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| My tricky trio! |
I should start by saying that I've never met anyone quite as tuned into treats as my middle child. (She, um, takes after her mommy.) Elise remembers treats for years, and commonly throws up in anticipation when expecting one ("Oh good, now I get Sprite!"). This backfires by delaying the treat until we can be sure she doesn't have a stomach virus, but the occurrence is common enough that we really only put off normal activity for about 15 minutes now.
Elise is soooo tuned into treats, in fact, that I bought a bag of candy corn and am doling them out in pairs once a day per big girl just so I don't have to answer, "Can I have a treat?" a hundred different ways every day. I'm not sure what we'll do when the candy corn runs out, but now we have hoards of Halloween candy so I'm sure we'll muddle through. While Kalina often saves her treats until afternoon, or forgets about them altogether, Elise's are generally gone shortly after breakfast.
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| Our pumpkins this year were from Grandpa's garden! We have a unicorn (Elise), a hedgehog (Naomi) and a smiley face with hair (Kalina, who adored playing in punpkin goop!). |
For Naomi, of course, a treat is also known as a Ritz cracker or a raspberry, but the fun for the big girls started on Tuesday when all the girls in Elise's ballet class exchanged goodies. Oh, goody.
As a treat for the parents, the girls were allowed to wear their costumes, and then performed a Halloween dance. I was distinguished as the only parent who was greeted by an exuberant and loud, "Mommy!!! You're here!!! We're going to do a dance for you!!!" upon entering the room with the other parents. Aw!
Elise, before the class and with great excitement: "And all the girls will say, 'Look at the princess! It's princess Sofia!'" Fortunately, it didn't cross the girl's mind that only two girls in class weren't princesses for Halloween (Elise, however, was the only Sofia!). "And then, if they know Sofia's name, but don't know what she looks like, they can just look at me! And if they do know what Sofia looks like, they can still look at me and say look, Sofia is here!" Elise was too distracted by the treats she was receiving to realize no one except her adoring mommy and sisters were watching her--but we really were watching her very adoringly.
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| Princess Sofia was soooo ready for trick-or-treating! |
And all this time, Kalina is the patient, indulgent big sister, even though she started asking the tough questions of, "But what about when Elise eats her treats, will I get any?" I assured her everything would be fine, and my trusting Kalina trusted me.
I was counting on the fact that Elise is usually generous, so after I called her attention to the fact that her big sis didn't bring home a bagful of treats, she kindly shared equally every time she indulged (once a day, plus the two candy corns--this was really adding up!). Elise may have also noticed that Mommy might just allow a tiny bit more "yumming" when sharing is happening at the same time. She has started to attempt to use this to her advantage but the concept does have its limits.
Also:
Elise: Mommy, is popcorn healthy?
Me: Sure, it's pretty healthy.
Me: Sure, it's pretty healthy.
Elise: Then do you mind if I just have this popcorn ball?
Me: No, Sweetie, you just had your treat!
Me: No, Sweetie, you just had your treat!
Elise: but remember, it's healthy.
She copies the earnestness and inflection I use to convince everyone to finish their green beans.
She copies the earnestness and inflection I use to convince everyone to finish their green beans.
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| Our sweet butterfly! I love her resourcefulness! |
Poor girl asked so nicely! But the answer was still no.
Throughout the day, all three took advantage of my promise that they could jump out and scare me as much as they wanted on Halloween. "Boo! Boo! Boo!" I'm hoping it's out of their little systems for a while. On the plus side, we didn't spend a dime on our costumes this year. Yay, us!
Elise also had a Halloween party and costume parade at preschool. Kalina enjoyed spotting and waving to Elise, as did we all. Fortunately, the treats sent home were on the slightly healthier side, and Elise didn't seem to notice as she again shared equally with Kalina. I should also note that Elise made most of our Halloween decorations this year, including a very serious-mouthed ghost and a serious-mouthed monster. They were seriously cute/scary. Thanks, Elise!
But the holiday isn't all about Elise, of course. Sweet Kalina pieced together her costume all by herself, and a lovely one it was. She changed her mind a couple times, but settled on butterfly wings given to her for her birthday, a "pixie pigtail" headband for antenna and pink pants, pink shirt and pink socks for the body of the butterfly. Although we had to cover up the pink shirt with a purple coat, it matched wonderfully. Lisa, her stuffed lamb, also dressed up in a pink fairy outfit.
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| Naomi wanted her picture taken by the door, too. |
But poor Kalina! Mere hours before trick-or-treating, she spiked a fever and hit the couch. We debated a bit, then perked her up with ibuprofen and took her out to a few house, cautioning her to be careful who she breathed on.
And Naomi! We snuggled her into a warm bunny costume (Princess Sofia happens to have a pet bunny named Clover, although Naomi would've been a bunny regardless) and gave her a glow stick. She also insisted on raiding our own candy bowl, and held a Twix bar in her little fist during the entirety of our trick-or-treating. It was shaped funny when we finally pried it away (thankfully, still wrapped!) for her bath.
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| Naomi wanted a glow stick, too. |
It was a coooollld Halloween, but we managed our usual route. Elise rang the doorbells she could reach, and launched into her joke without hesitation (jokes are an area tradition). Elise had been practicing her joke, "What's a vampire's favorite game? Meatballs!" and delivering it rapid-fire for about 11 1/2 months. Kalina hadn't yet thought of one, and we were too sick to push her, but people get kind of frowny when you don't tell them a joke (weird, right?) so we encouraged her to just use the "panda ghost" joke from last year ("What's a panda ghost's favorite food? Bam--BOO!"). She delivered it perfectly every time and got lots of smiles.
Naomi's joke, as created by Matt: "What's a bunny's favorite kind of music? Hip-hop!" And he'd bounce Naomi as he said it, which made her smile. Sheer preciousness. Naomi, for her part, never seemed too jealous of the treats, possibly because she had a shiny gold-wrappered treat already clutched in her hot little paw.
Upon arriving home, Elise practically ran into the family room to dump out and sort through her pumpkin full of treats, to which she added the others she'd collected throughout the week. I think I actually heard her complain, "We'll never get through all these treats!" more than once, but I assured her we'd manage.
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| Naomi's trick: raiding the treat bowl! |
