Trick or Treat Please?

In previous years, Halloween has been something of a mess for us. John doesn't like wearing hats for the most part, or things like jackets or such, which makes costumes hard. He also doesn't like interacting with people he doesn't know, although he's much better about this than he used to be. We've actually seen him start a conversation with other kids.

For Halloween, until this year, we limited our trick-or-treating to people we knew, and who knew about John, people who would understand why John wouldn't look at them directly, or talk to them, or want to wear his costume, or cry if they talked to him. However, since we just moved to our new place in July, we decided to give trick-or-treating a fresh try.

We began weeks ago, talking about his costume and trying to get him to try it on. No dice. We took the costume to his occupational therapist, and she got him to put it on. They also talked about wearing a costume in school, and at day care, and everywhere else. We talked costumes with the other kids in the neighborhood. We practiced saying "Trick or Treat" and I'm proud to say that my kid voluntarily added Please to his request. He still seemed nervous about putting on a costume, but we felt like he might give it a try.

So, on Halloween night, we all got in our costumes and headed out for a night of trial and error. John went as Thomas the Tank Engine, my wife went as a cat, and I went as a deadbeat dad, complete with beer. Truth be told, the beer was my entire costume.

House #1, John went up and rang the doorbell, then got very nervous when our neighbor approached. When the moment of truth came, his line was not "Trick or treat please." Burrito decided to inform our neighbor about his costume, by which I mean that all he said was "Thomas." He tentatively took the piece of candy, said thank you after being prompted by Deadbeat Dad, and we left. He wanted to eat the candy right away, but coped well when we told him to wait.

House #2, he started to warm up. He got his line out, prompted, at the right time, and thought the pumpkins decorating the front porch were interesting. Had they been less interesting, he might have even delivered his line to the homeowner. The pumpkin did not respond to his "Trick or Treat please" request, but he scored some candy anyway. This candy thing really started to get his attention.

House #3 featured a neighbor with a matching orange pumpkin bucket. John's a clever kid, though, and right away he noticed that whereas his bucket only had 3 pieces of candy in it, this other bucket was completely full. John decided he wanted to switch buckets.

Houses 4-6 saw John go to the door, say nothing, and simply reach for candy. Going to house 7, we passed some other kids, and John took an unhealthy interest in what was in their buckets. He was really getting the hang of this! However, he was getting tired, and my costume was out of beer, so we headed for home.

Once we got there, though, John seemed like he was getting a second wind, and we decided that we'd go visit our old neighborhood since he was doing so well. These folks hadn't seen him actually wearing a costume before, so we got in the car and headed to the old neighborhood.

I mentioned that we recently moved. In the month before this move, we prepped John by explaining to him the idea of Old House and New House. We would explain that we would be moving to New House, and that we'd be leaving Old House. For weeks after moving, John would, from time to time, ask to go to Old House. I would patiently explain that this was called "trespassing" and that we could not.

Well, when we got to the old neighborhood, we went to Old House where John forgot his Halloween line. The new owners opened the door, and John said "Old House" and invited himself in. The new owners were very good about it, and commented on how cute he was. I will file this away, in case I'm ever looking for a buyer for him.

So, in the end, Halloween was a success. John has a bucket full of candy and he had a great time. And my old neighbors, amused at seeing me dressed as Deadbeat Dad for the 4th year in a row, kept my costume cool and refreshing, if you know what I mean.