Costco Halloween
One weekend a few weeks ago, my 2 year old son L wanted to go to Costco with me after his nap. He was really excited and he always says he wants to go in the shopper, which I think is such a cute way of saying shopping cart! I was excited to take him, but it turned into a monumental trip for L.
When we got there to Costco, it started like any other trip. He was happy in the shopper that I put him in and we went inside the store. We were following the main walkway and all of a sudden, there were Halloween decorations out already. This is the summer and I feel like Costco puts out festive things earlier and earlier over time. I know they have a strategy to make sure customers buy their holiday themed items from them since the selection is out early, but I was surprised it was already out. Logan was curious, so we just kept going closer.
There was a huge blow up skeleton that looked silly, but it was so huge it took up the top of a whole aisle. L saw that and he wasn’t startled at first. Then we kept walking down towards the fruit and there was this cartoonish looking mutant man thing holding a candle that was posted up at the end cap of the aisle. L looked closer at this thing and all of a sudden, it started to animate and talk! That freaked L out so bad that he was screaming no no no and crying. He wanted to get away!
I had to pick him up immediately from the shopper and hold him tightly. I walked away so fast and even though he couldn’t see the animated thing, he kept seeing the skeleton and putting his face down into my shoulder. He was really frightened! I did tell him that we do have a skeleton inside of us and that wasn’t scary - it actually helps us attach muscle to the bone! I also told him the animated thing was just a toy and not real. He seemed to need some time to process this, but he kept repeating these thoughts over and over during the trip.
Over the next few weeks, L kept talking about bones since he now knows it is inside of us. He found one of the books we had with a picture of a skeleton and wanted me to read it to him also. It was a science book and he was curious about all the pictures. L just keeps bringing up skeletons and how they are inside people and animals now and that Costco Halloween trip turned into a mini-science lesson. Unfortunately, it started out really scary, but I thought it was cute the way he was crying and I’m glad he got over it! Even though I love holding onto him as well, I hope our future trips have him situated in the shopper because at Costco, I’m at a huge disadvantage with one arm if I have to hold him during the whole trip again!
