Today was the day.  Trick or treat.  Robbie talked about it all day.  I know because I was with him all day.  Zhining was without heat, so Robbie went to work with me.  I wound up coming home with him, since we did have electricity (some 160 districts were/are closed).  We made the most of our day, stopping to buy pun’kins and taking in a class at Gymboree.

All I heard all day was about trick-or-treating.  I’m not even sure that Robbie knew what it was, but he knew it was tonight.  He didn’t take off his costume all day – not even for his nap – in an effort to make sure he didn’t miss the event.  When he decided that Justin had worked long enough, he went upstairs and said, “Daddy!  Pun’kins.  Time for pun’kins!”  And he carefully supervised our creation of a “silly pun’kin” and a “Go Cats pun’kin”.  Both look fabulous on our front porch.

Shortly after the pumpkins were carved, Robbie started running around he house telling me to hurry because it was time for trick-or-treat.  Is there some sort of kid sensor that tells them these things?  Because he was absolutely right.  It was time for trick-or-treating.  I was a little concerned about how this would go, since it can take Robbie some time to get warmed up.  It didn’t take long, my friends.  We talked about what to say and that he should only take one piece of candy (that lasted for a few houses), and he was off.

We went to the first house, and he climbed up the porch after an older trick-or-treater, watched her carefully, and then dove in.  We moved methodically down the street, and I was fairly sure that we would make it to about ten houses netting him enough candy for a few days.

Robbie picked up speed as we started to get through the street, running from house to house.  I actually tried to sneak past a few houses because it was getting close to 8:00 (I had originally figured that he would last maybe an hour).  Robbie was on to me, though.  Perhaps it was the conversation about how we knew which houses to go to.  When I tried to pass a house, Robbie grabbed my hand, said, “Mama, light on.  Tricker treat.  Halloween”, and took off toward the house.  Silly me.  I assumed that when his bucked was full and I was sticking candy in my pockets that we were good.

The last house, though, really threw Robbie for a loop.  She had a spider that fell from the porch ceiling and then climbed back up its web when she clapped.  Roberto did not like this.  In fact, it terrified him.  I watched as the sheer terror took over his face and saw the scream build in his throat.  He dropped his Elmo bucket to the ground and leapt off the porch and into my arms.  And, good mother that I am, I couldn’t stop laughing.

I’m not sure how we’re going to keep Robbie from ringing people’s doorbells when we walk down the street anymore.  I have a feeling he’s going to want “tricker treat” every day of the year.  Especially because he got into the tub with a sucker in one hand and half a KitKat in the other.