Understanding Halloween

Asher is at that age where he is beginning to "get" holidays... but only after they have passed. On Friday we took him to a church sponsored trunk-or-treat in an empty field with a bonfire and a chili cook-off. We ushered him around the circuit of cars and prompted him to say "trick-or-treat!" and "thank you!" ...but no dice. He was as silent as the grave. I wasn't even sure how he felt about his costume.

Last night was Halloween, and we started hearing a bit of excitement from our little pumpkin about his "Dash coshume." That made me feel good, because I did spend a little bit of time and energy on that. We allowed him to observe kids coming to our door shouting "Trick-or-Treat!" and he seemed to detect a pattern here. You say those words, you get candy, you go on your merry way. He tried it with our candy bowl. He walked up to it and said "Ticker Teet!" and gave himself a candy. We thought he was ready to visit the neighbors.

Next door there were a few groups of kids converging on the porch. He didn't like the looks of the crowd so he slowed up. The kids weren't going anywhere soon, however. We nudged him and pulled him through the crowd to the front door. He was very quiet. We tried to get him to say the correct words, but he didn't. He got candy anyway. We tried to get him to say "thank you" or "happy Halloween" but he didn't. He was a little overwhelmed. The pattern continued down the street. Only once did I hear a very quiet, high-pitched "Thank you!"

Well now Halloween is over. Every time he sees his pumpkin bowl he says "Trick-or-Treat!" and "Happy Halloween!" He talks about being Dash and he is very animated about it all. Oh well, he'll be ready for next year.

(P.S. This is the costume I made for Asher the day of our trunk-or-treat party. There was nothing in the stores for a 2T sized boy that was cute and cheap. Thank goodness for Joannes and the fact that it didn't need to look perfect.)