Trick-or-treating

It has been awhile since I've written anything, but there are some moments from last night that I want to remember, and I thought I would share with everyone.

1. When the door would open, someone would hold out a bowl of candy. Elie would take one (sometimes two). Mei-Mei would look at the bowl, and then turn around and walk away. As if to say, "Okay. I saw the candy. Let's go." And then immediately, she would say, "Otro! Otro!" (Let's go to another house.)

Surprisingly, there was only one house where she took candy--which was our neighbor Marta and Steve (who she knows). Maybe this girl already knows not to take candy from strangers.

2. Sometimes, when we would see other kids trick-or-treating, Mei-Mei would say, "People." This is something she often says, which I think because of her tone of voice, makes us laugh. She says "People" as if she were a hermit, and has never seen a human before--and so she finds it remarkable that there are people around.

3. When we got home from trick-of-treating, Elie was so excited about the idea of passing out candy to other children. But was sad that no one was coming to our house. Fede explained that it was because we didn't have any decorations. Elie remembered that when we were trick-or-treating, I had told her to only go to houses with decorations. So, she insisted on decorating the outside of our house. First, we took the plastic jack-o-lanterns (the ones they collected candy with), and put candles inside.

But that wasn't enough. Elie kept looking around at her toys, trying to figure out what else would work. First, she started by taking everything that was orange (because she had figured out that orange was the appropriate color). But when we ran out of orange things, she just started to put anything that was plastic outside. She would look around the room, pick up a plastic toy, put it in some container, and then put it outside. It was almost like creating a little "altar de muertos" outside our house.

She also took her job of passing out candy very seriously. When she needed to go to the bathroom, she told me, "Make sure you pass out the candy for me."

Later that night, I asked her to tell me something that made her happy today. And without hesitation, she said, "Decorating the house." She also told me, "Mama, you should have decorated the house yesterday! Next time, don't forget."

4. Mei-Mei and Elie both got to eat one treat from the candy stash after dinner. Mei-Mei ate a Reese's peanut butter cup. After she took one bite, she said, "I like it" as if she had just eaten something so surprisingly good. Then she asked, "What's this?" I told her it was chocolate and peanut butter. To which she replied, "Chocolate" in that way you do when you realize that chocolate is your salvation.