Halloween is certainly not a local Singaporean holiday, however, there are certainly celebrations of the ritual amongst the large number of American expats living here.
As lack of luck would have it, I was on a top secret mission to Tokyo during the fateful week and was sorely disappointed to miss the Party of Five first annual Halloween special. Luckily though, the Wicked Witch of Weight Loss was good enough to capture some defining moments for all of us to share.
For the Blaus this year we had the following cast of characters...
Savanna, starring as Ariel, the Mermaid Princess who enraptures sailors with her voice and can stuff a whole pumpkin cupcake into her mouth while fighting off peers seeking to touch her mysterious Ariel backpack.
For 2007, the year of the new homerun king in baseball, Colten chose to honor his San Franciso hero with a dedication to Giants Baseball.
(Please note that there is still a pending investigation as to how Colt was able to exceed 8 kilos in his last five months. Local press reports have suggested performance enhancing drugs may have been supplied by his father, something the family vehemently denies) 
Brandon and Jen were not to be outdone and managed a respectable showing as Fashionable Witch and Rather Dubious Pirate. Seven years ago we started our courtship on Halloween and thus it's also been a special holiday for us. This year we managed to show up at another family's Halloween Party, without our kids, and as the only adults in costume. To top it off, all the other families were French so we spent the rest of the night drinking Bourdeax, chomping on baguettes with extraordinarily smelly cheese and casually chiming in Je ne parle pas français bien mais ce vin est délicieux as appropriate.
You've got to love Halloween!
It's always fascinating to identify trends in your parenting efforts. One clear tendency is that all your pictures are of your kids...with no good shots of the couple that made it all possible. These shots go out as testaments to the "way we were" AND will be for years to come. 3 under 3 may occasionally inhibit romance but it doesn't tarnish the luster. (cut to Barry White tune & fade out)
It's a proud moment when you realize that occasionally your children listen to what you say. Who cares if the derived meaning might be 180 degrees from that which you had originally intended. What matters is that you've made a breakthrough.
A few months back, MBA Dad .employed numerous Pavlovian cues to convince one Savanna Hope Blau of the virtues of using the restroom like a big girl, and shedding her baby safeguards along the way.
We reviewed the positive impact on the environment and even the psychological virtues of Dora the Explorer panties vs Pampers, however, ironically, what eventually stuck was the catch cry of "Let's focus on the potty".
From that moment on, she could not wait to tell good ole dad about today's achievements "focusing on the potty". Amidst her delight in advising on her progress "focusing", she boldly stepped forward into big girl status and shed the stigma of frumpy pants. This marked one small diaper for daughter, but one massive relief for Blau-kind in Singapore.
And parenting books be damned, I had cracked the code with a bit of BSchool 101 vocab. At the end of the day, it was all about FOCUS wasn't it? Who could imagine the power of FOCUS when applied to future challenges??! Like some wide-eyed fresh recruit she had seized upon the power of Focus like a pig to...well, poo. How had no one ever told me about this magic word??!! Had we cracked the code? Was this the key to stifling the whines, blasting through bathtime??
Much to our chagrin, we quickly discovered that the "FOCUS technique" was not so easily transferable."Savanna, I need you to focus on eating your oatmeal"
"Focus on the potty?"
"No...focus on eating all of your oatmeal."
" I focused on the potty like a big girl, right daddy?!"
... ... ...
"Yes, dear. You did a great job focusing on the potty."
Moral of the story is that you can only Focus so much on your kids before insanity overtakes you.
As lack of luck would have it, I was on a top secret mission to Tokyo during the fateful week and was sorely disappointed to miss the Party of Five first annual Halloween special. Luckily though, the Wicked Witch of Weight Loss was good enough to capture some defining moments for all of us to share.
