costume sale!

Why yes, that IS a magician at my front door. Wal-Mart marked the Halloween costumes down to WAY CHEAP ($1.40 for kid costume), so we loaded up. He's been asking me for a magician set, so I was thrilled to find one his size. And for $1.40. So I went back to the racks--they were still marked $3.50 or $4.75, so it was a pleasant surprise at the register--and added Iron Man, a vampire, and a doctor to our collection. And got myself a costume as well ($3.50). Dennis was beside himself with joy when he saw his new dress-up stuff (and I am kicking myself for not adding that to his Christmas stash, but he'll enjoy them now). He BEGGED to put on Iron Man before we went to Gran's for supper, but I told him it was too cold out. He settled for the magician outfit, and he greeted Gran at her door with a wide-legged stance, wand-out, "abracadabra, al-a-kazaam, PRESTO!". He wondered why she didn't disappear. Cheap wand, I guess.

He donned the Iron Man outfit as soon as we got in the door, stripping out of his clothes in the kitchen and breakfast room. He zoomed around the house like we'd given him sugar laced with caffeine in huge doses. He climbed and jumped off furniture, telling us Iron Man could fly and was busy training to fight bad guys. He kept this up for nearly an hour. Iron Man greeted Pop at the door, and we all sat down to dinner. Gran told Dennis that Iron Man had to take off his mask to eat, she'd seen him do it. He replied, "no, he keeps his mask on to do it--I've seen him eat." I asked him when he saw this (really we don't know how he knows who Iron Man even is). He replied "on Tuesday" and began eating his supper. We had a good laugh. After supper, he was marching around the table (well, racing around the table) when Pop asked him why he was so wild. He said "I pushed my BAD button" and began shouting "BAD! BAD! BAD!" in a growly voice as he raced around. I grabbed him as he flew past my chair, poked him in the tummy, and said "there, I pushed your GOOD button." He stopped, looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, shook his head tersely one time, said "nah", and then pushed his stomach again at the same spot where I got him. Then he resumed his racing and chanting "BAD! BAD!". We have no idea where this concept came from. We've never said 'bad button' or 'good button' before. The badness took hold, though, and wrestling him out of the Iron Man costume and into his clothes so we could go grocery shopping turned into a major ordeal. And when we got outside, he said "can I take my pants off in the street?". Crazy little guy. I can see we're going to have to institute an 'all pants, all the time' rule around here.

Oh, and today he was thankful for "all the places we go to". Nice one!