Thomas always had a difficult time in the fall. Well, the last couple of years anyway. I blame adjusting to having to wear socks, long pants and jackets, and the last two years also having a hard time adjusting to frustrating school situations and schedules.
But on top of that, he gets easily spooked about Halloween.He has some anxiety issues about it I think (not surprising, really) and gets 'jumpy' for the rest of the day if he sees anything scary.
Like, for example, me taking him into the Halloween Store. As soon as we walked in I knew that that was a stupid idea. Because we even have to skirt the Halloween area at Target. Stupid - I totally wasn't thinking that day.
The hard/confusing thing is that Thomas actually loves Halloween. He loves all the non-scary parts, like dressing up, the church carnival, the pumpkin patch, and watching Charlie Brown. So he's excited about it, but... we have to be careful.
Anyway, I did want to up the Halloween decorations this year, since it's the first year that everyone is home full-time - usually we've had a preschool party at least to go to or something. You know, just a little more festive. And I'm planning a (VERY small! laid-back! not-spooky!) party for the kids and a few friends. And I do love party planning and decorating!
I made a Halloween bunting for the living room (close-up later maybe):
And I spent an hour or two cutting out bats on Sunday. Various sizes, shapes, and papers. I made a tissue paper bat garland (idea from here) and hung it over a window. Then Thomas started getting jumpy again.

By 'jumpy', I mean that he literally jumps and sometimes yells if anyone talks even slightly loud, or sneezes in his general direction. It's not a good thing.
So, the garland got rolled up, and the other bats got stuck in an envelope before they were hung up. I'm thinking they might come out for the party - but that's it.
Aaron suggested skipping Halloween - but that's so hard to do. And I LOVE Halloween! And so do the kids. Next year we might just get out the Halloween stuff a few days before the actual day, though. None of this month-long decorating and celebrating (when did everyone start doing that anyway?).
Really, I don't even know if we'll do the Halloween Night at the botanical garden. We were planning on it since it's been a couple of years since we did that and it was such fun last time! We're sticking to Charlie Brown and Max and Ruby, too - probably no Ichabod this year.
At least the kid loved the pumpkin patch.
Loved it. And is planning a Star Trek jack'o'lantern for his pumpkin.
And the bunting and quilt are still out, but that's it. Darn it.
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p.s. if anyone out there is room mom for Halloween this year - I posted what I did in Thomas' kindergarten class last year HERE