Happy Halloween

A few weeks ago, my two-year-old daughter borrowed several picture books about Halloween from our local library. After reading them and studying the illustrations, she was excited about trick-or-treating.

"What do you want to dress up as?" I asked. She pointed.

"I dress up as skeleton, Mommy," she said.

We bought black pants and a black shirt at a thrift store for the base of her costume, and we bought sheets of white felt to make the bones, which we later drew, cut out, and glued on.

Last night, she put on her outfit, complete with a black skullcap and black gloves. I dressed up as a witch in a floor-length, iridescent purple robe and a long, black and white wig. We went "trunk-or-treating" in the parking lot of her grandmother's church. About twenty members of the congregation had decorated their vehicles' trunks as anything from a graveyard, to a 1960's dance club, to a fortuneteller's booth, to a princess's castle. My daughter's favorite trunk was her grandparents'. Ma Mére and Grandy dressed as pirates. Grandy wore a long, curly, black wig like Captain Hook, and Ma Mére had a red parrot perched on one shoulder. Their trunk was full of treasure. By the time she had visited all of the trunks, my daughter had a plastic jack-o-lantern full of candy and other treats.

When we returned home, it was nearly my daughter's bedtime. My husband and I allowed her to pick one piece of candy to eat. She chose chocolate, of course.

"It's time to put on your jammies," I said, but she wanted no part of that. Halloween had been so much fun that she wanted to wear her costume to bed.

"Night-night Mommy witch," she said as I put her in her crib.

"Night-night baby skeleton," I said.