Halloween Thoughts

My parents felt strongly about not celebrating Halloween and I was pulled out of school on October 31st each year. Often, I spent the day with my mom's friends who homeschooled their children. For a while I thought it was cool; the whole getting out of school and playing with friends was fun.

But as I got older and more classmates asked me why I wasn't in school, I resented the attention and asked my mom if I could "just dress up." I'd tell her it wouldn't mean anything to me to dress up and she would point out all of the reasons we hadn't celebrated Halloween since I was in kindergarten. I'd get upset and storm off. After some time, my mom would find me with her file folder (it was the 1990's) of articles about the origins of Halloween.

One of my high school years I was successful in getting to dress up (but I could not attend a party) and in all my growing up years (before I was 18), I think I dressed up three times for All Hallow's Eve.

My college years proved less challenging than I had imagined. It turns out other people thought Halloween was "lame" and therefore didn't dress up either. I'm not much of a party goer, so I managed to avoid dressing up, which I equate with "celebrating" Halloween.

Each October, I grapple with Halloween to some extent and hold my breath hoping I won't be asked to go to a party/dress up. But now I have my own child and I've spent the last week month being asked "what's Maggie going to be for Halloween?" and the issue is now being forced unlike before.

It's less than 13 hours until my daughter goes to daycare where they have a Halloween parade and less than 24 hours until our doorbell may ring with trick-or-treaters. I have no costume for Maggie and no candy for trick-or-treaters. All week, I've been telling myself Maggie doesn't need a costume because she's too young to know what's going on and we live on a busy street so we won't get much foot traffic.

Earlier today, I came across this article and can't stop thinking about the potential for meeting neighbors if we decide to turn on the porch light and open the door tomorrow night. Is it too late to make a costume for Maggie so I can parade her around and hope to meet my neighbors?

Maggie: 15 months

Maggie is still loving life and growing up as fast as ever. She has started to play with other children at daycare and it's so fun to see her interact with them. They chase each other, play peek-a-boo and take each other's shoes.

All in all, Maggie seems pretty social, but still has her moments of shyness. We had friends over for dinner recently and she acted a bit clingy, which made me think she suspected we were going to leave. Once she warmed up to them, she started her usual tricks (holding her sippy cup with just her mouth).

Some things you may not be able to tell from the photos:

• Maggie is a chatterbox. We can only make out every seventh word, but she talks all the time. 
• She does not smile/pose for photos anymore.

Likes:

• walking everywhere, especially outside
• talking and singing
• milk
• sitting on her pack and play and bottom step 
• putting on shoes

Dislikes:

• being hot or cold
• having her space invaded by the dog

Maggie's monthly updates:

1 month // 2 months // 3 months // 4 months // 5 months // 6 months // 7 months // 8 months // 9 months // 10 months // 11 months // 12 months // 13 months // 14 months