Abigail wanted to be Darth Vader for Halloween ever since we watched the original trilogy with her this past summer. A former AP Computer Science student of mine knitted Abigail a Yoda costume when she was a baby, so we had the perfect outfit sitting around for Joseph to complement his big sister.
They were an adorable duo, to be sure. The evening was cool, probably low 50s or high 40s, and we started a bit late since it was also the weekend of the fall time change. We left the house at 6:30 Old Time/ 5:30 New Time. After about 10 houses, Abigail was tired and grouchy and begging to go home to drink hot milk and sleep (kindergarten is so exhausting for her and she has been doing 11 hours of sleep per night all fall). Since we had only done 2 cul-de-sac loops right behind our house, she was 1 house away from our home and all of the bribing and cajoling in the world could not convince her to continue on down the street in the other direction. Larry took our exhausted Darth Vader home while I continued with Joseph, figuring that without his favorite big sister around, we'd be following them home within a house or two.
Nope. :)
Joseph's strength flowed from the Force that night. Not only did he walk an extra mile (measured on the streets- not counting the distances from the street up and back down everyone's driveways), he would not let me carry him, his light saber, or his bucket! Even as the bucket grew heavier, Joseph proved that size matters not as he grunted and lugged his bucket up hills, across yards, and up onto stoops. On the last 3/10 of a mile, he dragged the bucket along the street, scraping along the way, but keeping it totally within his control. Sometimes on difficult terrain, he would jam his light saber into his bucket and take my hand in his until the ground was less steep or he got a 2nd, 5th, or 11th wind.
We never explained it to him, but he seemed to intuitively know to avoid the dark houses, lest the dark side forever dominate his destiny. But if I would try to walk him past a lit up house, he would protest by peeling away from me, up through the yard and rap on the door with his light saber.
One house had a fire pit on the driveway and an older couple sitting behind it. Joseph lugged his bucket up to the fire pit, jammed his light saber into his bucket, set the bucket down on the driveway, and went up to the fire, kneeled down a little while first rubbing his hands together and then holding them out to the fire. He repeated "hot" about forty times, charming the pants off of the couple, who were confused that Joseph rebuffed their attempts to give him candy and only wanted a warm spot to fight off some of the chill for a few minutes.
Another couple had a giant blow-up pumpkin on their yard. All Joseph wanted to do was flirt with that pumpkin. Forget the candy at that house! Did you see the size of that pumpkin?!? Truly wonderful the mind of a child is.
Joseph charmed pretty much everyone he saw, often times getting double or triple doses of candy once he grinned his cute Yoda grin at them and waved and finished with his famous "blow a kiss" technique.
But the most fun was at the end of the last cul-de-sac I was going to take him. End of the line; we were about to turn around and head home. Joseph lugged his bucket (grunting the whole time) up a very steep yard, greeted a 120 pound shaggy dog named Chase, and arrived at the porch where a woman of probably her mid-50s sat. She fished in her bucket for some M&Ms, asked how old he was, and smiled as Joseph petted Chase. Then Joseph put his light saber in the bucket (your weapons, you will not need them), and the bucket on the step next to her, and walked around a bush, bending and searching, running back again, looking for something. The lady asked what he was doing, and I replied that I thought he was looking for the source of her music, which was playing softly out of a cell phone next to her. She held it up for Joseph just as "Thriller" started playing. At that, Joseph gave the woman a full 5 minute dance show. Then he danced to 2 more songs. She *Loved* it. We talked about how this is his first Halloween, she asked about Chinese adoption, commented that it is so exciting that we'll soon have his first birthday and first Christmas together, and said how lucky we were to be able to adopt him. (Finally, a stranger who didn't think he was the sole lucky one!) All told, we were there for about 15 minutes and the lady said Joseph was the highlight of her week. Then we hit Old Time 8:10/ New Time 7:10 and I decided it was time to head home. I allowed Joseph to go rap his light saber on the lady's neighbor's door. He got a treat, and then Chase came running across the yards to see him again. The next thing I knew (I was down on the sidewalk at the bottom of the hill), Joseph was in full sprint, bucket and all, across the top of the yards and up onto the lady's porch again as I heard a delighted, drawn-out "Joe-seph's Back!!" exclamation!
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There's candy in this bucket!
All those people gave me candy! |
It took some carrying on my part (and kicking and noisy protest on Joseph's part) to get him back to the street and on our way again. I tried to walk home on the same side of the street that we went out on, but somehow Joseph figured out that if he ran across the street in front of a car (well, as fast as a 30-inch Jedi master can run while dragging a bucket), there was a whole line of new houses he hadn't been to yet! So we hit all of those on the way back. (On many long journeys have I gone.)
Another thing that amused me about the night was that it wasn't until we were at Chase's house that Joseph even noticed that his bucket was full of CANDY!! He hadn't even noticed what people were giving him all evening until Chase's owner gave him "M's" as he calls them.
It was hands-down the best night I think I have ever had as a parent since the night that we took 2 year old Abigail to Palmetto Islands County Park for Christmas lights and Santa.
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| A have "M's"!!!! |
