Happy Halloween!

Halloween is an event but more than that it's a spirit of the season. Some may say that it begins when the leaves change or when the kids go back to school. For me, Fall begins when we hang up the decorations and plan out our costumes. When we drag that big tub out of the closet and sort through the different holiday decorations, it marks the beginning of another year of traditions and togetherness.

The morning of Halloween started off full of excitement and energy. After some breakfast, Lilli tried on just the hood of her costume. We didn't want her to get tired of it early and miss out on the nighttime fun. So we gave her a mirror for her to checked herself out.



She walked around making elephant noises and playing in the mirror for a good part of the morning.



After we ran some weekend errands, we came home to get ready. Even at night, after a long hot day in October, it was entirely too warm to be in full costume. We tried to dress her light and hoped for the best. After we suited up we took some pictures and headed out.





She was strapped into her car seat and the A/C was on full blast, we went to a friend's house for a bit before heading to another friend's house. After second the trip across town, Lilli started to show signs of a soon-to-be meltdown. Maybe it was the heat, maybe she was tired of sitting in a car seat, but whatever triggered the waterworks, it was clear the night out was over. We skipped out on the mall trick or treating and opted to head home to relax instead of trying to force Lilli to enjoy herself.

When we got home we had a record total of two trick or treaters that were lucky enough to get our entire bag of candy (minus a few pieces of me). Since it was still early, we decided to played with our costumes for a while before bath and bedtime.



So many people look at these holiday seasons as one day, ignoring everything leading up to and following the specific date on a calendar. If I were to look at things that way, it may seem like Halloween wasn't all it could have been. However, I choose to look at all of the things we did in honor of the day itself. When I see things as a whole instead of a fraction of it's parts, I feel like we had a very successful second Halloween. Score. :)

"Indie Song of the Entry"

Skeleton Man by Evangelicals

Halloween part 5

Aside from the great pumpkin of 2007, that lived from September to early May un-carved on our kitchen counter, we usually carve pumpkins every year. We search high and low for the perfect pumpkin to mutilate and destroy. The one good thing that came out of the Boo Fest was that it was a hydroponic farm and their pumpkins were incredible. The most beautiful orange coloring, hardly any marks or damage, and perfect for carving.

Lilli was a little apprehensive about the whole thing. In order to keep her interested, we gave her some markers and crayons to decorate her pumpkin from the Soho festival.



Then we got started on the perfect-for-carving pumpkin:



Lilli wasn't too happy about gutting her new toy:



But when it was all over, she seemed to really enjoy the end product:



Our best pumpkin carving yet*:



*The cat design was chosen because it is Lilli's favorite animal of the week

"Indie Song of the Entry"

Fool by Heidi Happy

Halloween part 4

We had no idea what to expect this Halloween. I had never had to entertain a toddler without the help of a handful of older siblings to take them trick or treating. Times are different now... We don't have a tight knit family community that we grew up in to parade her around. She's the first grandchild, so there are no older cousins or siblings to drag her around establishing old traditions in a new generation. It's too dangerous and kind of pointless (given that she doesn't eat candy) to take her door to door in our neighborhood. Our experiences proved to be very unhelpful...

We spent a lot of time trying to find something to do for Halloween. We researched and investigated festivals, parties, pumpkin patches (a rare find in Florida), and kid-friendly events. Unfortunately, kid-friendly does not mean toddler friendly. We wanted to find things that would be fun for her but festive and different from the day to day. At first we had a hard time finding something suitable. Then, as Halloween drew near, the calendar began to fill up with plenty of (what seemed like) fun things to do.

First, a small festival in the Soho area of town. It was crowded and the parent-to-kid ratio was in favor of parents socializing and drinking expensive coffee. While older kids ran amuck (I hope someone gets the Hocus Pocus reference), the younger bunch stood in a long line to have their picture taken with clowns on stilts. There was a toy store, filled to the brim with toddlers playing with a train set in the back. A perfect place to let Lilli enjoy some freedom and finally be allowed to interact with her surroundings instead of just being a spectator. She had enough of being carried and swung her legs around to get down, booting a poor little girl in the head. After ensuring the little girl was unharmed, Lilli toddled over to play area. Parents hoovered over their little ones, watching warily as the kids attempted to share (and by share I mean steal each other's objects). One mother took her baby away when the crowd go too much, mumbling something about her child not being a stable walker yet. I could swear she gave me a dirty look...

Then, when the crowd started to clear, Lilli was left with a little boy and his fancy-pants parents. They commented about Lilli's candy corn hat, to which I responded with the story of how she wouldn't take it off in the store. Then I made my social-economic mistake "It was a dollar at Target! How could I say no?!" So proud of my find... Well... this is Soho... Dollar deals are not nearly as impressive to the fancy-pants as it would be to a typical mom. After a polite/mocking smile, they quickly engaged in a private conversation about the expensive gifts they planned to buy their toddler. We made one last loop around the festival and hit the road... without a single picture and feeling a little out of our element.

Next, The Boo Fest at a farm about a half an hour from our house. We thought it'd be fun for her to see a farm. Some cows, horses, maybe a field of pumpkins or other vegetation. It had to be better than the Soho fest... Well, they had pumpkins...



After the farm-bust we had planned to take her to a party at Gymboree. The Pumpkin Patch Party was an hour and a half of toddler madness.



Lilli got to decorate a pumpkin and show off her dancing skills. She hammed it up when the entire room of parents watched this tiny girl dance like a pro. She rolled around, went up and down slides, climbed over and under and through, and even got to eat a sugar cookie at a big kid table with the rest of the kids.





Finally! Something that she could enjoy without being carted around and held back from interacting because of rough kids and engrossed parents not paying attention to their own kids, let alone mine. The parents were understanding of "toddler sharing" and the kids not really getting the concept of personal space. There were no awkward situations, no one smiling politely, we hardly felt out of place at all.


Most importantly, she had a great time.



"Indie Song of the Entry"

All Nothing by The Good China

Halloween part 3

Once I had ordered her costume, it was time to start decorating and getting into the spirit. We placed the tiny fake pumpkins around the house, hung up the mummy on our door, and put the scarecrows out on our patio. Lilli was scared of some of decor at first... now we have to say hello to every single scarecrow we see. When her costume arrived, I let her check it out on her own:



Now if only we had something to do or somewhere to go...

"Indie Song of the Entry"

How Now by Get Set Go

Halloween part 2

The first thing I had to do was find a costume for Lilli. She went as a pumpkin last year because she was too tiny for most of the costumes. I'll admit, not my most creative choice. I would make up for it this year.

There's no denying she has an opinion. If I was going to pick something, she had to at least make the final call. It was down to two choices:

The Hippo or the Elephant:



I was pulling for the Hippo. After some obvious consideration, she had made her decision:



"Indie Song of the Entry"

Machine by Anni Rossi

Halloween part 1

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday (if you can call it that) ever since I was very young. My mom always made a big deal about all holidays, but Halloween was a production. I always looked forward to the start of the holiday season, the big box of Halloween decorations, and especially the smell of Fall even if it was just the Pavlov response to all of the sugar rushes to come.

In elementary school we used to trick or treat in my grandparent's neighborhoods. We would visit their houses for candy and pictures. Then we'd go to the houses from my mom's childhood, her friend's parents who still lived on that street (and quite a few still do). We would visit a haunted house that was owned by friends of my step-grandparents. We would walk around tight knit communities where everyone watched us grow up.

By middle school we had moved to the suburbs and were gaining some freedom. We were allowed to trick or treat unattended and were lucky enough to expand our damage to those of our friend's neighborhoods. We had early curfews, had to check in often, and I'm pretty sure some of the parents stalked us a little in their cars (something I can now completely relate to doing). We sang show tunes and ate all of our favorite candies before we even got home. When we finished, we would sit around in a HUGE circle, dump our haul, then organize into each candy. Then we'd make trades as we sat around talking way too fast, about the people we saw along the way and started planning next year.

Last year was a blur. Not that Lilli would have noticed, but I was not in my element as usual because of being a new parent and the whole almost dying thing. This year I was ready. But what to do as a parent of a toddler... This is uncharted territory.



"Indie Song of the Entry"

Dance Dance Dance by Lykke Li