Tani's first Halloween

Melissa and I took Tani to the Halloween parade at the corner of Carpenter and Greene Sts in front of the Henry School. Melissa had bought Tani a skeleton costume at a thrift store for a few dollars, but Tani decided he wanted to be a train conductor instead. So he dressed up in overalls and a junior conductor train hat he received from his recent Amtrak ride from DC to Philly and took a stack of post-its to be train tickets. We walked down Westview ST to the start of the parade. A few trick-or-treaters were dashing up and down the pathways to the front porches of these homes. I explained to Tani we could go up to a porch and get a treat. One owner beckoned us to come up. So we walked up the pathway to his porch. People were enjoying dinner and wine on their porch and had a basket of candy to give out. Tani cautiously went up and picked out a piece of candy when it was offered. The owner told us for the past few years they have dinner on their porch and give out candy to the trick-or-treaters. It turns out that people within a few blocks of the parade get a lot of Halloween traffic as people drive in to march in the parade and go trick or treating as most homes in the area participate. As we walked closer to the parade start Tani was a bit overwhelmed by all the people and commotion. He wasn't sure what to make of people wearing masks that covered their faces or costumes that were "a little bit scary". I carried him for the first part of the parade and he watched with deep interest. Eventually he wanted to get down and go up to a few more houses to trick-or-treat. He was catching on. He collected some treats from a few more houses and then we decided to go over to Sara and Shai's house - Tani likes their daughter Sophia. Sophia was out trick-or-treating and a family friend was giving out candy at her house. Levana and her Mom Deborah were going home and were parked up the block so Melissa was helping them into their car. I walked up with Tani and decided to go up on the porch of the house where Manel and Jordi live a few days a week. Their landlord was giving out candy and Tani took a piece. We came back down to find Melissa when we saw Jordi drive up! This was a surprise because they normally aren't in Mt Airy on Saturday night - but they had come in for a party. Jordi though was on a mission to somehow get his things into his apartment amid the mayhem of the trick-or-treaters and lack of parking. We helped him get his things in and he invited us up to his apartment - Tani was very excited. Soon Manel came up having parked many blocks away. Tani enjoyed meeting their new cat Una and looking at Manel's special lamp that made music, sounds and colors. We stayed for half an hour and then made our way home - it had started raining a few minutes after we saw Jordi and Manel and had been raining off and on. Tani had been eating some of his candy. After 2 or 3 small pieces Melissa explained thereafter he could have one piece a day. Tani seemed fine with this. Although we all had rain jackets on we got home a bit wet but happy to have been part of this fun Mt. Airy Halloween event.