For kids, Halloween is right up there with Birthdays and Christmas. It really doesn't get much better than a holiday that revolves around playing dress-up and getting tons of candy. Last year Lucy was too young to really understand Halloween. I bought her some lovely, pink skeleton jammies and that was her costume. She and I loitered at the end of our walkway, handing out candy to the few and far between trick-or-treaters who dared to venture down the black-hole of a street that ours is on Halloween. This year it all came together and she is already asking when she can go trick-or-treating again.
I am one of those Moms who is perpetually disorganized. I do my best, but ultimately feel like I am scrambling to be prepared for holidays. I'll find the perfect party-dress, but forget to buy tights....that kind of stuff. About 80% organization and 20% fly by the seat of my pants. This year I got my act together and in ninety-five degree heat Lucy, Josh and I went to Babies r Us in August and bought Lucy's costume. She was going to be a dinosaur for Halloween. We saw it in the flyer, which sadly we read one night for a bedtime story and she decided that a big dino was perfect for her. We took the costume home and blistering heat and all, Lucy transformed herself into a dinosaur. Halloween was still far off, but she had a great costume and I could already tell we were going to get our $19.99 worth out of her polyster dino suit.
The leaves fell, the mornings got darker and Halloween was finally here. Thanks to Dora's Halloween episode, Lucy had gotten the idea of the proper Halloween etiquette. We rehearsed the drill - ring doorbell, say trick-or-treat, choose one candy and say "thank you, Happy Halloween." She was pretty good at it. I told Lucy in the morning that it was Halloween and she asked to go trick-or-treating right then and there. I had a feeling it was going to be a long day.
Finally the afternoon was winding down and Michael got out of work early and we had a Halloween pizza party. After dinner we had to run out the clock while we waited for it to get dark. When we finally did start getting ready, Lucy was stepping into her dinosaur costume and looked at Michael and I with her voice loud with excitement and asked us what we were going to be. She looked so excited and so earnest in wondering what we were going to be I was kind of at a loss for words. If we told her were weren't dressing up she was going to be heartbroken. Michael excitedly told Lucy he was going to be a clown and shortly after zipping up her dino suit Michael bustled up into the cluttered attic and busted a clown hat, glasses and bow-tie seemingly out of nowhwere. There are many reasons that I love my husband and being able to pull a clown costume out of thin air so as not to disappoint Lucy made me fall in love with him just a little bit more. It was sweet and Lucy was awestruck when she saw "Bozo".
I wrestled Josh into Lucy's old bear cub costume. He looked quite dashing and if Halloween had been one day later the bear costume probably would not have fit Tank. We grabbed the trick-or-treat pumpkin basket and headed out. I don't think Lucy quite understood how this whole deal worked until we went to the first house. Our neighborhood isn't the best for trick-or-treating. There are lots of two-family houses and many seem to shut off lights and not really participate in Halloween. Then there are houses that have elaborate Halloween decorations which I am thankful for because it is a lankmark for lost, wandering parents like us. The first house we went to had a big skeleton, fake spiders and a witch. We see it everytime we go to the playground. We stop and say hello to "witchy poo" and Lucy isn't at all freaked out by the creepiness of it. So we rang witchy poo's doorbell and out came the bowl of candy and she said "twick-or-tweat" and it was really freaking cute. Her big dino tail swishing behind her as she dug through the candy bowl. It all came together for her and she was ready for the next house.
We went from house to house. Lucy liked getting the candy, but somehow I think was equally as excited to ring doorbells. Despite the poor vision due to his gigantic clown glasses, Michael schlepped Lucy up and down the many hills and stairs of our neighborhood. Josh ate a bottle and then crashed. Lucy totally dug halloween. We stopped every now and then for a candy break. Lucy would take one bite from something and then hand it to me and ask for another. We actually had to unload her bucket into the diaper bag because it was getting too heavy for my little dino to carry.
The night was winding down, it was already 7:30 and we headed for home. I told Lucy we were going to go to one more house - another set of witchy poo's. Lucy looked looked up at me past her big dinosaur teeth and said pleadingly, "no Mom, no more candy." We went home, I couldn't in good conscience force my little girl to keep trick-or-treating. At home Lucy dumped out her bucket and chose a few pieces of candy, taking a bite or two of each and then handing it to me all gross and slobbery saying, "all done." She crashed hard from the sugar and slept well.
We're still having daily candy battles. Yesterday morning Lucy was sitting at the table waiting for her breakfast when she helped herself to her candy bowl. By the time I brought over her pancakes and melon, Lucy had chewed her tootsie roll and wrapped the gooey mess all over a lollipop. She asked for dippy so I put some Italian dressing on her plate. She sat at the table dipping her lollipop into the dressing and then alternating licks with bits of pancake and melon. It was so gross, but she was so happy. Happy Halloween!!
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