Halloween was a great success by all accounts--or at least by all that matter, which in this case is just one: Edward's. He loved it! The firefighter costume was a huge hit and has been worn daily since then. (Not all day, but let's just say it has seen action.) My office had trick-or-treating from 4 to 5 so we went down and paraded around with all of my co-workers' kids. Then we stopped to see some of our old neighbors who remembered Edward as a pumpkin and said Daniel was just as cute. By this time he wasn't too keen on getting in and out of the costume every time we had to get back in the car. But it was only once more.

We came home and had dinner before heading out in our own neighborhood. We met some neighbors who had "glow sticks" for their kids and they shared two with Edward--a HUGE hit! (He slept with them.) Edward walked for about two blocks and back. We had to carry Daniel as lots of our neighbors have steps up to the front door, so not stroller accessible.

We convinced Ed to come home by telling him that we had to give candy to kids that came to our house. (I showed him our basket of tootsie rolls and smarties before we left.) When we got home he was immediately digging in his bucket, appearing to be trying to grab as much as he could with both hands. We were both telling him he could have ONE piece before bed, but he kept digging. Frustrated that he wasn't listening, I became more forceful. "Edward! You can not have all that candy now. Pick one piece!"

"No, Mommy!" he replied, holding up a pile of candy in his hands. "These are for the other kids!"

He had misunderstood and thought we had to go home to give HIS candy out at our door! We explained again about the basket we had for the other kids, and he happily put all of his back in the pumpkin and picked a bag of peanut M&Ms. (Actually, his first selection was something that looked like an eyeball, but we were pretty sure it was a jawbreaker, so we had a bowl at the ready for him to spit it out when he realized he couldn't chew it.) We didn't end up having many trick-or-treaters at our house and we don't think we missed many while we were out. I guess our street is not a hot spot.

I should also note, that this Halloween has to be one of the warmest ever. It was in the 70s--we didn't even need jackets!

Here's a funny picture of Daniel's "toothy" grin. However, it does not show that in the last week, three of his top four teeth have poked through. These three are not all in a row, as one of the top middle teeth has yet to appear. As you can imagine, this makes quite a goofy, gap-tooth grin. Orthodontists of Iowa City may start lining up for our business any day now.