Happy Weekend to all. Tomorrow, I’ll be dragging the girls to the New England Fiber Festival while James finishes up Penelope’s insulated “pig house.” We’ll be hosting friends for dinner and brunch, and I’ve got two photography gigs on the schedule. Busy but fulfilling, the way life should be.
Night’s like last night bring out the best in my second born. I feel like she gets a bad rep on this blog. Since her birth, she’s been more challenging and demanding than her big sister. I’ve written again and again about her difficult personality, the lows that are so low, the frustrations and hurdles I’ve confronted since she arrived in our family that were completely foreign to our experience with Addison.
And yet, with those lows, come the highest of highs, and Halloween 2013, well, it’s probably the highest I’ve ever been with this kid. Definitely better (and way safer) than heroin.
It began with our yearly pumpkin carving. Sunny, as has been the case since Halloween 2009 (evidenced here and here), wanted nothing to do with the icky, sticky pumpkin guts. She stated defiantly, arms crossed, “Mommy, you KNOW I never like this. I don’t want to touch that. GROSS! My hands will get DIRTY!”
OH THE HORROR! It’s as though we lack the facilities to remediate such things as dirty appendages… but I digress…
Meanwhile, Courtland would crawl inside the pumpkin and make it her home with those guts serving as a slimy albeit snug swaddling blanket if she could. She sticks her face right inside that pumpkin and squeals with delight, pulling out the guts and sifting through for each pumpkin seed as though it were the most sparkling and precious of treasure.
I thought the kid was going to pass out from amazement when we turned off all the lights in the kitchen and illuminated the carved pumpkin. Nothing beats the vicarious joy of living through that kind of childlike euphoria and wonder. I love the way that she makes me and James truly feel those innocent, unburdened emotions.
And then, Trick-or-Treating.
Remember Sunny as a ladybug back in 2009? How ironic that I was writing about the heat of that particular evening, and the problems it posed for the costume, a problem we’ll never have living in New England. What I would give to have a balmy Halloween again! Which is why Courtland made the sudden switch from Bony Baby to Loopy Ladybug. Given the onslaught of rain, I pulled together a ladybug costume at the last minute, since she had the rainboots and raincoat to make the costume work in the inclement weather. I even shoved Sunny’s sized 6 month costume over her head, taking scissors to the crotch so that she could wear the thing. She wore the look well, and I was overjoyed to see that costume in use once again.
We took to the streets, and both girls were enthusiastic and eagerly slogged from house to house despite the rainfall. They began to master the opening, “TRICK OR TREAT!” followed by “THANK YOU!” and lastly, “HAPPY HALLOWEEN!” Both insisted on carrying their spoils, Courtland dragging her bag through puddles and mud without a care in the world.
As the evening wore on, Sunny slowed, beginning to pout about how tired she was, how her feet hurt, and finally she caved and declared that she just wanted to go home. She didn’t want to do anymore trick-or-treating. HURUMPH!
Meanwhile, Courtland looked at me quizzically and said, “Sunny tired? Sunny home? NO KAKI HOME! KAKI HOW-WEEN! KAKI TRICK OR TEET!”
The kid was not slowing down. She gleefully ran through puddled streets with that ridiculous albeit endearing ladybug hood pressed around her noggin, climbing doorstep after doorstep to retrieve more and more candy. James headed back to the car with Sunny, while Courtland kept at it, boldly walking up to each house without her big sister for support.
Our final house had a gaggle of teenagers perched on the porch munching pizza. Courtland lumbered up the steps in her heavy rainboots, crying “TRICK OR TEET!” while shoving out her soggy candy bag with a crazed grin across her face. The kids found her quite amusing, and offered up the candy as Courtland carefully made her selection and placed it in her bag among the rest of her goodies. As she staggered down the porch, she shrieked HAPPY HOW-WEEN! and giggled maniacally.
I heard one of the teens say to the rest of the group, “Man, that kid is having the night of her life!”
And it’s true, she really was. And I felt so lucky to call her mine and to live through that unbridled enthusiasm that she brings to every aspect of her life. In everything she does, she’s all in. She does nothing half way. And for that, I admire her immensely.
My loopy, loving ladybug.
This is going to sound like such a cliché, but where has the year gone? How is this the second to last calendar of 2013?
I found the message for November particularly touching, especially after the year we’ve had. Thanksgiving is far and away my favorite holiday of the year. Of course I love the focus on food, but I particularly love the focus on family, and gratitude. It’s a special, warm and fuzzy kind of holiday.
Thank you, Chloe, for yet another lovely design. It has been a joy to see the variety of ways that you’ve tackled each month of 2013. Click on the calendar above to grab the full res version for your computer.