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Pirate Cordy and mommy

^{Posted by: BuckeyeChristy}

Tonight was our city's trick or treat, and this was Cordy's third time going door to door. Her first year, she wasn't walking yet, and so we put her in the stroller and spent a lot of the time meeting new neighbors. Last year, she would go up to each house and let people put candy in her pumpkin, but she didn't really understand what was going on. This year, though, she understood the excitement of Halloween and spent the past few days begging to go out to trick or treat.

She did amazingly well tonight. There was no meltdown, and only occasionally did I have to stop and wait for her to get over whatever was bothering her so we could move on. At each house, I would prompt her to say "trick or treat", and then she would get her candy, say "thank you" and then turn and run away, shouting, "We need to get more candy!"

I should mention at this point that Cordy really doesn't know what candy is. She's had her fair share of cookies, brownies and other baked sweets, but I've never given her any candy other than the occasional bite of chocolate. So it's funny that she was obsessed with getting candy, without knowing what it really is.

But we did get some stares due to her strange behaviors. She would stop at each blue water main she saw on the ground, needing to tap each one with her foot before she could continue on. At times she would bend over at the waist, and walk wide-legged with a lurching gait, swinging her arms back and forth. For about five minutes she decided the only way she could continue on was to walk on her tip-toes. People would ask her what candy she liked the best, and she would reply with the color, not the candy name. Cordy also was so into the routine of knocking on doors and then saying trick or treat that she walked right past people on their porches to knock on their doors, despite knowing they were right there holding out the candy to her. One man was nice enough to go back into his house, close the door, then wait for her to knock on the door so he could give her the candy.

The stares were hard to take. More than once I wanted to explain that Cordy has autism, but at the same time I didn't want to share that much with neighbors I barely know. And while she did act a little odd at times, there was no shortage of kids behaving badly, so maybe no one noticed and the stares were all in my head.

While other kids raced past us to maximize their candy grab, Cordy took her time and tired quickly. We were finished by 7:00pm, only an hour into the event. She was happy to come back home and help my husband hand out candy for a little while, then sit inside and watch a Halloween themed DVD. Before bed, she dumped out her loot and examined her candy closely. All of the lollipops were picked out and lined up carefully, with the remainder of the candy ignored. I think she likes the sticks on lollipops.

We tucked her into bed a little later, holding her pirate toys and asking for her pirate costume. She had a lot of fun getting excited about Halloween, and I think this is the first year she really understood what was going on. Next year, I have a feeling that I'm going to be the one lagging behind while she runs ahead to get as much candy as possible.