Happy Halloween

Breaking Bad is over, well season 4 is anyway. Before the finale when discussing with friends what I was supposed to be doing with my Sunday night, I was told about “The Walking Dead”. The truth is I’m not sure why I had never watched it. Perhaps lack of space on my DVR or perhaps it was in a different time slot the previuos season. Either way I was on board and scheduled the DVR to record the season 1 marathon for the day of the season 2 premier. Luckily it’s just 6 episodes and so I knew it couldn’t take too long to catch up.

The day of the premier came and by the time I was home from a running the Los Angeles AIDS walk with my Team 2 End AIDS teamates. There were already a few episodes to watch. I started and from the first few minutes of the show and the “chaos” that ensued I knew I would be watching them all. My only dilemna then was how I would fit in watching all of these when I don’t really like banishing my son to his room so that I can watch TV. I watched the first episode and although some of it is graphic and violent I decided he could watch it. Perhaps I’m too confident of my sons grasp of fantasy and reality.

Here we were a few weeks later and Halloween was quickly approaching. The plan was to go as Captain America because he absolutely loved the movie enough to ask for it as a theme for his party. We saw the perfect one at the Disney Store but by the time we went back to buy it, it was too late. We literally had no costume and thought he’d really be heartbroken about not getting to be Captain America. Not close at all to what his response was. “It’s OK, I’ll be a Zombie!” he said. I could tell by the malicious laugh that he could already see himself as one of “the walking dead” He also mentioned that he’s also seen Zombies on the Disney channel for those of you judging me. In my wife’s defense she did try and change his mind, unsuccesfully of course.

The night before Halloween, (Sunday this year) we sat down as a family after dinner but before his bedtime and we watched the newest episode. I could tell he was focusing and saw him on more than one occasion making the throaty grunt and noises the onscreen dead were making. When it was finally time to go to bed, I also saw him try and stagger off to bed “in character”. I could tell he was so excited. I knew he would hardly sleep excited to get all dressed up for his Halloween festival at school the next day.

Rested or not he jumped out of bed faster than I’d seen him do all semester for school. He brushed his teeth and waited patiently for me to start on his face painting. We ended up requiring some help from mom. She after all does this whole make up thing on a daily basis. At last it was done and after shredding his school uniform (last years) he was ready for his reveal in the bathroom mirror. He loved it and the moment got into character for the first of many pictures I would take that day.

We drove to school and it was a hit. The boys loved it and thought it was cool and the girls were petrified. It was incredible how he would get into a Zombie state the moment he saw the camera was on him and I couldn’t help but laugh when he tried to scare us. He did break when we laughed like in the picture with his teacher above. On the drive home he reminded us that the reason for the Zombie is on Halloween the more you scare the potential candy givers the more they give. It’s been a while since I’ve gone out to trick-r-treat but he worked his Zombie and at the end of the night was very please with the results and back to my smiling and bubly son.

I happen to think he’s well adjusted and an all around bright kid but he still surprises me with the stuff he picks up on. His mom and I are glad he didn’t bite anybody at school and can’t wait to see what he wants to dress up as next year. I absolutely love how much fun I had just watching him.