Trick or Treat!

The ghosts and ghouls were all over the place in our neighborhood on Trick or Treat night! We decided to go a bit more along the "adorable" line of costumes and ventured out with the cutest clown on the block, though. Don't you think? And Lauren even got to come along...dressed in her own little Halloween outfit and riding right up next to Mommy in her sling. She slept for most of the adventure.

Joshua had never been Trick or Treating before, so we were impressed with his mastery of the concept. After a few houses, he was remembering to say "Trick or Treat" and the all important "Thank You" when he was done. We commented about his conversation skills, though, because he was the only kid we saw who wanted to stand and chat with the neighbors after he got his treat. I have no idea where he'd get something like that. :o)

Highlights for him included visiting with the firefighters who had parked their truck right up the street from our house to hand out glow sticks and Jr Fire Fighter stickers. They even let him sit in the front seat of the truck to try it out. He thought he was hot stuff. Unfortunately, there was also an injury while we were out Trick or Treating and there needed to be an ambulance and police cars on the street as well, so he got quite a kick out of seeing the flashing lights. I'm afraid he thinks that Trick or Treating will always include visits from emergency personnel.

He did pretty well on the peanut situation. We had long talks about how Mommy and Daddy would have to check his candy when we got home to make sure that it was safe for him. Truth be told, I had an identical jack-o-lantern full of safe candy for him to make the switch if everything was bad for him. Amazingly, lots of our neighbors were handing out things like Smarties, Tootsie Rolls and lollipops and he did a pretty good job of picking those things. Only about half of his stash had to be thrown away. It did break my heart, though, when he walked up to the one house and when picking his treat asked them, "Does this have peanuts in it?" I'm proud that he's starting to think about those things, but it makes me oh so sad at the same time.

We came home and let him dig into the safe pile. It served a great purpose, though, because the sugar rush he was on allowed him to stay up later to transition into the daylight savings time change. I vote for having "fall back" on Trick or Treat night every year for that exact purpose!

It was an exciting weekend all around. The Trick or Treating was super fun. And then, to top it off, we managed to get our family of four to church yesterday morning for the first time. It felt so good to be back. Everyone was so excited to see Lauren, although we allowed no one to touch her or really even breathe on her for that matter. Her feeding schedule worked out great and she ate right before we left and then slept on my shoulder for the whole service, which included communion. She managed to go 3 hours between feedings (a miracle!), and although she was mad as a hornet on our 47 second ride from church to home, we made it without me spending the entirety of the service in the nursery feeding her. Jason ended up going with Joshua to children's church, which I'm sure was NOT a highlight of his weekend, but Joshua seemed to have a good time. Miss Sarah was the latest victim of the swine flu, so I knew there was not a prayer of him staying in there with a "substitute" on his own after not having been there in over a month. So, we'll ease him back in and hopefully one day can leave him there without tears again without us staying. Hey, a Mommy can dream, right?

And so, Halloween weekend of 2009 is history. Can't wait to see everyone else's costumes!