Halloween

Its taken a few years and two medications, but we had a good Halloween here.

In years past, we picked costumes, got all dressed up, and then G would only want to give out candy.  (We get over a thousand kids each year, in 1.5-2 hours).  At least two years that I can remember, G picked out his costume and then wouldn't wear it.  We would have to put on pajamas that resembled a costume.

The hours before trick-or-treating would be filled with wild running and screaming.  My husband and I would be trying to convince G to wear the costume we bought/made, while he was crying because it seemed like torture.  Then the kids would start coming, and we couldn't get G to focus.  He was overwhelmed by the kids, the costumes, the noise, and the candy.

After the event, there was no peace in the house.  Even without getting a lot of candy, he'd be so wound up he couldn't sleep.   Hubby and I would be exhausted from a long day at work and then hours of candy distribution, but not G.

This year was great.  He wore his Power Rangers costume with much glee.  We made it to about 20 houses.  We came back home, played with friends, and handed out candy.  We all went to bed.  Awesome.

There was some social awkwardness.  He wanted to make conversation with every single person who came by the house.  He said nice things- "I like your sword!", "I'm a Power Ranger, too!", "I like to play Minecraft!"  But it was always by standing in front of them while they wanted to just get going on their candy-picking way.  He touched a lot of decorations and tried to go into a few houses (hey, the doors were open), making several middle-aged women nervous.  He touched people and their costumes without worrying about socially-acceptable hand placement.  At the end of his rounds, he was ready to go in the house and our steps were full.  Since he isn't Moses and couldn't part the sea of kids, he just barreled his way up the steps.  I caught a nice lady trying to teach him some manners.  "I'm sorry," I said.  "He lives here, he's not trying get ahead of the others for the candy."

Then G and J and their two little friends ate Nerds and played Lego Batman.  It was pretty successful, overall.  363 days until I have to do it all over again.