Candy, Candy, Candy!!!

Last year, we went to several Halloween events, but we didn't actually go knocking on any doors. This was the first year we took Claire trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. As you can see from the picture above, she was a little uncertain when we went outside and she saw other little ghosts and goblins running around. But after hitting up a few neighbors for candy, she decided Halloween was her new favorite holiday (at least until Christmas). As soon as we left the front porch of one house, she would tell us we needed to find a new house and get some more candy.

Overall, she was a very polite little trick-or-treater (saying "thank you" to everyone and even "Happy Halloween" a few times when we prompted her), but her enthusiasm for candy did cause a few small issues. It took a few discussions for her to understand that we weren't going to eat any candy until we got home. Then, once she realized that we had to get all the candy home safely before she could have any, she became a little protective of her loot. She seemed to think someone handing out candy might look into her bag and be so overcome with candy envy that they would steal her stash instead of adding to it. So, she really wouldn't let people get close enough to her bag to put candy in it. Instead, she wanted people to put the candy in her hand, so she could inspect it and then put it in her bag. If anyone made a move to put the candy directly into her bag, she would look up at them suspiciously and slowly back away until the bag was out of their reach. If it was a particularly special candy (aka lollipop), she didn't think it was safe to leave it in her bag at all. The lollipop had to be carried in her hand for safe keeping.

After an hour of running around the neighborhood, Claire's footsteps got a little slower. She asked us to carry the candy bag she had so closely guarded at the beginning of our adventure. Then she asked us to carry her. We knew it was time to call it a night, so we headed home.

She looked over her loot and picked out a couple of pieces to enjoy while we watched a Halloween cartoon and handed out some candy to other trick-or-treaters. Then, she went to bed and slept the long, deep sleep of a sugar coma. Once she drifted off, Josh and I looked through her bag and scarfed down took care of all the choking hazard candies. Overall, it was a great night.