
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.
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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
I love it!! First Halloween, cute costume, and an amazing storyline!!
What an adorable little fire truck. Our little guy is dressing up as a Transformer. I’m not sure if it’s because he loves them so much, or he idolizes his brother and daddy, who are both Transformer fanatics.
That is the cutest costume ever! It made me wish my kids were still that young! My 3 year old nephew is dressing up to be Robin Hood this year.
I remember dressing ours up when they were that little! Thank goodness for digital photos – we took a ton of them so they’ll now remember it too!
I’ve always wanted to coordinate costumes with my kids, but I never want to spend the money. Super cute fire truck!
As a Christian, I look upon days like Halloween to spend time with family and with my community, and I have always steered pretty clear of my kids being anything negative or demonic. (We NEVER forbade our kids from doing it, but I always stressed to them that this was a chance to explore other identities.) My kids have gone to parties as anything from a surgeon to a policeman and my son decided to be a car one year and helped me make his costume from scratch! Those are precious memories for me now that my son is 20 and my daughter is 17. So, I say enjoy your little one and all the family friendly parts of the “holiday.” Thanks for sharing your memories. ?