Halloween antics.

Jake recovered from H1N1 very quickly, and was back on his feet by Thursday last week. Friday and Saturday were exhausting days for him, though, so yesterday we completely laid low.

There were many festivities at school on Friday, then a dance at the elementary school in the evening. Jake tripped out on the lights, wore his costume most of the time, and although he didn't interact with the other kids he was happily in parallel play mode throughout most of the hour and a half we were there.

On Saturday we headed down to Montpelier to our friends' house and went trick-or-treating in the big city. He had a lot of fun, and was very motivated to go up to each house himself and hold out his bag or choose his candy. I don't think he said much, but it didn't matter. The atmosphere was less formal than Hardwick, where it is very much expected that you say "trick or treat" and "thank you" or else you don't get any candy. I mean, most of the folks don't understand why a kid wouldn't say those things, so it gets awkward and we have to go up to each house with him and prompt him through every interaction. This felt nice, just to hang back like a "normal" parent and let him do his thing.

Training Burke has been going exceptionally well now that I've fallen back on a few "old school" methods and actually am not afraid to school him a bit when he gets growly and obnoxious with me. He's learned to respect me in just a couple of days, and now I just have to do my big-dog "posture" and he will turn tail and run away. I have been afraid to make him a scaredy cat, but it isn't going to happen. He has all the hard-headedness of a Lab, and is completely unflappable in any situation. We took him to downtown Montpelier for the trick-or-treat at the stores, and he just chugged right along and was completely unfazed by the costumes and crowds of people and children.

He's had a lot of chances for socialization this past week, as I've been having to work at cafes and coffeeshops because my internet at home was cut down to insanely-slow speeds (and doesn't work at all at night). So he's gotten to go into stores, plus got the whole downtown Halloween experience. He's done really well, and seems to be learning that it's possible that people will pass by you and not meet you, and that's okay.

Overall, he is showing himself to be such a smart, sweet boy. He's leaving the shoes alone, he knows when to settle and can mostly settle down on cue, he's stopped mouthing us so much, and he's so attuned to every one of us - he truly loves all five of us, counting Dana, and has a unique but equally deep relationship with each member of the household. It's pretty cool.