Trick-or-Treating and Halloween Manners.

Our little Mickey was pumped to hit up our neighborhood when it was time for trick-or-treating.  He has a light-up pumpkin that my parents gave him last Halloween that makes spooky music -- he was so excited to use it. 

All smiles for daddy.

Scary face for mommy (is he trying to send me some sort of message!?!?).

We accompanied Fawn to the front door for the first few houses, only to witness some surprisingly good Halloween manners from our Mickey.  I had prepped Fawn before the evening that he wasn't to grab for candy -- he was to either take what had been handed to him and say thank you or when prompted by the candy-giver to take one item and say thank you (unless he was offered more).  I really had no expectations of compliance, just trying to set the groundwork for good manners.  But, realistically I felt there was no way Fawn could resist a bucket of candy.  Lo and behold, he surprised me!  He said trick-or-treat, the bucket of candy was presented to Fawn, and he chose one item.  One neighbor suggested that he could in fact pick more candy.  His response:  "ummm...that's okay.  I'll get another piece at the next house.  Thank you."  Jaw-dropping experience!

We live across the street from a very sweet 5-year old boy who Fawn loves to play with -- luckily our neighbor loves to play with Fawn too, despite the age gap.  The boys met up after the first few houses to trick-or-treat together.  While it tugged on my heart strings that Fawn was on his own (so to speak) and I wasn't right there to experience his cuteness, I was also so excited for the big boy he's becoming and so happy for him that he can have fun with other children without Buck and me as props.

As for all of that Halloween candy, it miraculously disappeared from Fawn's sight while he was sleeping...imagine that.  We have baggied up his favorites (dum dums and smarties) for our current endeavor -- the dreaded potty training.  And, I have instructed Buck that he is to remove all traces of chocolate from our house or else I will not only lose the great weigh-in but will also fail my upcoming glucose test.

One more Halloween in the record book -- I'm reminded that next year will be a whole new ballgame with the presence of an 8-month old.  Until then, the pumpkins are packed away and the stress over costumes is done.