Friday, November 4, 2011

Totally Buggin Halloween

Halloween didn’t get its due respect this year. Still tired from my brother’s wedding, on a Monday, and with a new baby? I mean, recipe for an under celebrated holiday right there. We didn’t even dig our fall and Halloween decorations out! gah. It started off a bit tricky too. Since Amelia goes to a hippy-dippy preschool (if only public elementaries were as good!), they have a no holiday policy. I mostly appreciate this policy because we are not religious and don’t really want religion creeping its way into her schooling. However, when it comes to the fun holidays like Halloween or say, Valentine’s Day, I think the kids are missing out. AND I kind of thing they’d learn more by being exposed to lots of different and diverse cultural experiences. ANYWAY, since they don’t celebrate Halloween, I sent her to school in her cute Halloween outfit but not in costume. Lo and behold, we show up to school and all of her friends were WEARING THEIR COSTUMES! So yeah, WTF? I looked at Amelia and while taking it well enough, I could immediately see her sadness. I said, “well you have your super cute Halloween skirt on today right?!” And that sweet babychild agreed with me, “Right mama.” All the while I knew she was just aching to be in costume too as her friends were running around with capes and wings and pretending to fly all over the place. Mama meet heartbreak. What’s a mama to do? Load the baby into the car, drive home, unload baby, gather costume, load baby, drive back to school, unload baby, dress child, load baby, drive home, and unload baby?

That would be goddamn crazy!

But I did it anyway. I couldn’t stand that brave, sweet, but quietly sad little face. I couldn’t take it. Call me goddamn crazy.

And you know what? I walked back into that school with her costume in hand and watched her smile slowly. Not the big, cheesy grin she gets when she’s happy, but the teeny, tiny subtle smile she gets when she’s thrilled. Off to the bathroom we went and as we’re dressing her, she says, “I’m SOOOO glad you brought my costume for me mama!!!!” And off she pranced back to her class, twirling for all to see. And she buzzed around the playground all day I heard later.

Insert satisfied sigh here.

That evening, we ate dinner early, dressed the girls and headed into our new neighborhood curious about trick-or-treating. There aren’t a ton of kids here in this immediate area and it’s fairly remote in a way. We don’t live on a cookie cutter block, but on a street where  you have to hike up and down hills to get to front doors. Curious indeed.

But before we left and before any tears,

Amelia halloween

Complete with a stinger. bzzz

But wait. It gets better. This bee needs some company.

smiling bug

Can you even handle it?! Because I am barely hanging on. The striped tights on both? STOP! It’s too much. And you know that my favorite name for Amelia is Bug right? So yeah. Oh and Amelia loves the Ladybug Girl books. In one of them, she meets Bumblebee Boy and they make the Bug Squad. Perfect all around.

The Bug Squad!

Bug squad

The Disinterested Bug Squad!

bug squad2

Mama and her babies (I still can’t believe I have TWO!)

close up mama n bugs

Daddy’s Bugs

daddy and bugs

It’s okay Annie. You’ll get it someday.

So it turns out that our quiet, peaceful, and outdoorsy neighborhood ROCKS! Holy crap I can’t even believe it. We went to about ten houses (and seriously had to hike) and Amelia scored THREE full candy bars, a full (sealed) bag of microwave popcorn, three fruit roll ups, and handfuls of other stuff. It turns out that a lot of our neighbors are retired (read: big lovers of babychildren) and there aren’t a lot of kids in the area and most of them go to the more suburban neighborhood a mile away (more bang for the buck I guess), so each house only gets a handful of treaters at most. But they are beloved! Not only did she score major loot, but we had to stop and introduce her and us at every house, tell everyone where we live, all about the girls, etc. We literally stopped and met the people at every house and hung out talking before moving onto the next house. So small town. And so sweet and loving and safe. There is something so comforting in being surrounded by people who adore your babies. And there were no punk kids out being assholes. Just good, innocence all abound. Several of the houses were decorated really spooky only for us to find out they didn’t have small children anymore! They just liked to be festive and participate. My favorite house? We walked up to it and I could see through the kitchen window two women about 50ish hanging out watching tv in furry, sparkly tiaras. When Amelia rang the doorbell, they both jumped up and RAN to the door giggling. And oh, did the fawn all over the girls, gushing this and that. So fabulous all around.

bee front

amelia back

Amelia was really dialed into Halloween this year. Not only asking Trick-or-Treat and saying thank you, but also totally chatting it up with everyone who looked at her. As we were leaving one house, she tossed over her shoulder, “You have a really beautiful yard!” And as the owners closed the door, I heard the wife say to her husband, “Wasn’t she just a doll?!” Swoon.

And Annie? She was the perfect little ladybug! It was definitely pushing into her bedtime and she didn’t fuss at all. And she stayed in that costume the whole time! Who does that? We could’ve never gone out that late with Amelia at that age and I’m pretty sure she was over the costume after a minute. Ah, the second baby. They are more flexible and agreeable just by the nature of their existence, no?

annie face

And speaking of first Halloweens . . . we took this picture of Annie

annie remake pic

Because we have this picture of Amelia

Please note the cheeks, nose, lips, tongue, eyes. And CHEEKS. Is it wrong that I feel as if I rolled the dice and hit the jackpot. . . twice?

It was a good night all around, even if not given its proper due.

 

 

Ghosts of Halloween Past

I never got around to posting about Halloween last year, so here are a few pics of our last Halloween with an only child.

 

We had no idea what was about to happen . . . from this

to this

all 4 halloween

Amazing what 12 short months can do! Ohhhh, I look so much more tired in the second one. Sigh.

 

Since nobody around really takes a lot of pictures, Halloween is one of the only times a year that I get a picture with my kid(s).

2008 (Poor, tired mama)

 

 

(side note: good grief, I miss our house. sniff.)

 

mama and bugs

mama and amelia edited

2 comments:

Alaina said...

Dang! You are really on top of this blogging thing! I only get to it a couple times a month, if I'm lucky; although I just started last month, so I guess I can cut myself a break :) I'm glad Halloween worked out so great for you! Kendi was totally over her costume and trick or treating by around 8 or so, which sucked because Cru was so dang cute going up to houses all by himself (with his little buddy) and doing the whole trick or treat! and thank you! thing unprompted. Your girls are so darn cute it's ridiculous! Definitely hit the jackpot :)

Monica said...

NOT crazy (re: going back up the hill to get her costume), Gena; f'ing awesome mama like! I swear I think I got a tear in my eye when Amelia said, "Right Mama." She's so awesome :) Also, I really like Annie's face in the Bug Squad picture! =) Beautiful babies and great documentation of the day.