Baby’s first Halloween comes a day early

I love Halloween. It’s debatable whether I’m supposed to because I’m a Christian, but I love it anyway.

As children, my friends and I dressed up and went trick-or-treating well into our preteen years, and my mother always made it a big deal. She made most holidays a big deal, really.

I had hand-made costumes. She left half-eaten cookies from Santa, and scores of relatives gathered in my great aunt’s backyard for barbecue and sparklers on July 4th.

So it should come as no surprise that I would want to replicate these traditions for my son, Donovan.

He’s 10 months old. This is his first Halloween, so I bought him three costumes for the different events I planned for us to go to.

Baby’s first Halloween comes a day early | Honeycomb Moms | My son, Donovan, was a fire chief, and I was his victim at Midtown Atlanta’s Scare on the Square Tuesday. LAUREN FLOYD / INFO@HONEYCOMBMOMS.COM

I spent way too much time shopping online for candy to hand out for trick-or-treaters only to settle on gummy bears, Starbursts, Jolly Ranchers and fruit snacks (because we promote healthy eating around these parts.)

I even went to multiple stores to find the perfect pumpkin accessory for Donovan to collect his candy in. Actually, it’s more like my candy considering he has a solid four teeth but pish posh.

We were off to a well-planned start, but you know what they say about even the best-laid plans. They go awry.

Donovan was sick for the first event, a baby expo with a superhero theme, so his Clark Kent ensemble was a no-go.

I was devastated before I realized all his pieces were a solid two-sizes too big anyway. That left two more costumes, one as a fire chief and one as an airplane.

He wore the fire chief fit first, to a low-key festival dubbed Scare on the Square Tuesday in our hometown of Atlanta. The event packed dozens of parents, children and local workers into a space about the size of a fully spread parachute.

Public school gym class enriched my life with useful tidbits like how to lift a parachute up and down with classmates, so I know about how big a normal one is.

The event also featured popcorn, a food truck with custom cocktails and a guitarist belting out farm animal sounds from his crowd’s favorite animals.

Donovan mostly stared at people, his usual. Although, he did crawl to another child to steal a sippy cup. That’s something.

I was dressed in my best makeshift accompanying costume. I was Donovan’s first fire victim, ushered to safety in the middle of the night just before the blaze engulfed our home.

Baby’s first Halloween comes a day early | Honeycomb Moms | My husband, Donzell Floyd, proudly holds our son, Donovan, at Midtown Atlanta’s Scare on the Square Tuesday. LAUREN FLOYD / INFO@HONEYCOMBMOMS.COM

My husband, who was working during the fire, rushed right over to Colony Square to make sure we were OK – his son, the firefighter and wife, the victim.

I think costumes should have storylines. Can you tell?

All in all, I think my husband was right. Donovan’s a bit too young for these kinds of events, but I’ll keep dragging him out all the same.

Really, I’m just thankful for any opportunity to celebrate together as a family.

My husband, an associate producer with Turner Sports, travels a lot during the basketball season for work, so he has to miss a lot. We try to make the moments we have together count.

So although he’ll have to miss Halloween day, after seeing how he glowed with his little fire chief in his arms, I already feel like Halloween was a success.

VIEW COSTUMES LESS THAN $20 AT T.J. MAXX:

Baby’s first Halloween comes a day early | Honeycomb Moms | My husband, Donzell Floyd, proudly holds our son, Donovan, at Midtown Atlanta’s Scare on the Square Tuesday. LAUREN FLOYD / INFO@HONEYCOMBMOMS.COM