Like every kid on the planet, I loved Halloween. I loved dressing up and running down hallway after hallway (in New York City, you trick or treat in apartment buildings), and most of all loved going home that night and sorting through my candy, organizing it into piles according to a very specific hierarchical system I'd developed over the years, with Snickers at the top and Red Hots at the very bottom along with those weird-flavored Tootsie Rolls and anything involving black licorice.

But ever since I graduated from the trick or treating stage, Halloween has been one of my least favorite holidays - sort of like New Year's, it just feels like so much pressure. YOU MUST HAVE FUN TONIGHT. You know.

Last year, on my son's second birthday, my favorite photograph of him was one in which he was out-of-focus, too excited to stand still for even a second.

This year: same thing.

Yes, that is a bouncy castle. In our backyard.