It’s dark out!

November 1, 2007 by veronica.

Lily was finally old enough this year to be a part of Halloween. The first year, she was 3 weeks old, and just too small to take out. Last year we thought about trick or treating, but since she didn’t have many teeth, she had just started solid foods, and it was very cold out Halloween night, we decided against any real trick-or-treating, and I dressed her up very simply instead.

This year was a different story. We let Lily choose her costume. She chose a Snow White dress at the Disney store, which was fine with me since she can wear it to the Magic Kingdom in a week and a half and be a part of the super-fun tradition of meeting the princesses while dressed like a princess. I had tried to keep a Snow White headband in her hair, but it didn’t quite work out, so this Snow White had pigtails.

Yesterday afternoon I explained to Lily the fine art of trick-or-treating. We went over how you knock on doors and what to say when they open the doors. We even did a practice run at our own door; Chris gave out the candy. Chris and I didn’t expect to have to take her out too much. We thought maybe 5 houses each, switching off halfway through.

The first house Lily and I went to was our neighbor Pete’s house. Lily is in love with the idea of playing on his driveway. so she was excited to ring the doorbell, too. When he opened the door, Lily froze. So I had to explain how this was the very first house she had ever gone to, and we were working on what to do. He gave her the magical candy goodness, and Lily was instantly hooked. She did manage a “thank you” before we headed down the street in search of more wonderful candy.

Each house we went to found Lily more confident and more vocal. She didn’t really ever say “Trick or Treat”, but she usually was able to get out a “Please”. As we reached the end of our block, we started to head home. Lily kept asking for “more trick or treat, please”. So we did head back to the house to get both Daddy and her mittens. I explained to Chris that Lily REALLY liked being out, so we put candy out on the porch and headed out as a family to visit more houses.
Lily loved going to our neighbor’s houses, and many of them commented on how big she was getting, and a few commented on how much work we were having done on our house. Lily insisted on walking the whole time, even when there were large gaps between houses. She repeatedly exclaimed “It’s dark out!” ; I don’t think she had even been out walking that late, so it was a very new experience.

We eventually made it back home with a bag full of candy (and let’s be honest–the candy was for us just as much as it was for her). We had been invited to visit a friend of ours that we hadn’t seen in awhile, so we loaded Lily in the car and went for a quick visit.

On our way home, as Lily gazed out the window into the cold, dark night, she suddenly looked at us and exclaimed something we had never heard her say before. Lily, in a soft, tired voice stated, “I’m so happy now. Lily so happy baby.” She had the best time, and I am so happy we did Halloween as a family.

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