I’m sure you were just holding your breath and hoping for an entire post of Henry as a baby elephant, weren’t you?Live to serve, that’s the motto over here.

Halloween for a baby is kind of pointless. It’s not like he can eat candy, much less walk door to door. And even if James had let me shamelessly amass mountains of Reese’s on Henry’s behalf, I really don’t need to consume piles of candy.

BUT COSTUMES.So much of having a first baby seems like it is about endless clothing changes and a deep and abiding compulsion to wear all the tiny outfits. If you follow along over on Instagram, you know that I just can’t stop dressing Henry like a tiny bear to go outside. I call it practical (no need to fetch hat, shoes, gloves, etc, when you can just slip into a whole bear suit!), James calls it obsession. Whatever it is, I was thrilled to force Henry to become a tiny member of the animal kingdom for a day… or several, as I just keep on making him wear it around before he grows out of it.Friday night we hit Hilloween, the street festival in Eastern Market where all the area school’s have PTO booths selling tasty treats. It’s basically the yuppiest of Halloween festivals imaginable and I loved it. I was especially warmed by the willingness of so many father’s to dress like giant snowmen, the Olaf to their toddler daughters’ Elsa’s and Anna’s. I scoped out some good costume ideas for next year and we made sure to get pictures with Henry and his best friend Ava, who was a lion. The children were less than enthused about photos by that point, but we persevered. On Monday night we made sure to hit the Pretzel Bakery, where everyone in costume got a free pretzel. Henry generously shared his with me, as he is sticking with a mostly liquid diet for the moment and keeping a careful eye on his figure. We wandered down East Capitol Street for awhile and I was thrilled that a) so many houses went all out in decorating for the kids, including a house that did their entire gardens as Hogwarts, car-in-the-trees, floating candles and all and b) lots of kids were actually trick or treating. It seems like Halloween is more and more of an adult holiday, one that Americans spent more on in 2012 than the presidential election that year. I miss the days when I was a kid and I rummaged up a Halloween costume and went all over town with my friends, coming home to engage in a vicious battle of candy bartering with my brothers. I was so happy to see the streets packed with kids, most of whom were in the innocent sort of costumes I grew up with, rather than the bloody disturbing ones.Henry didn’t make it out for long, losing an elephant foot (paw? hoof?) in the process. But for a brief while, he was the tiniest elephant, taking on Capitol Hill, and I was the very happiest of moms, even managing to snag a couple pieces of candy on his behalf.