got so freaked out when she even came close to the stairs again. Eventually, we all recovered and were back to our calm selves. After we closed the gate again, of course.
Later on, Steve went downstairs to get something and Anya sent to peer over the gate as she usually does. I was still on the couch and decided to call downstairs for Steve to bring up something for Anya to eat. I wanted him to hear me, so I said "Hey, can you bring up..." rather loudly, not even thinking that this would cause a problem. Well, Anya was standing at the exact same place where she was when I screamed out in terror before and she interpreted me calling down to Steve that I was freaking out about what she was doing again and she got completely frightened all over again. She came running over to me and I held her, but then Steve came upstairs and she wanted to go to him because I think I had scared her so much. We decided that maybe we should all go downstairs and get away from the stairs and calm down a lot. I was almost crying thinking of how I personally had put such terror into my innocent daughter. It took her a little while to not be scared of me.
So, Halloween turned out to be a pretty scary day overall. There were definitely fun moments for all, but I wouldn't want to repeat most of the day ever again. I don't know what we'll do for Halloween next year. I'm sure we'll take her to Intel, but other than that, we'll just have to wait and see. But if you hear me talking about the "Tiny Tot Halloween" downtown, please remind me that I will hate it. Well ,I guess if Anya is really into it and everyone else is going...wait...no!...it's happening again...I'm NOT going!!!
In the morning, I took Anya downtown for the "Tiny Tot Halloween" parade, which basically involves a huge amount of kids and their over-excited parents walking around in costume past the downtown businesses and getting candy from the employees standing outside their shops. It sounds like it could be fun, but a little chaotic, right? Well, scratch the fun.
First a little background...last year I took Anya to this same thing because some of the moms in my playgroup wanted to take their kids. I didn't want to be a party pooper, so in a completely festive spirit I said, sure, I'll bundle my sleeping nine month old baby who isn't really eating much besides breastmilk and push her around in her stroller acting like an idiot asking for candy that is most obviously going to be consumed by me and not my little ladybug. It felt incredibly stupid and I was glad when Anya fell asleep and I could skip the actual candy begging and just try to keep together with the other playgroup moms who were somehow really into this whole experience. It was fun to see all the kids in costumes and see a wide variety of parents out there, but that's where the value stopped.
So, when our playgroup suggested going again this year, I should have stood firm and not even bothered to go. But I didn't want to deprive Anya of some sort of Halloween exposure, so I somehow convinced myself that for the togetherness of the group, we should go again.
The first problem was that there are so many people that come out for this thing that parking is a kind of a mess, so we parked at one of the other mom's houses and walked a brisk 10 minute walk to the downtown area. When I left my car at her house, the thermometer said 28 degrees! We met up with the others in our group and proceeded to fight the crowds going up and down the streets, however, the same thing happened last year, it seemed like everyone else was going down the street and our little group was somehow going upstream fighting against the huge crowd. I don't know how that happened, but it was annoying. I pushed Anya in the stroller and she actually held onto her plastic pumpkin this year, but she was too overwhelmed to say "trick-or-treat" or "thank you" or really anything at all. We still got some candy and it did feel a little less awkward now that she was at least awake and looking at people.
We fought our way up one street and then decided to wait in line for some hot cocoa. I think this was our biggest mistake. The kids got restless and we were in the shade, which makes quite a difference on a below freezing Colorado day. But we stood firm and got our cocoa. By that time, Anya was understandably whining to get out of her stroller. I eventually threw my cocoa away so that I could pick her up while the one dad that came with us pushed my stroller for a few blocks. Something was not right with Anya. She would just not calm down and acted like there was something specific wrong and just not general boredom or overwhelmedness. So, I somehow logically thought the best idea was to put her back in the stroller and begin the cold walk back to the car. The others were actually ready to leave by this time, too, so we headed back, but Anya did not stop crying. She was sobbing so hard that she couldn't really talk and her nose was running profusely. I honestly did not know what to do with her, but I just kept thinking that I should power on and get her back to the warm car as quickly as possible. So, we kept on walking and she kept on screaming/crying/sobbing. It was horrible.
We eventually made it back to the car and Jessica offered for us to come inside and warm up, but I just wanted to be alone, so I said I would see if I could calm her down in the car and if not, then I would go inside. I sat her on my lap in the front seat with the heat going strong and tried to calm her down. She was still pretty hysterical and I was actually really worried about her. I took some of her clothes off and checked her diaper just to make sure nothing was pinching or wet. But I really think she was just cold. I don't think I had enough clothes on her while we were outside and I think she got so cold that things were numb or something and they were just hurting her. So, of course, by this time, I felt completely horrible because I could have prevented it by bringing more clothes or blankets or something. And it made me hate the "Tiny Tot Halloween" even more. I regretted having given in against my better judgement and taken her somewhere I knew she probably wouldn't enjoy in the first place and then made it worse by not adequately protecting her from the cold. So, we sat in the car for a while and eventually she calmed down enough when I read a book to her (dad, it's the rainbow ribbon book you gave her...thank you).
I dreaded putting her into her carseat, but somehow I had to get home, so when she was pretty calm, I put her in and headed home. She wasn't hysterical on the ride home, but she wasn't happy either. We got home and I brought her inside and sat with her bundled on the couch with me. Her mood improved greatly, but it took a little while before she wanted to get up. When she did, she actually had trouble walking. I think her poor little legs and feet were still hurting from being so cold. I quickly picked her back up and under the blankets on the couch and put my hands on her icy legs and feet to warm them up. By this time she was in such a good mood that I wasn't worried anymore, but it was kind of a hard experience for me. Eventually, she was fine and playing and happy.
We still needed to get some candy for handing out at Steve's work, so I let Anya play for a little while and then bundled her up in the car again and went to Walgreen's. She fell asleep on the way home and I transferred her to her bed where she had a good nap for a couple of hours.
At three, we headed over to Intel where they have trick-or-treating among the cubicle farm. We took her last year and we just stayed in Steve's cube and handed out candy, but this year, we weren't sure what Anya wanted to do. I was determined to let her do whatever she was comfortable with and not push her at all, especially after her miserable morning. We got there before a lot of the kids had arrived, so she actually had fun walking around without huge crowds. It was kind of shocking to me because I thought that the cubicles would have freaked her out. It just feels like this giant maze to me. But she just started wandering around the place with Steve and I trailing behind her just letting her take us where she wanted to go. She didn't like the dead ends where she had to turn around and go back from where we came. And she really did like any time she could go through a door into another part of the lab. Any time she got scared by something, she wanted me to carry her around. And by scared, I mean, people coming up to talk to us. Not scary people, just ordinary friendly people. Anya's mood went immediately from happy explorer to timid child. It really is amazing to see it happen so quickly. But as mentioned before, Steve and I completely identify with our little introvert.
We made several trips out of Steve's cube and then would go back to make sure the candy bowl was full and give Anya (and let's be honest, us too) a break from all the people. I think she thought the idea of the whole candy exchange was kind of amusing. We actually did convince her to go up to a couple bowls and choose a piece to put in her pumpkin and I was shocked that she actually did it a couple of times without us suggesting it. Overall she maybe picked up 8-10 pieces from people's cubes.
So, I was happy that she had a good time at Intel. It was good to see her being herself after a difficult morning.
On Halloween evening, I decided that since we had candy leftover from Intel, we would actually turn our lights on and answer the door. This is actually the first time we have ever done that in the five years we've been out here. So, this was big accomplishment. Steve didn't want to take part, so I took care of it all, but we really didn't get that many rings. We eventually just decided to go play upstairs and turn off our light so we didn't have to run up and down the stairs to hand out candy.
Steve went upstairs first and Anya was on her way up, but at the very top, she realized that she wanted something from downstairs and started heading back down. I was still on the couch downstairs and looked up to see her stumble slightly and fall down a couple of stairs, but then caught herself from falling any further. I screamed, Steve jumped up (you know his flailing), and Anya got really freaked out. Partially from the small fall, but probably mainly due to the freaking out of her parents. Steve went down and picked her up and I came up the stairs with the blankets she had been trying to go down to get. We were all a little spooked, but eventually we were all settled upstairs. Steve was on the computer. I was on the couch. And Anya was having a great time, spinning, running, jumping, etc. At one point, she started running (this isn't an actual run, but it's the fastest she can move) toward the top of the stairs. As she got closer to the stairs, the image of her almost falling down the stairs earlier overwhelmed me as I looked toward the open gate we just recently decided to leave open at the top of the stairs. I screamed, Steve jumped up, and unfortunately, Anya got the most scared I have ever seen her. She was terrified. She stopped immediately, turned around, screamed (seriously!), covered her face with her hands, and started crying. It was awful. I don't remember which one of us picked her up, but she was so scared, it was heartbreaking. I felt so horrible that we had done that to her. We were all still so nerved up from earlier that we got so freaked out when she even came close to the stairs again. Eventually, we all recovered and were back to our calm selves. After we closed the gate again, of course.
Later on, Steve went downstairs to get something and Anya sent to peer over the gate as she usually does. I was still on the couch and decided to call downstairs for Steve to bring up something for Anya to eat. I wanted him to hear me, so I said "Hey, can you bring up..." rather loudly, not even thinking that this would cause a problem. Well, Anya was standing at the exact same place where she was when I screamed out in terror before and she interpreted me calling down to Steve that I was freaking out about what she was doing again and she got completely frightened all over again. She came running over to me and I held her, but then Steve came upstairs and she wanted to go to him because I think I had scared her so much. We decided that maybe we should all go downstairs and get away from the stairs and calm down a lot. I was almost crying thinking of how I personally had put such terror into my innocent daughter. It took her a little while to not be scared of me.
So, Halloween turned out to be a pretty scary day overall. There were definitely fun moments for all, but I wouldn't want to repeat most of the day ever again. I don't know what we'll do for Halloween next year. I'm sure we'll take her to Intel, but other than that, we'll just have to wait and see. But if you hear me talking about the "Tiny Tot Halloween" downtown, please remind me that I will hate it. Well ,I guess if Anya is really into it and everyone else is going...wait...no!...it's happening again...I'm NOT going!!!
posted by Lara at 8:23 AM
4 Comments:
Wow - what a day. And to think all I did was go to work! I'll try to remind you next year not to go to the parade, but I'm kind of guessing you'll remember! As for scaring your own child a number of times in one day...just keep thinking that she'll forgive and love you still. (From personal experience growing up that's right, isn't it?)
The stairs experience sounded scary. I'm going to go buy a baby gate now. I hope Anya stays warmer this week.
What a scary Halloween. I'll try and remember to tell you not to go next year to the parade.
HOLY CRAP!
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