The Junior Park Ranger

During our trip to the Grand Canyon last month, we were missing our favorite little boy a lot. So when Jeff saw a cute little park ranger costume at the shop in Grand Canyon Village, well... he bought it for Vinny.

Luckily, Vinny's really too young to understand what's going on, so we could get away with picking his costume for him (this is probably the last year for that). So Daddy dressed him up as the cutest little park ranger out there, and took this outstanding picture of our junior park ranger examining his sunglasses:

(Shouldn't that just win the cutest costume for two and under award?)

I think he's just as cute as his first and second Halloweens, but maybe I'm just biased. But no picture is as outstanding as this one of our cute little devil from last year:

(Clearly, this is a contestant for best picture ever.)

Before we took him trick-or-treating, I explained the rules. "We ring the doorbell, say 'trick or treat,' and then we get a piece of candy and put it in the bag." He really didn't understand what I was talking about, and at the first house, refused a piece of candy but wanted to go inside the house. Eventually he started to understand not only that people were offering him something, but that that something was CANDY, and then had I left him to his own devices, he would have taken everything from the bowl. He still didn't catch on that we were supposed to just stand at the door and not go in, though. He managed to give me the slip and go into several houses before I realized what was going on. A lot of people thought he was dressed as an explorer and just commented that he was acting in character.

Anyhow, it was the most engaged that he's ever been with Halloween. The first year, he mostly slept through the trick-or-treating. The second year, he wasn't walking yet so it was kind of a hassle to get him in and out of his wagon and carry him to people's doors. This year he's walking on his own and he really enjoyed seeing the people and walking into their houses (much to my embarrassment).

This post encouraged to be posted in a timely manner by the Parentbloggers Halloween costume contest, in which you can win a gift certificate for blurb -- where you can create a coffee table book custom-designed by you!