Friday, October 24, 2008

Photo Hunters - Scary


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Adam's scary glow stick face
Adam loves Halloween and pretending to be scary. Sorry for the obnoxious header graphic, I couldn't resist!

Speaking of Halloween, I've given up on the notion of taking Adam to any haunted houses or scary Halloween activities. Two years ago, when he had just turned six, we went to Walt Disney World and he completely freaked out at the Haunted Mansion. There was no line so we dragged the whole family into the ride, as it is one of our favorites. Adam didn't like the looks of the first room and started to pull away. We assured him that it would be just fine and dragged him in as the doors were closing. As soon as the room started to "grow", he couldn't take it and buried his head in our clothes. When we got onto the ride chairs, I went with Dova and Grandma, and Adam went with Doug in the next car. Unfortunately the ride kept stopping and we were often stuck in the dark with loud spooky noises. Grandma shot this picture of the haunted clock while we were waiting.

Stuck in the Haunted Mansion

I could hear Adam whimpering in the next car and Doug trying to calm him down. When I finally saw him in the mirrored ghost room, he was obviously crying and I felt so bad that we forced him on the ride.  After we finally exited, Adam sat on my lap on a bench outside and cried hysterically for twenty minutes.  He is such a sensitive boy and it scared the bejeezus out of him.  Dova, at two, was not fazed at all, but she waited patiently while her brother calmed down.  After that, he refused to go on any remotely scary rides such as the Pirates of the Caribbean.  He's seen all the movies, but there is much less impact from the small screen than life-size drunken animatronics leering at you.  We are heading back to Walt Disney World again in December and we are definitely steering clear of the Haunted Mansion this time.

Last year, I took the kids to a local haunted house put on by mostly high school kids.  They did a great job of acting out gory scenes, but once again Adam got spooked by the darkness and the loud screaming.  There was one small dark room that they wanted the group to enter where they performed some stunt that ended in a lot of screaming.  Adam refused to go inside again, so we waited it out.  We managed to get through the entire house with both kids clinging to me.  When we exited, there were boys revving chainsaws (without chains of course) to scare everyone away.  Adam grabbed my hand and ran for his life.  Thankfully he realized that they weren't really going to cut up the audience and managed to stop after 20 feet.  Dova was a little scared, but not nearly as spooked as Adam.  So much for scary activities for his favorite holiday.  Maybe there was a reason that he was born on All Saint's Day (the day after Halloween), instead of Halloween itself (besides his mom's insistence that she would not have a Halloween baby).

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