Despite his initial misgivings over the whole costume idea, AJ got fully into the spirit of Halloween and tackled his first ever trick-or-treating outing like a pro. Particularly after he was informed that he could have his own flashlight and he could ring all the doorbells himself. Never underestimate the power of buttons over a 2-year-old.

Despite the warm and sunny morning, Friday night turned out to be cold and damp. AJ consented to several layers of shirts underneath his cowboy plaid and even decided to wear his hat for the entire evening. After the first trick-or-treaters stopped at our door, he was raring to go, and we headed out to hit up our neighbors for treats. My usually shy boy insisted on walking by himself the entire way � at least a mile, a lot for little legs � and on approaching each door without holding my hand. True, several people had to turn up their hearing aids to hear his �trick-or-treats� and �thank yous�, but I was proud of my boy. He was eager to make friends all night and had several long and incomprehensible conversations with total strangers, including one with a 4 year-old frog named Ben who told us the story of his life and invited AJ up to his room on the spot until his mother stopped and reminded him that they were going out to trick-or-treat themselves.

Saturday night AJ was all ready to do it again. He was certain that something this fun should take place every day. We had to sit him down and explain to him that he had to wait until next year, but narrowly avoided a tantrum by suggesting an after-dark walk around the yard with flashlights, which proved to be an excellent idea. We found leaves, bugs, twigs and all kinds of very small things, all much more exciting by flashlight than in the daytime. We also played in the porchlight, stretching our shadows out to gargantuan proportions and made shadows of barking dogs with our hands that were the size of small ponies in the light spilling onto the driveway. A brief game of running around the bases of our invisible baseball field capped off the evening and threw us all into a fit of the giggles that could only be quelled by hot cocoa and a warm bath and sleep.

The song a robin sings

Through years of endless springs,

The murmur of a brook at eventide

That ripples by a nook where two lovers hide.

A great symphonic theme,

That's Stella by starlight and not a dream.

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