Trick or Treat?

I was a little nervous about taking my kids to trick or treat this year.  And not because I suspect my neighbors of wanting to give out “bad candy” or anything like that.

 No my concern was my 3 year-old son, who has gotten progressively worse at following directions would be a little monster or that my baby girl would get scared of the spooky decorations.  But to my amazement, once he understood what the game was, he became a well behaved trick or treater!  He was able to say “trick or treat” and “thank you” at each house.   And when he was able to tell what other kids were dressed up as he would say things like “Hi ghost!” or “Hello Spooky Witch!”

Talk about adorable!

And my little girl was mostly chill.  Well, she did cry when anyone in costume tried to talk to her… but other than that she was good with being in the stroller for a good chunk of our walk and then she was good being held for the rest of the mini adventure.

There was one overwhelming point when a large herd of children all converged on the same house that my son was climbing the stairs of.  He made it to the top landing just as the mass of elementary school kids knocked on the door and shoved passed him for candy.  But my son didn’t seem to put off by being jostled by older children and once they had cleared out the lady giving out candy gave him one of her glow bracelets which really made my son’s night.  “It’s beautiful” he said over and over.  It’s kind of amazing what a big impression a little light can make on a small child.

After a while my son was more interested in checking out what was in his bag than adding to it, so we let him have a lollipop and made our way back home,  albeit trick or treating along the way, but we made it with minimal fuss.

All and all I feel fairly good about the idea of doing this again next year.