Hey Little Girl, Want Some Candy?

So this was the first year that Bean was a) not sick over Hallowe'en and b) old enough that it felt "right" to take her trick or treating, as opposed to the somewhat spurious usage of an 18 month old to garner candy for parental consumption. She had had a party and stuff at school and so was totally pooped this afternoon, sleeping right through until I woke her up at about 6 pm, partially because of the whole candy grab, but also because she needed something in her stomach before going down for the whole night. Anyway, we got a minimal amount of dinner into said stomach, pulled on her cat/bunny/mouse costume and off we went.

The costume, by the way, was made by my mom when my sister was three or so, and originally, yes, it was supposed to be that of a white cat. I think the years have wreaked a bit of havoc on the ear portion because I have in fact heard all of the above queried. I ended up telling people, she's a small furry cute animal, and whatever you want her to be. I'm not sure people really give a toss WHAT a kid is up to about age five...a costume on a small child is a costume and it's damn cute.

So anyway, we made it to about five houses before meltdown started threatening, which I thought was pretty good, and actually about what I had guesstimated we could do even on a "good" night. Came home, washed off the whiskers, had a bite or two of candy, which I think started the wheels churning as to the point of this whole venture, and back into bed. It got me thinking though...was I a bad parent for kind of "forcing" my developmentally delayed, blind child to go trick or treating, when it was clear she didn't have much clue what was going on?

After some thought, I decided, no, I wasn't. What I was doing is what Gene and I have to do, particularly for "normal" experiences like holidays or typical kid activities. We have to kind of create the situation and present it to her with a lot of commentary. It's a bit like the old proverb that if Mohammed won't go to the mountain, the mountain needs to come to Mohammed. I didn't keep her out for an hour, I didn't make her wear a super uncomfortable and elaborate costume, and I kept everything pretty underwhelming. My only hope is that some day in the future she'll remember, oh yeah...Mom took me out for trick or treating even when I wasn't really sure what it was, but it was fun, and I appreciate that.

Failing that, we at least have a reasonable amount of candy to enjoy over the next few days.