A geek in nerds' clothing

Halloween came early this year because last evening, we attended the Binns Boo Bash, a yearly Halloween party held by a partner (and said partner's wife, of course) at Timothy's firm. Seeing as it was technically a party for kids, Alex was actually the one invited, and he was nice enough to let us tag along as his "plus 2".

It took us a while to come up with Alex's costume this year because, somehow, nothing that we thought of seemed to be "it", "The One", the costume that inspired the elusive AHA!! moment. As some of you know, this is a process I take very seriously, one that requires careful consideration, research, and planning before a final decision can be made. And after months of rejected costume concepts, it came to me, the perfect choice, "it", "The One". I finally had my AHA!! moment.

I know, it totally suits him, doesn't it? Somehow, in all his nerdy glory, he is still about the cutest darn thing I've ever seen. I mean, the kid makes nerdy look good.

Compared to last year's strongman get-up, this nerd thing was a cinch to put together. I only had to make the suspenders and the bowtie (which I could have ordered online if the idea had come sooner) and tape the glasses and the pocket protector. Everything else was pret-a-porter, so we had extra time before we left for our party to take lots of pictures and recover from the raucous fits of laughter that ensued after we saw our whole vision of nerdliness realized.

Sure, he may resent me when he's thirteen for putting him through this humiliation, but I figure I need to take advantage of the early years, when he could care less about his costume, before he gets older and, God forbid, wants to be Barney or Spongebob Squarepants for Halloween. Shudder.

Anyway, we left for the party and, after fighting our way through miles of State Fair traffic, got there around four-thirty. The Binns' have a humongous fenced-in backyard (with grass!) and lots of fun kid stuff, like a swingset, playhouses, a huge wooden train, and an inflated bouncy house, so Alex was in hog heaven. They had even hired a clown to paint faces and make balloon animals. Turns out, Aunt Rachel, that Alex is not afraid of clowns. Of course, this clown bribed him with a turtle bracelet, which we promptly confiscated when he tried to eat its head.

It was really helpful to see which toys Alex gravitated to so that we could start formulating his Christmas list, especially now that we have a backyard to put big backyard stuff in. He really loved the little pink playhouse, of course, and I immediately started thinking about how I could make one for him out of wood. Hmmm, Grampa B will be here in a couple of weeks...perhaps it could be a working vacation...


He also loved the swings and the slides, although we may wait a while before we get ourselves any of those. That's what the park is for.

It's always fun to see Alex interacting with other kids, and although he was one of the younger kids there, that didn't stop him from jumping in. By the end of the night, I think close to twenty kids were racing around, having the time of their lives, and Alex was one of them. We didn't end up leaving until 8 o'clock, so it was another late night for A, but totally worth it. We are so looking forward to the Boo Bash next year. Hmm, better start planning his costume now...