Trick or Treat! (October 31, 2009)

Trick or Treat! 

Last night was Trick or Treat night here in our town as was most of Central Ohio.  It was such a nice night, all the neighbors got to sit outside and pass out candy while all the little goblins ran from house to house getting those yummy treats! 

Our little dragon, Sam, headed out and he was excited to be outside and looked a little confused as to why all these people dressed up in weird clothes, was on the sidewalks he normally walks by himself.  We went to the door of a familiar house first; a house he knows he can just walk right up to the door and say hi and apparently thinks he can just walk right into! (Sorry about that Beth!)  The whole house came out to see our little dragon and to take pictures and to give out candy.  He didn’t want to leave; he thought that was the end of our journey.  But, instead of sticking around to visit with neighbors, we took Sam by the hand and led him to another familiar house where the little boy there was still getting into his lion costume. Again he thought he could just walk right up the steps and go on inside.  After a little conversation we again took Sam by the hand and led him on down the sidewalk. 

We finally reached a house he didn’t know.  A lady was outside in her chair waiting for Sam to walk up, but Sam just kept right on walking like he normally does on our walks around the cul-de-sac.  Daddy had to stop him and take him up to the lady with the large bowl of candy and she put the goodies in his little cloth pumpkin bucket and away we went. She giggled as he toddled away, dragon tail wagging, she looked at us and said “he is too darn cute!”  We said thank you and went on to the next house.  

The next house was quite exciting for Sam as he saw two cats in the drive.  He didn’t even care about the bowl of sugar the nice gentleman had, he wanted those cats!  The cats scurried and hid under the car, so Sam of course had to get on his hands and knees and look under the car and say “KITTY CAT!, KITTY CAT!, KITTY CAT!”  Daddy picked Sam up and walked him over to the man with the candy all the while Sam looking over his shoulder trying to spy those kitty cats!  As we started off to the next house one cat poked his head out seeing if it was all clear to come out from under the car when Sam saw the cat, he again dropped to his knees and looked under the car “KITTY CAT!”  It was hard to pry him away from the kitty cats and get him to go on, but he finally stopped looking for kitty cats and continued on his way around the cul-de-sac.   

As our exploration for treats continued more and more kids started filling the sidewalks and Sam started to understand more and more how this trick or treating thing worked.  And with every house we had to keep putting Sam’s dragon hood on his head just so he could push it off after he got his candy.  One house with three older ladies thought Sam was just the cutest thing they’d ever seen and decided that 3-4 pieces of candy from each of them was the only right thing to do for such a cute dragon.   

After the house with the three generous ladies something clicked and he just knew exactly what to do from every house after that one!  With each house we came to all we’d have to say is “Go up and say trick or treat” and off he went, by himself, with his arm outstretched holding his little pumpkin bucket getting that next treat.   

After we exited the cul-de-sac we still had two house we had to stop, our neighbor Joyce and her neighbors Cliff and Erin.  We had to pass our house to get to these next two stops so when Sam saw our house he ran down the driveway pointing to the garage door saying “Up n down, Up n down”  We had to go get him to go to the next houses and he started crying, saying “home, home, home”.  We knew that these next two houses were going to be our last.  So we finally coaxed him to go up to Joyce’s door, which really didn’t take much coaxing as Joyce makes ceramics and she had a whole Halloween display with blinking lights that Sam just had to go see!  Once he got his candy, he just sat down right on Joyce’s porch and watched those blinking lights all the while saying “Light on, Light on”.  Once we pried him away from the blinking lights of Joyce’s porch it was on to Cliff and Erin’s. 

Erin was outside with her mother and a friend and they each had bowls of candy, so Sam having gotten the knack for this getting candy thing, he just marched right up to these women and took suckers from each of their bowls and went back for seconds!  Daddy tried to get him not to take more but the women just egged Sam on and so he took more suckers.  I think he got away with about 6 suckers!  The ladies just laughed and thought that was the best thing they’d seen all night.  The wanted to give him more, but we said no thank you and started him across the street as the ladies were starting to get a rush of kids.   

We wanted to take him across the street to two last houses and he seemed up for it so we went on.  The next house we came to there was a nice man sitting just inside his door, but his porch light was off.  We wondered if he was giving out candy or not.  I saw the outside garage light on and him sitting with door open so I figured it was a go.  Sam ran up to the door pulling daddy with him, the man stepped outside with a huge bowl of candy and explained that of all nights his porch light went out.  He put the bowl down for Sam to reach in and take a piece of candy, and what did my son do?  He grabbed himself two pieces of candy with one little hand!  We all laughed and he looked at us with a smile, as if he knew what he was doing.  

Last house was right across the street from ours and he started to pull us in the direction of our driveway when our neighbor opened the door to give him candy.  I took him up to the door and low and behold another kitty cat!  He wanted to go inside that house so bad that he bumped his head on the bowl of candy.  It took all I had to hold on to his hand so we could get back down the steps and away from the kitty cat.  As he was going down the steps he looked up and saw daddy and the kitty cat was no longer a priority.   

So after 45 minutes of trick or treating our son had slowed his pace to a snails crawl and was ready to go home.  He had had enough excitement and wanted to eat a sucker.  After opening the garage door, I flipped on our porch light and handed out the candy I had purchased for the little ghosts and goblins in our neighborhood.  We got one very cute Dorothy, a beautiful Red Riding hood and one Michael Jackson w/a silver glove.  We also go some pesky high school kids who were way too old to be trick or treating but I was gracious and gave out the candy anyway.  One kid I almost said no to as he walked up to my door smoking a cigarette.  I just put one piece of candy in his bag and didn’t say a word.   

After the smoking child left, Sam and George came out to help pass out candy.  My little dragon sat next to daddy on the porch sucking on his sucker.  He had the best time and he was so content with sitting on the porch with his sucker watching all these kids come up and do the same thing he had just done.  We ran out of candy, turned off our lights and put our sticky faced child in the tub.  He slept very very well, even after all the sugar! 

Thanks for reading
~Andrea