Five had been in class for all of twenty minutes when I received the call from the office receptionist.
"Hi, your son isn't feeling well. Please come get him."
"Isn't feeling well" was code for "Your son threw up on the floor at circle time in front of the entire class."
I found Five lying down in the school's office. I sat down on the bed next to him and when our eyes met, he gave me a smile that quickly when from "Mommy, I'm so glad you're here" to "Mommy, I am so embarrassed" and then to, "Mommy, I am going to miss my first big kid Halloween Parade." His eyes filled with tears as I scooped him up to bring him home.
Five's ailment was simple: he was too hot in his Halloween costume. But five year old kids, they don't know these things. They just respond...with puke. He spent the day on the couch watching movies on my laptop, took a nice long nap and woke up feeling better. But not well enough to attend an annual Halloween fest at our friend's house.
Five's costume -- a Retro Robot -- was in the making for weeks. He spied it in a copy of Family Fun magazine a month ago we took many a field trip to hunt down all the materials (who would have thought that finding foil muffin tins would be so difficult?). He asked if he could wear it (of course!) and after he put it on, he waited patiently to hand out candy to the all of eight trick or treaters that came to our door. And by eight, I mean two groups of four.
I couldn't take the sight of him just waiting. My heart was aching as I watched him, his face still lacking in color from his early stomach woes. I told him he needed to show off his costume to the few neighbors in our hood that were dishing out the chocolate goods. He asked if I'd hold his hand and we walked up and down our street. After hitting three homes, he'd told me he was ready to go to his own casita. Off came the robot costume, on came the pajamas. He crawled into his bed to "take a rest," he claimed. After a kiss and a "Thanks Mom," he was sound asleep in minutes.
If you're wondering about Q., he was a Wonderpet. Ming Ming the duck, to be exact. We found a cute duck costume at Target and I made a cape for him without having to sew. Stitch Witchery is a lifesaver to those of us who are incompetent seamstresses. And with all the sass and attitude of a two year old, he chose not to wear it either.
Clearly my boys were more into the tricks this Halloween than the treats. My only hope is that this is no indication of the years ahead.
