Halloween

So, the princesses were sick, but they were still beautiful. One Snow White with a deep cough and one Cinderella with a low-grade fever made the rounds around our neighborhood, collecting candy and admiring decorations, getting cooed over by the neighbors we know best, and getting special treats designated just for them. We headed down the street, and by the fifth house they had a system down. String Bean would ring the doorbell, and when it opened, Peanut would lead the chorus of saying “trick or treat!” It’s the first year that they jumped right in without much shyness, especially Peanut. As soon as the candy dropped into her bucket, she’d spin on a sparkly heel and say, “Let’s go to the next house!”

We were planning on a brief outing this year, not only because the kids were sick, but also because they were looking forward to being back home in time to give out candy to other kids. After maybe a dozen houses, the little princess buckets they were collecting candy in were totally full (who knew people were so generous with three- and four-year-olds, some giving four or five pieces of candy each), so we headed home. String Bean was done by then, feeling tired and ready to settle down to eat some candy and wait in the front window, watching for kids coming to our house, so she could race excitedly to open the door and dump huge handfuls of candy into their bags. But Peanut, who really got Halloween for the first time this year, and was no longer frightened by the scarier decorations, wasn’t done. So String Bean stayed home with me while Peanut went out on another round with her grandma. I’m happy to have another Halloween enthusiast in the family.

Cinderella

Halloween came early to our house this year, primarily because String Bean wants to be Cinderella this year, and when I happened across a not-terribly overpriced Cinderella costume in her size, that showed none of the wear and tear of costumes on racks later in the season, she was with me. I tried to figure out how to buy it without her seeing, so I could hide it away upstairs (with Peanut’s Snow White costume), but it didn’t work out. The downside is that she always wants to wear the costume now, and I’m worried it’ll get wrecked before Halloween. The upside is that when wearing the costume, she adopts the mannerisms of a princess. She walks on her tiptoes in a sweeping, ballet-like fashion, moving slowly so as to avoid wrinkling the dress, she keeps her hands at her sides, gently resting them on the puffy skirt of her gown, she even holds her mouth in a princess-like half-smile the entire time. The overall effect is that when wearing the dress, she isn’t running, jumping, screaming, tackling or playing tug-of-war with her sister, or rolling around on the floor underfoot. In fact, she pretty much stands before the mirror, just twirling in slow motion or waving to her imaginary minions. Hopefully the dress survives intact until Halloween. But even if it doesn’t, I’m getting my money’s worth out of it in good behavior.

Every Day is Halloween

Luckily, Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. It isn’t a tough one to love as a kid, all that candy and getting to wear fun costumes and getting to stay up late all amped up on a couple of pounds of sugar. But if Halloween is the day after your birthday (as it is for me), it’s even easier to love. Picture a night of presents, cake, ice cream, and staying up late to play with new toys as you celebrate being one year older. Now picture waking up the next day, a little sad that your birthday is over, only to remember that today is Halloween. I always felt like I had a two-day birthday growing up, and the first part was just for me, and the second part was when the rest of the world got in on the festivities.

Birthdays aren’t what they used to be, and neither is Halloween. Once you have kids, so much more is about them than you. I’m lucky if I can get a sitter for a dinner out for my birthday, and I no longer host the pizza, tarot reading, and horror movie party I did for ten years on Halloween. Now Halloween is all about the kids. And, luckily, the kids are all about Halloween.

We have only two kids, and at 2 and 4 years old, they’ve only had a few actual dress-up and go-out Halloweens between them. Yet we somehow have acquired about eight Halloween costumes, plus a vast assortment of dress-up outfits. The girls manage to wear almost every one of these costumes each week, sometimes four or five of them in a day. Sometimes it’s fake-Halloween to them, and they’ll trick-or-treat for their breakfast or lunch from me. Most times it’s just time to pretend they’re a dog, ladybug, lion, Tinkerbell, witch, ballerina, Dorothy (from the Wizard of Oz)…you get the idea. And I wholeheartedly approve. Of them playing dress up, and celebrating the second part of my birthday, every single day.