The Run-Down

So I posted pictures, but I never gave the run-down on Halloween. It was better than I expected. Or Owen was better than I expected. Chaos and lots of children, noise, and excitement generally adds up to craziness for him. But he seemed to just take it all in on Halloween. He walked to a few houses with me, and then the two of us sat outside on the step and handed out candy. He loved to put candy in the baskets, but then quite often he would try to grab back the entire basket. Made for some surprised faces when he grabbed their whole stash. But who could resist being robbed by Robin? Of course I made him give it right back, and he was fine with that.

I was just happy that he didn't get too worked up outside. It probably helped that we used the monkey backpack with a leash. And yes, I had one little boy who stood in front of me angrily protesting, "He's not a dog! He's not a dog!" Well, little boy, when it's your turn to watch him you can go without a leash. Not on my watch, and especially not on Halloween.

We had a neighborhood campout night a few weeks back, and did not use the backpack/leash. The long and short of it is this: when there are lots of screaming children running around excitedly, Owen matches their excitement. All of it. The excitement of every single kid there. And ends up looking like a tiny boy who downed about 10 double-shot espressos. He runs. And runs. And if you pick him up, his legs keep running in the air. He trips over curbs, falls, and then keeps running. It's frenetic. It's crazed. It's exhausting. It's frankly a little scary.

Anyway, after Trick or Treat, when it was time to go in, the meltdown finally happened, and a good 45 minutes of screaming ensued (the sugar probably did not help). Then he was calm again, and sat on my lap facing me for our bedtime rocking ritual and he told me all about his evening. That was my favorite part of the evening, listening to him talk. Most of it was in non-words, or Owen-words, of course. But interspersed in there were words that let me know what he was saying. It went something like this: "Blah blah blah BOOOO BOOOO BOOOO (ghosts everywhere!) blah blah blah WOOF WOOF WOOF (he saw some dogs...anyway, he talks about dogs every night even when he doesn't see any) blah blah blah MOO MOO(for moon - it was so bright that night!) blah blah blah MnMnM (M&Ms - he loves them)." I so wish I had been able to record it. I'm also so thankful that we can always seem to come back down to our happy, calm place before bed. That is a blessing.