Eric and Xander chilling on a lazy Saturday afternoon.

I know there are children in my neighborhood. I see them walking down the street every day. We set up playdates with them and they come to our back yard and play on our swingset. But on Halloween, where are they? We've gotten one trick-or-treater all night. What's wrong with Somerville? When we lived on Sycamore Street we had five jack-o-lanterns on our porch and Rich had to sit out front with a big bowl of candy to get anybody to brave our front walk. But we thought our new neighborhood would be different.

But even here in our new 'hood, the streets are empty. Even emptier than usual. What's going on? It's mostly with single and two family houses. No large apartment buildings to brave. Rich took Eric out trick or treating, sans costume. Well, actually we put him in his Pats jersey and everybody thought he was Tom Brady. Our neighbors were SO grateful to even get one kid.

What's going on here? Where are the children?

I suppose most of them cross Beacon Street into Cambridge and trick or treat there. That's what some of our friends did. Rich didn't want to go there on principal because we'd be adding to the problem. Our entire front porch is covered in fun Halloween decorations. But it wasn't enough.

Think I'm going to soak my head now.

I have always loved Halloween. When I was a kid I would literally start planning my costume on November first. I'd spend weeks working on it. How to pick only one? One year I was a Bic lighter. I made a flame out of colored tulle. An odd choice in retrospect, but I was never a particularly cool child.

My husband is also a huge Halloween buff. Every year since we've met we've come up with costumes to share together; Homer and Marge, Drew and Mimi, Fozzy and Miss Piggy, mermaid and pirate. You get the idea. We're into it. Far more into it than normal adults should be and I freely admit that. Each costume is lovingly if quickly designed and implemented and they usually come out great.

So, it came as a huge shock to us when Eric insisted that he did NOT want to wear a costume on Halloween. I overheard him confide to his little friend Maya that he didn't like costumes.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Because they make me into something scary." He told her.

"You could be a cloud." She suggested. "That's not scary."

But he held his ground in spite of multiple suggestions for non-scary costumes that included, Crayon, box of raisins and baby bunny.

My son has decreed that he will not wear a costume, even if it means missing out on trick or treating. Of course we'll let him trick or treat. We took him trick or treating at his dad's office last week and he deigned to wear a small printed card that said "Boy who does NOT like costumes." But eventually he cottoned on to the fact that the sign made his streetclothes into a costume and he didn't want it any more.

Sigh... This parenting gig isn't at all what I expected sometimes.