Alex's First Halloween

Nov. 1, 2007
All Saints Day

Last night, Christian and I took Alex trick-or-treating for the first time. He was Bob the Builder, outfitted in blue plaid and too-big jeans that fell down around his tool belt, exposing gray big boy briefs. He wore his yellow construction hat perched at a rakish angle on his head and completed the outfit with light-up Star Wars tennis shoes (garage sale special, 50 cents).

I enjoyed Halloween in a whole new ways last night. We stood back and let him go to the doors and ring them, and every time we had to tell him to say thank you. After 45 minutes of “Ooooh, how cute!” from every woman who answered the door (yes, OK, he’s adorable, I admit it) he was ready to stop “getting more candy” and to go eat some. We went home and turned on our own lights.

Christian served the first several trick-or-treaters, and then I took over till time to put Julianna to bed. Then…“Wanna give candy to the kids!” Alex said in his slow, deliberate way. Christian let him do it up till 8:00, which is bedtime, and then began a 45-minute pitched battle between the parents and the overexcited 2-year-old.

When at last he was ready for bed, the late rush—all the big kids—started. So we let him come downstairs. By this time we just wanted to get rid of as much candy as possible, so we let him take whole handfuls and put them in kids’ bags & buckets. He was in Heaven. But the part that made me really proud was that he was taking all the pieces of candy that he thought were the best ones and giving those out. He wouldn’t let me give out the cheapie eyeballs that I bought because they were cheap. He thought they were gross, and he wasn’t going to let me give them out. No, he was going to give away all the Kit Kat, Mounds, and Milky Way.

Christian tells me I shouldn’t read into that, but it seems to me that selfishness is so innate that even a 2-year-old ought to be well-versed in it. I’m so proud of him for giving the best to others.