Designed By Dexter

This year, Dexter drew the faces of the pumpkins and Ben and I carved them out. One of them wasn't very structurally sound (huge eyes and mouth holes) but it held up through Halloween night!

The Big Show

Dexter enjoyed handing out candy to trick-or-treaters before Mommy got home from school.  He wasn't too sure he wanted to go out trick-or-treating and miss all the action on our front porch. But once he got suited up, he was excited to go out. It was only about 15 minutes before I opened the door to find a little green flying dinosaur shouting trick or treat with a handful of  little strangers.  After I handed out the candy, Dexy proceeded to walk right through the front door!

This was the first year that My Bologna didn't go out trick-or-treating - his Darth Vader costume remained in its plastic bag. He seemed pretty sad about it.

Halloween Party at School

 I had to miss Dexter's Halloween party at pre-school because I had to lead a class discussion in my Social Community Interventions class Halloween afternoon. Ben was surprised that they also put on a little Halloween show for the parents and they all did crafts together. Luckily, Ben took lots of pictures and remembered to give me good details about the interactions.

 Upon arrival, all the kids checked out each others' costumes.  Most were superheros of one sort or another.






Miss Erica announced each child as they entered for the "performance".  She neglected to mention the green flying part of Dexter's character announcing simple, "And here is Dexter the Dinosaur!"

 Dexter flapped his wings as he walked to his spot.

 The kids sang a few songs. Ben didn't remember any details of this except that Dexter was the loudest when it came time to shout "BOO!" in one of the songs.

The kids put imaginary things into a big cauldron to make a witch's stew.  Each child could put in whatever they wanted. When it was Dexter's turn, he looked at Ben and, undoubtedly influenced by Ben taking pictures, decided to put "a camera" into the stew.

Dexter and Ben made an awesome pumpkin man together!

Candy Mouth

What kid doesn't love this time of year?

Jamming the Green Flying Dinosaur into the Car

Buckled in and ready to go to Safely Spooky!

The Green Flying Dinosaur's Practice Run

Daddy took Dexter to the town's "Safely Spooky" event at a nearby park last weekend. It gives us the opportunity to test out Dexter's costume in conditions similar to what Halloween night will likely be.  In the afternoon, I got Dexy to try on the costume over his coat to see if it fit (it did, but he looked a bit "Teletubby").  However, when he tried on the head, he was very unhappy with the strap under his chin.  I took some stuffing out of the head hoping it would ride lower on his head and the strap wouldn't feel so tight under his chin but he was having none of it.  That's when I got his green hooded sweatshirt, some green thread, and a needle and proceeded to sew the head onto the hood of the sweatshirt.  Dexy was much happier until I told him he had to also wear a scarf (he had helped me pick out some green fleece at the fabric store earlier in the day).  We finally got him to agree to the scarf by calling it a "dinosaur cape".

When people asked what he was going to be for Halloween, Dexy would reply, "a green flying dinosaur". Not exactly the response people were expecting.

Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror.

Thanks for Giving Me That Kind of Love

As I was wrapping a birthday present for one of Dexter's friends, Dexter was playing on the floor with his trailers and matchbox cars.  "I can't get the three wheeled car out of the trailer.  Will you please help me, Mommy?" I said "sure" and went over to jimmy the car out of the trailer. After I successfully removed the jammed car, Dexter smiled and said, "Thanks for giving me that kind of love, Mommy.  Now get out of the way so this trailer can bring the cars to the garage."

I was so impressed that he recognized my responsiveness to his request as an expression of love.  I was also impressed with his ability to clearly communicate that I then needed to get out of his way so he could continue his "work" (I did, in fact, get right out of his way despite my urge to smother him in hugs). It gave me a hook for thinking about my trial research or dissertation: The Role of Perceived Love in Scaffolding Agency (or something like that).  Thanks Dexy!