Eluned G. Sharron Bethea » Recent Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

Fri, Nov 6, 2009

Fri, Nov 6, 2009 9:00 PM
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and this year we got to spread it out over a whole week. Eluned was a puppy; I made her costume.

Emerson had a small Halloween plus United Nations Day party the Saturday before. Everyone dressed up and brought their favorite international dish for a potluck. We had a costume contest and then played games.

In Els' age group, there were 4 princesses and Els, so Els won sort of by default. After all, you can't pick one princess over the others.

Far and away the best costume of the night was Batman and Robin. One boy in our church uses a wheelchair and has an assistance dog. He and his parents tricked his wheelchair out as the Batmobile, and somewhere they found a Robin costume for the dog.

On Friday, there was a little Halloween celebration at work, so I picked Els up early, dressed her up and went. I was the only person to bring a child but everyone welcomed her. They had a series of contests and challenges with various prizes, and someone gave Els a little bag of Tootsie Rolls. They wanted her to enter the costume contest, but she was content to sort her candy so I left her alone.

We had a nice slow walk back to my office with one of my co-workers. Els was delighted when we passed a fountain, and insisted on going up the library steps herself.

Everyone there was very happy to see her. We couldn't even get down the hall to my desk without being stopped repeatedly. But I got Els spruced up and we went back, and people gave her candy and pretzels. The pretzels were a huge hit with Els.

We had an even slower walk back to my car. Els wanted to explore every inch and I was happy to let her. Els had made fast friends with one of the student assistants and she walked with us part of the way, but when Els found another fountain and we stopped to examine it, even Els' new friend left.

On Saturday, Halloween, we finally carved the pumpkin that had been sitting around the house. Els didn't get too hands-on, but she found the whole thing fascinating.

That evening, I tried sitting out front with Els in her costume to hand out candy. We had a good time doing that last year, but of course last year, Els couldn't walk yet. This year she didn't want to wait by the front door; she wanted to go run around. And there weren't that many trick-or-treaters. So Will took Els out for a short walk. They even went up to one house, where Els was showered with candy. (Ironically, the same kind of candy that I had bought to hand out.)

Then we waited inside for the trick-or-treaters. We got a few more, and Els was very curious about these people in their costumes. One little girl looked like she wanted to come in and play with Els, and Els looked like she wanted that too. Waiting inside and opening the door for trick-or-treaters made for a much better evening for everyone -- until Freddy Krueger and his skeletal friend showed up. And then Els was done, so we went to bed.

The next day, Sunday, was Dia de los Muertos. Every year they have a festival a block down from Emerson. So Els and I shared a nice brunch and then took in the festival -- mostly booths. Els was very interested in the bounce houses, etc., but she's so little; maybe next year. They have performances but somehow we missed those, and we skipped the car and motorcycle show. We did visit both childrens' art booths. And we paid our respects at the memorial altars.

Comments:
Sarah: I had a lovely vicarious Halloween with y'all, while reading this. Babies are nice, but little girls are so much fun--and you just wait. The best is yet to come.

Add a comment:

Name: Email:
Comment:

Notify me of scrapbook updates