A Halloween like this one deserved cocktails & lots of them.

The day started out normal.
A little back massage for Lily,

a little cuddling.

John & Ava carved a pumpkin together.

The pumpkin turned out great!

We had a lovely time at Grandpa's.

We got to pay him a visit and go trick-or-treating
at all his neighbor's houses.

The kids had a great time & got a ton of candy.

Tiffani & I even looked like we planned our outfits together.

All this trick or treating was supposed to be the prelude
to a big night of Halloween fun around our neighborhood.

In retrospect I am glad she at least got to trick-or-treat there.

The rest of the night didn't go so smoothly.

We had a wonderful chili cooking in the crock pot,
I made some cornbread muffins and zucchini bread.
Things were looking pretty good.
We even rented How to Train Your Dragon for the kids
to zone out on for a bit as they geared up for their big night.

Right around dinner time Ava totally lost it. She didn't
want to try going potty and it turned into a tantrum of
gigantic proportions. This tantrum when on and on.
I think for hours. What started out as a power struggle
about the potty turned into a fit about no longer getting
to trick-or-treat or play with Colton.

We stuck to our guns and made her stay in her room while
she screamed bloody murder about the injustices done
upon her. Families came to the door for their candy,
probably debating whether to call the authorities or not.

Colton went trick-or-treating without her and then headed
home. She missed it all. It was heart breaking.

She had so many opportunities to change the situation
and get to join back in on all the fun but that just wasn't
happening. She could not for the life of her get over any of it.
John and I were in super stressed mode not sure what to do
with this out of control, head spinning around two year old.

Finally, after this went on FOREVER we sent Jessica
in there to see if she could negotiate Ava into a pull-up.
We knew if she fell asleep like that there would be no getting
one on her later. They both emerged from the bedroom,
Ava looking saved, Jessica looking relieved. We agreed to
let her stay up and hand out candy as long as she understood
she was not having any candy or getting anymore Halloween fun.

The rest of the night was back to normal. Ava was awesome and
perfect. She LOVED handing out the candy. All the kids that
came couldn't get over how cute she was. She would instruct
them on on how many candies they could have and tell them
to have a happy Halloween.

I am not sure what to attribute Ava's terrible behavior to.
It may be that we have just reached a terrible, terrible stage.
(In fact as I write this she is having a completely irrational
fit, again.)

The other contributing factor could of been that
Colton was allowed to eat ENDLESS amounts of candy
while Ava was not. She got about two pieces and had to
watch him eating it in front of her all day long.

Really though, I think we have just hit a bad stage.
Ava can be perfect one minute and then totally melt
down the next. This behavior is so embarrassing. I hate it!

I think John might of hit the nail on the head last night
when he was talking about power struggles and saying
Ava is basically screwed because we all three are super
stubborn, it will be MY way people.

I don't know what the answer is, I do try to present her with
choices so she feels like she has a say in things and a certain
amount of control.

All I know is it is tough to have nights like those and no
cocktails in sight : )

Next year will be better, right???