Halloween has always been a fun holiday for me. When I was a kid, my cousins, friends and neighbors enjoyed making our own costumes and trick or treating around the neighborhood. Sometimes we would get so much candy we would come back home, empty our bags and then head out for a second trip. My hometown also had two other unique Halloween traditions-- one where all the store owners along our Main Street would let the kids paint Halloween pictures in their windows, and then award a prize for the best (sadly, they no longer do this) and also a pumpkin decorating contest at the Elementary School. I won that one a few times!
Nicole, on the other hand, hates Halloween. She says it's because when she went trick or treating as a child, her mother "forced" her to wear long underwear under her costume because it was always so cold out. Nicole says it "ruined" her costumes (particularly the princess one) because the white long shirt showed under her sleeveless princess dress. She also had to wear her coat over her costume. Suffice it to say, this remains a hotly-debated topic between Nicole and her mother to this day.
I was excited to celebrate Halloween for the first time with Emily. What's Halloween without a few spooky pumpkins?
This was not Emily's costume, but rather her Halloween pajama outfit. Yes, I carved that giant pumpkin (and carried it home for a mile after work -- 18 lbs and I almost keeled over doing it). We actually took Emily to three Halloween parties (not all in the same day, thank God): one in our apartment building, one at a nearby restaurant with other local moms, and one at Nicole's job.
Nicole's job has a big Halloween party each year-- kids are invited and they have a big costume contest. We decided to bring Emily since she is a bit too young for trick or treating. Well, we had our first Halloween scare half way there. On the way to the office, someone -- not mentioning any names -- made a HUGE poop, which leaked out of her diaper ALL OVER her pants. The pants she was supposed to wear under her Halloween costume. Yeah. It was like the biggest poop she's ever made. Nicole and I had to change her in the back of our car in the parking garage of her office building, where all the parking attendants watched us while they laughed. I think we went through 800 wipes. Sorry to be gross, but that poop was EVERYWHERE. What a mess. All over her. All over the changing pad. Even on Nicole and me! We almost ran out of wipes!! Needless to say, it was an event. We were pretty late, but we thank our lucky stars that she did it BEFORE we got inside.... that would've been some introduction to Nicole's boss! She was so good the entire visit, even though she missed several naps. Shockingly, she fell asleep in Nicole's arms at one point while she was having a conversation with her co-workers. Unheard of for this non-sleeping baby! Just goes to show how tired she was.
And without further ado, Emily's costume:
That's right, an ice cream cone! Nicole had mentioned in previous posts she looked delicious. Now you know why. The only thing is that costume was hot (foam and all) so we took it off Emily and changed her into some Halloween-themed clothes about half-way through the party.
Emily had a great time and then came home for an early Halloween night's sleep.
Happy Halloween!
