I was chatting with Evan's friend's mom the other day. Her son is also 3 years old like Evan. She was relating to me the tough time she had been having with her son's defiance and contrariness. Hmmm... that surely sounded familiar.

Cat In The Hat interviewing Batman about his utility belt.

Evan was exactly like that for two weeks. Tell him "no" and he will yell at you. Give him a scolding and he will "blow raspberries" (almost spittinglike) as defiance. Meltdown in the middle of the street for all the neighbors to hear? Yup, we had several of that. I recently browsed a book "Your Three Old: Friend Or Enemy" and that exactly what our relationship for the past month has been like. Now, since last week, we are buddies again.

I nodded sympathetically at what the other mom was saying, then something occurred to me and I shared it with her. "You know, somebody have told me that these moods are like waves. Some weeks they are contrary and other weeks they are very cooperative. But what I have noticed with Evan was that after the days of being difficult he sort of hits a milestone and what follows are really good changes."

Like he is much more calm not when we are outdoors. He actually holds my hand willingly, walks on the sidewalk and enjoy a conversation with me. The first time this happened was when he got bored on the small, deserted playground and I invited him to walk with me in the neighborhood, to wade through fallen leaves and look at decorated houses. And we did that, and we both had fun. We were doing something what grown-ups would do!

There was the other "first times" too the night when I told Evan to put all his toys in a box, left his room and when I came back, there wasn't a single toy on the floor. Or when I handed him his briefs and pants and when I came back he wasn't in his room anymore but in the living room wearing the said underwear and bottoms. Or when I did grocery with him no longer seated at the cart (at his request) but walking along with me and having fun pushing the cart, helping me put the vegetables inside the plastic bag. Or when he didn't go crazy at the toy section in Target but did look at the toys one by one and chose only one of the cheaper toys that I told him that he can have (I told him big, expensive toys are only for birthdays and christmas).

I really thought that Evan would be whining during Halloween with all the other kids in their Superhero costumes, but he didn't at all. What he would do was just follow them around, ask questions about their costumes ("Batman, is that your utility belt?" "Ironman, is that your mask?" "Buzz, are you a superhero?"), complimenting them ("Nice Flash costume!") but he never whined to my relief.

This morning we were at the library's foyer and Evan was putting around 10 books back in the return slot. An older gentleman stopped and jokingly asked me, "how much are you paying him?" I laughed. He complimented, "he is really doing a good job. I wish I taught my daugher how to do that." I do remember another friend bemoaning the fact how her now 9 year old daughter was lazy in fixing her room or even getting water from the fridge. My friend regrets of not training her when she was younger partly because it was faster when the parent's does it themselves, "we treated her like a princess for too long when actually they love to help around the younger they are."

And I can see it in Evan now. Having him underfoot while vacuuming, doing the laundry or dishes, dusting the house may make doing the chores longer but it is play for him. And learning too. Another wave might come in a few weeks or so again but knowing the positive developments that comes after it makes riding out the tough preschooler mood swings all worthwhile.

It took 3 weeks of convincing before Evan finally agreed to be Cat In The Hat and not Transformers for Halloween.

I told him that if he was going to be Transformers (either Bumblebee or Optimus Prime) or Wolverine or Ironman he will be like many kids and the people handing out candies will say, "weren't you here before?" and not give him candies. Wink.

Eventually he grew to love the idea, the taaaaallll hat, the loooong tail and white gloves. Which was good because it was a chilly afternoon (52F/11C as high), I was able to layer him up inside (4 layers for the top and 2 for the bottom) without covering his costume with a coat.

He even had a sack instead of the generic bucket (that pumpkin face he glued himself) or the pumpkin fabric bag simply because I misplaced the latter.

Tom is just as stage parent as I am, although he's more subtle about it. My husband was complaining of being cold the whole time yet he stuck around, calling out regularly to remind his son to say "trick or treat" and "thank you".

Evan's loot. Since Tom doesn't eat candy bars, and it's a case of out-of-sight-out-of-mind for my son (he has had two half eaten lollipops last night) I'll be the one who's going to be tempted by these candies, they will packed and brought down to storage for the Philippines this January.

I love Halloween, especially after having a child. It's my favorite american tradition. More so this year since I have gotten many compliments from the Halloween costume I made. In fact I overheard three times of it "winning the prize". The best part, Evan proudly told his daddy, "I was the only one!"

When they sent out a letter about field trips, my first reaction was "are they kidding me? He's just a baby!" It's a good thing that I'm not working so I can go with him and make sure he's okay. What can I do, I might like him being independent but I am not ready to let him go 20 miles away from me and outside of school with strangers yet. Okay, they're his teachers but still... At the same time I didn't want him to miss all the fun. And we, yes we, both did. It was also my first school field trip in the US and our first time in a school bus.

Evan kept talking about the Jack O' Lantern in the farm but I couldn't remember seeing one, until he pointed it out in this picture. How could I have forgotten that?

My wards. The pre-schoolers are paired with 4th graders they call their school buddies, as partners for various school activities. Evan idolizes his. And observing Evan's school buddy I think my son got the best one, he's very attentive to Evan and talks to him a lot. I was assigned to keep an eye on Evan and his school buddy and one of Evan's classmate and his own school buddy. Good boys all of them. There were probably 5 other parents in the field trip with around 50 kids total.

Giving mommy a wink/smile while on a muddy and bumpy hayride. One other parent called the field "Lake Mud", while I called it "The Muddy Mud Pits" something I got from Evan's Diego book.

Evan with other classmates and their own school buddies. The hayride was too long for me.

Taking a break and having lunch. See how Evan idolizes Michael? He talks about him at home many times. See the meat roll on Evan's lunch pack? I made them.

 See what I mean about the attentive school buddy and Evan idolizing him? Sometimes I wonder what the 2 would talk about.

At the petting zoo. Evan is scared about the goat feeding from his hand, so Michael tried to make it better by letting the goat eat the corn from the cup, then there was a melee when the goat tried to eat the cup too.

We left at 9 am and came back at 2pm. The bus ride was a good 45 minutes. I tried to make myself scarce and have Evan interact with his friends and I succeeded. In fact about 3 times during the trip when Evan would spot me he would call out and wave his hand, "bye mom!" I guess, he's just not used to see his mommy being around during school time.

If I don't have time to blog these days it's because I'm busy making this:

Can't wait to see Evan when he goes trick or treatin'

And I haven't even started yet. You would think that Evan's school would only be too happy to have somebody interested in helping out but apparently in order to volunteer one has to:

A couple of Evan's school art projects, a finger painted apple paper bag and pre-school pointillism.

read and sign Application To Volunteer

read and sign Mandated Reporter Form

fill out and sign CANTS form (Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System)

read and sign the Code Of Conduct which among other things states:

• Never touch a minor in a sexual way or other inappropriate manner.
• Never be alone with a minor in a residence, rectory, sleeping facility, or any
  other closed room.
• Never share a bed with a minor.
• Never take an overnight trip alone with a minor.

go online to complete a National Criminal Background Check

attend a 3 hour volunteer training and get a certificate for that"

Whew. If it wasn't Evan's school and I didn't want to spend some schooltime with him like chaperoning him in one of their field trips or being a room parent, I would've said "forget it". But it is comforting to know that Evan's school is taking extra measures in ensuring their student's safety and not just allowing any stranger to be around them.