Trick-or-Treat

Enjoying the Night's Bounty

In Edmund's class this past week there was nonstop chatter about Halloween. This would be unnoteworthy in any elementary school class, but was rather comical given the fact that these particular children can barely remember what they had for dinner last night, let alone last Halloween. Last October 31st most of the kids were having their first bites of non-pureed food, so the chances are slim that any of them tasted candy then. If they did, their parents aren't fessing up. However, most of these kids have now tasted the sweet stuff and know what they were missing. Can it really be? There's a night when people hand out candy without mommies and daddies saying "eat your veggies first?" These kids were sold, and Edmund was no exception.

Last year Edmund donned his adorable pirate costume and I thought there was no way we were going to top it this year. Edmund's recent visits to the Museum of Life and Science had him in awe of space and he went around telling everyone he was going to be an astronaut for Halloween (not that he knew what Halloween was). Surprisingly astronaut costumes are hard to come by or really expensive. I know I could have made one, but as crazy as work has been that would have been one more stressor. So after talking to several friends with children Edmund's age, I concluded it was fine to go a little crazy with this year's costume. He's only two once. The years of cheap Darth Vader costumes aren't that far off, so I decided to splurge on a space suit with a little help from Kay Kay.

About a week ago, Edmund was invited to a pumpkin hunt at his friend Logan's. This was the perfect place to do a test run with the costume. We had to coax Edmund into it with the promise of candy at the party. He wasn't completely sold, but it's amazing what a two year old will do for chocolate. After a few minutes at the party he threw off the astronaut hat and wandered around in only the suit. I was in for a shock the following Friday when we attended a jack-o-lantern festival in Fearrington Village. Not only did Edmund willingly put on the costume, but refused to take off the hat. Steven was afraid the hat was obstructing Edmund's view, but Edmund didn't care. He was the cutest astronaut ever and he knew the hat completed his look. That night Edmund also got his first taste of trick-or-treating. We walked into a store and prompted Edmund to say trick-or-treat. Edmund complied and was able to take one Tootsie Roll. We asked him "what do you say?" Edmund's response? "Open it." "Thank you" was the answer we were looking for. After that Edmund wanted to go to more stores. He liked this candy thing. After one more store we called it a night. That was enough practice for the time being.

Finally, the big night rolled around. Edmund had been invited to go trick-or-treating with the kids in the neighborhood. We thought about it, but decided they were setting out too far past bedtime. Not only that, but Edmund is about 2 years younger than the next youngest child. The neighborhood kids love Edmund, but we think it's because they've figured out how to get him to do their bidding. "Ah man our Frisbee went all the way over there." "Hey Edmund do you want to play Frisbee with us?" Edmund happily runs after the Frisbee none the wiser.

As we approached the first house on our trick or treating route, Edmund couldn't contain his excitement. He eagerly rand the doorbell and said his "trick-or-treats" and even "thank yous" right on cue. However, he thought we were supposed to mosey on into each house. It took a couple of houses before he realized we weren't going in for a play date.

All was going well until we came to a house with a giant inflatable spider and Frankenstein's monster. Both were cutesy, but Edmund ran and clutched his mommy. Edmund had seen both decorations at Lowes earlier in the month and with fascinated curiosity asked, "What's that mommy, what's that?" I gave him a quick answer and he stood before the creatures dancing his silly dance. Seeing them at Lowes is one thing, but I suppose seeing them in the dark on the neighbor's lawn is quite another. Our neighbors thought Edmund was adorable, but Edmund kept saying "I go home now." We convinced Edmund to stay and take his treat. Edmund should be happy he stayed for he got his favorite treat of the evening. They had stuffed animals for the younger set. Edmund got a cute pug that barks when you push its tummy. He didn't let go of it all night. After the spider house, we had to convince Edmund to keep going. It didn't help that the neighbor kids had now congregated next door. They were all dressed as Star Wars characters. Edmund was a little wary, and the kids were so sweet as to show Edmund how they looked without their masks.

We continued on. Although now mommy was responsible for carrying Edmund to each house lest any spiders jump out at him. He also had daddy carry his pumpkin basket so he could ring the doorbell, then would quickly take it back in time to retrieve his loot. This slowed us down a bit and the neighborhood kids nearly made it around the entire cul-de-sac before we got home. We raced home to greet them for their "trick-or-treats', then hit up two more houses. By the last house, Edmund was a pro at this candy thing. The lady attempted to give Edmund a red lollipop. Edmund took one look at it and declared "green" as he reached in the bowl. He's had one lollipop in his life and already he has preferences. When we got home we allowed Edmund one lollipop. The lollipop kept him still enough for some pictures. We told Edmund he could have one more treat before bed. He chose pretzels the bag of pretzels he got across the street. The kid is making good choices already. It's been two days since Halloween night. Edmund seems to have forgotten about the candy, but his mommy and daddy haven't.