Happy Halloween, Mateys!

We had some fine looking pirates at our house this Halloween. Once again, we Trick or Treated in less than desirable weather conditions. It was a particular bummer this year, because the weather was gorgeous on Friday and Sunday. But, whatcha’ gonna’ do? First world problems for sure. And at least the rain stopped while the kids were out begging our neighbors for candy.

We got off to a rocky start. Nick demanded I carry him as we were leaving the house. I obliged, but then forced him down to walk up to the first house. He got is candy turned around and reached for me again. I carried him a few steps and then told him, he was a big boy and needed to walk and put him down again. He walked almost all the way to the next house before reaching up for me again. I told him, “no,” and looked up at me with his big eyes and said, “But, Mommy my feet are wet.” I scooped him up and discovered that Mark had never put his shoes on under his boot pull-overs (which have no bottom). So, I was forcing the poor boy to walk on wet pavement in his socks. I should have laughed it off, but for some reason it got me really annoyed and Mark and I got into a “whose fault was it” exchange. In hindsight it’s funny, but it just wasn’t to me in the moment. However, in a happy ending, as soon as Nick had dry feet, he was all about the candy trail. He loved it! Mark said he probably would have walked the whole neighborhood, if he’d let him.

And I relay Nick’s experience from Mark’s account, because Elaine went to two houses and then refused to continue. Not sure what happened exactly. It could be our neighbor scared her when he came to the door in a black hood or maybe she let her shyness get to her and didn’t want to keep going up to houses…or most likely she just wanted to be difficult. She also refused to go visit our good friends a few blocks over and when they ended up coming to our house, she wouldn’t speak to them until the last three minutes of the visit.

We did end the night with some fun at our neighbor’s house, however. A few families got together and the adults had cocktails, while the kids ran around and played. I was worried Lainey wasn’t going to cooperate given her attitude to that point, but she had a great time and we had to force her to leave. 

As incentive to leave peacefully without causing a scene, we let her stay up extra late and watch a movie at home. (Bribery works and I embrace it wholly!) Letting her stay up until 10pm had the bonus effect of keeping her IN bed until 6am the next morning and avoiding the dreaded daylight savings sleep routine havoc. Nick still got up at 4:15am…doh!

Hope you all had a very Happy Halloween! Now on to Thanksgiving…