Trick-or-Treat

Marcus enjoyed his first session of trick-or-treating last night. Last year we were stuck in the Westin, Guatemala City but this year we hit the streets. We did a trial run at our own house before branching out to the neighbors’.


I thought for sure Marcus would just be confused and shy and, thus, clingy. What I forgot is that he is a toddler and completely unpredictable. I showed him how to knock on the neighbor’s door and that was all the instruction he needed. The first neighbor handed him a treat and he knew just how to put it in his little treat bag that he was very excited to be carrying. Then before our neighbor could protest, Marcus was selecting a second treat from her candy bowl. On to house number two. He was a little more shy at the second house, that was until he realized that the woman who lived there also had treats to pass out. At that point he was sticking out his treat bag waiting for her to fill it up. Marcus played for a few minutes in the neighbor’s yard, watching some other kids in crazy costumes head down the street. He watched the kids head to the house we just hit up and he decided that he better hit that house up again! I couldn’t blame him for trying. She gave him candy once, why not try to get some more? The large group of kids was off. I thought we would head home at that point but Marcus had other plans. He was just getting this trick-or-treating thing down. He followed the kids to the next house, stuck out his hand, and got some more goodies! Then he headed to a house across the street. I thought since he had at that point started paying more attention to the lawn decorations at that house than the bowl full of candy that it might be time to head back home. I asked Marcus if he wanted to keep trick-or-treating or if he was all done. He said he was all done and headed for home.

When I was a kid, my brother and I (or later when my brother ditched me to trick-or-treat with his friends, my friend and I) would get back from trick-or-treating and we would spread our candy out on the floor, categorizing it to see just how much of each candy type we got. Then we would trade each other. Apparently inventorying our stash wasn’t a genetic thing because Marcus went to work as soon as he got home. He sat down in the living room and dumped out his loot. Then he put it all back into his treat bag. Then he climbed on the couch and pulled out each treat one at a time, showing it all off. Then he put it back in.

Then he went over to Greg and pulled out each piece and had Greg inspect it before putting it back in. Then it was my turn to check out each piece before Marcus placed them all back in his bag. Then he went to the other side of the living room where he took out each piece of candy and then put them back in. Even when it was time to get him out of his costume and into his pj’s, he had to have his treat bag with him. And like any other kid, when I told him we were done with treats and it was time for bed, he threw a temper tantrum and then refused to go to sleep for about an hour. This couldn’t even be blamed on a sugar high since he didn’t even eat a single piece of his candy.

And so Halloween is over. It ended up being quite an extended holiday. It started Saturday. Although not Halloween related, we attended our first playgroup for families in the area who have adopted from Guatemala that morning. I was really impressed with the number of families that showed up. I tried to socialize with the other moms but I was a little busy chasing Marcus around the play area at the Ross Park Mall. As soon as Marcus realized that the play area didn’t just contain things to climb and slide on but it also contained books, he was all about reading every single book there including the ones on the top shelves that he needed my help to get down. We rushed home, ate some lunch, and he was napping soon. But not too long because he had to get up for our Halloween Party! This was our fourth annual Halloween Party which we opted to move to an earlier in the day Halloween cookout so all the kids that we know could attend as well. We had a great turnout, probably about 25 people total. There were five kids in attendance and four more children that were there but still confined to uteruses. Unless someone else gets pregnant or decides to adopt within the next few months, next year there will be at least 9 kids in attendance all under the age of 3. Likely there will be more than that since some of the kids we invited this year weren’t able to make it. Perhaps our Fifth Annual Halloween Party will be held in August so we can all be outside.

I was busy being a hostess so I didn’t get to take many pictures. I would appreciate it if any of the guests took some pictures and would like to share with me. For now, this is all I got:




And a couple more pictures. Don't try to make sense of these ones. These are really only for Melissa to enjoy: