We went to the Treasure Island Music Festival this year and took everyone from the office and Dexter. Brixton stayed home with the sitter since it's loud, outdoors, and just not a good place for an almost 6 month old for hours on end. We bought VIP tickets that came with parking on the island as well as a special area to watch the concert, nicer toilets, and convenient food and drink. I don't think it would work well otherwise and Dexter got in free. This was a dream show for him because his 2 favorite bands were playing, Miike Snow and LCD Soundsystem. He also got to see a newer fave, Deadmau5.
I kept him up later than usual the week preceding and he took a nap on the drive over to Treasure Island. I thought it was going to work perfectly, but he had less than half of his nap because he woke up in the car shortly after I parked. We planned a lot to take him and so he had special ear protection, his pajamas and night diaper in the car, and I had an emergency change of clothes in case any accidents happened, potty or otherwise. I had my trusty water bottle that I refilled after entering that we both could drink from and a bunch of snacks.
He did really well though. He used the potty without any accidents, ate the crappy food and didn't get too overwhelmed. He LOVED it. He danced, he sang along, he entertained drunk people, and got to see some of his favorite bands play his favorite songs. He was awesome. At one point someone asked if he was a kid or a midget. Hilarious!
The next day, we asked Dexter what he wanted to be for Halloween. His answer sparked a 2 week long project for Mr. Cobra to build a pretty awesome helmet that looked like Deadmau5. It took a day of supply hunting to just get started and the next two weeks to get it cut, glued, and fitted for Dexter. The end result was a fantastically bad ass disco ball Deadmau5 helmet that had green glowing eyes and glowing green trim. We are lucky that Dex doesn't mind having things on his head or offer his eyes. The helmet made his head about 10 times as wide as normal. He ran into a ton of stuff, but he and the helmet made it through.
We went to our usual Halloween spot with thousands of trick or treaters called Belvedere. It is Hollywood-esque in the sheer numbers of little kids in costume. It runs the gamut of pushy parents with bratty kids; to adults pushing around preschoolers in strollers up to houses to say trick or treat and then be rolled away; to sweet babies just along for the ride; to good kids waiting their turn patiently. Thankfully the latter has been drilled into Dex through his Acroport classes. We had to have him yell "Trick or Treat" to be heard. He was very good and we took a couple "candy breaks" to take the helmet off and eat some of his well-earned loot. Only a handful of people knew who he was, but that's ok. People loved his costume even if they didn't know the musician.
