They gave me candy!

I told Turner on Tuesday night that Halloween was about more than just going to Kilan's house in his rocket costume. He was, of course, very excited about that. Adding the idea of free candy to the night further enticed him to behave like the perfect little being he is (with the exception of biting me in the behind while I cooked dinner and then yelling at Andy when he tried to put him on the stairs; candy does crazy things to little kids).

Halloween arrives. Laura calls me and I am still at work writing a proposal. I realize that I am about forty minutes later leaving than I had hoped. I walk to my car. I get lost. It takes me almost 45 minutes of walking to securely fasten my seatbelt and head to Turner's school. It is 4:30. We are suppose to meet Kilan (and his folks) for trick or treating at 5:30. Not gonna happen.

We make it to the house. I start cooking and cleaning stuff off Turner's face, wetting his hair down, and changing my clothes (almost at the same time). Andy gets home at the perfect moment to help me lasso all our belongings and Turner into the car. These consist of: a big pot of cooked pinto beans, uncooked corn bread already mixed up and carefully sloshing around in tupperware, corn stick pans, pizza dough, pizza sauce, rocket costume, long sleeves, Turner's water bottle. Get it all in the car and I remember his Halloween bag. I run to get it while Andy gets Turner in the car. We arrive around 6:15.

As I've told many of you before, there are no streetlights here. So at 5:45 every night the streets become black like wandering around my grandma's farm at midnight. Marissa, the ever-prepared mom, has glow sticks for us. We take off to the first house. Turner follows Kilan, who is consistently a step ahead because that extra 1/2 inch in height makes a difference. Turner's costume is heavy, but he is heavily grinning to match it. The boys run to the door. Kilan yells "trick or treat!" Turner follows his lead and yells "trick or treat" until the lady opens the door (probably ten times in a row). He gets his candy and just stands on the front porch. We coax him back to us. He walks very slowly at first. Then he looks up from his bag and yells at me, "Momma. They gave me candy!" He shows me his loot. Todd points to the next house. Turner's feet catch fire and he is running with all the passion and energy he can muster. "Free candy!"

It was the most perfect night. We had a wonderful time with our friends and Turner was, as always, so delighted by Kilan. The boys watched the Sandlot (yes I know that should be in italics). We let him have a sucker and some chocolate. He was content with that.

Last night (Thursday) he was especially reluctant to go to bed. At ten (I think) he came to the top of the stairs again and said his belly hurt. Andy took over for me. I went to check on him in fifteen minutes and Turner was on the potty feeling sick. Andy goes downstairs. I get Turner off the toilet and we walk to the sink to put some water in our mouth and take some medicine. I give him the medicine and he throws up all over the place. It was almost instant. I can deal with a lot of things, but not vomit. I yell for Andy. I take Turner's clothes off. I yell for Andy. I wash him down. I put on new clothes. I brush his teeth. He is a walking zombie by this hour, but very cordially lets me clean him up. Andy appears in the bathroom and asks about bedtime or something. I point to the huge mess. "Oh. Why didn't you yell?" Hmm. Something tells me it won't be Andy catching Turner sneaking in at night.

We clean it up and put Turner to bed again. I think it is good that he got the sickness out. We discuss what we think caused it. Within a few hours we are in bed and Turner comes to our room. I grab his arm to pull him into the bed and it is wet with gross stuff. Andy strips the bed. I strip Turner. We do the whole thing all over again. Turner was up and down probably six or seven times. He would sit on his little stool in the bathroom being sick into the toilet while Andy stood over him. We had a family bed last night and every whimper he made I was grabbing the towel and Andy was rushing him to the bathroom. It was absolutely the most pitiful thing. I think it was the lemonade. Sugary drinks make me sick all the time. Add to that, candy he is not accustomed to having. We can't think of anything else. No fever and today he is all better. I canceled class and stayed home with him anyway.

FYI: I don't proofread blogs. I do well to get them up at all; so please excuse the rampant errors that someone so kindly pointed out to me in the comments section.