Halloween

Last night we went trick or treating with our friends Keri and Arne. Luckily in one of Keri's clothing deliveries (she is pretty much single-handedly clothing Devon), she also had a little Halloween costume, a spider, so Devon was dressed up in what we called the "spider suit." Keri and Arne live in Cole Valley, which has a street that's famous in the city for Halloween decorations, so we all went down to Belvedere to trick or treat.

I wasn't really prepared for the scale of people on the street; the police block it off on both ends, and it was absolutely mobbed. Parents and children were running around everywhere, most of the houses were really decorated and the noise level was astounding; it was the type of thing where you had to watch your companions closely, because otherwise you'd lose each other quickly. It was actually so overwhelming that Keri took one look at the street and decided she was going home, so we continued on with Arne and their friend Christine, who was in town from Seattle.

Devon was completely thrilled to be out at night and spent much of the evening sprinting down the block or sprinting away from us. It took her a little while to get the hang of trick or treating; she didn't realize that she was supposed to collect candy from these houses. She spent most of the time following Isaac (who was a chef) and Mina (who was a princess) around and then just generally running around taking in the scene. She cottoned on to it, though, and eventually started pushing her way through crowds to get candy. I'm not sure she realized just what she was getting, but the whole process of standing in line and then getting some kind of "treat" (as Mina called it) was really fun.

Some of the houses were really decorated, and most of the inhabitants were out on the porch or stairs handing out the candy themselves. One place had this incredible setup where they had put a "set" in front of two huge picture windows and had two people dressed like the main monsters from the movie Monsters Inc.; another home was projecting old horror movies on a screen. Devon was especially taken with the home of the monsters, and we spent a lot of time watching the antics of the "monsers." Walt got a little movie of them in action, which gives you a taste of the whole event.



We lost Arne and Christine part of the way through the evening, but then later we found them again so we were all able to walk home together. Devon was suprisingly chipper for such a long evening - I was exhausted by the time I got back (although I'm fighting a cold) - and actually wanted to stay with Mina and Isaac and play after the trick or treating. We were trying to keep the candy consumption to a minimum, since we did want her to go to sleep that night, but she wouldn't give up her Halloween bag and managed to plow through a couple of candies in the car before we were able to spirit the candy bag out of sight at home. Belvedere Street was a bit much for me - if I had my druthers, I'd do something more low key - but Devon loved seeing everyone in costume and looking at the decorated houses; and it was so fun to trick or treat with Mina and Isaac that I'm sure we'll do it next year too.

One other interesting note, not related to Halloween...last night Walt brought up a box of books for Devon that we had bought quite a while ago, but she was too young for until recently. Tonight we read one called "Little Buggy Runs Away," about a bug who decides to run away and then comes back home. We read through it once, and Devon said, "Buggy run way," a couple of times; I think she was getting her mind around the idea of running away. Then we read it again, and we got to the part where Little Buggy decides to go home and Big Buggy comes to meet him; Devon kept saying, "Go home, go home" and then started to cry. Walt thought this was her first emotional response to a book. I'm not sure, but it sure seemed like she put together the "running away" and "go home" concepts, since she kept wanting to see the "go home" page, as if she wanted to make sure that Little Buggy did actually go home. We didn't realize it would be a traumatic book, so it wasn't a great choice for bedtime reading, but her response to it was fascinating.