Subliminal Message?

"Mommy, you need to be a witch!"

We're in the full swing of preparing for the upcoming Halloween festivities. We've got four pumpkins (two additional as of this morning, as the two purchased by Dad a couple of weeks ago are starting to rot. My son, who thought that we should wait until four days before Halloween to buy them, did utter a little "I told you so" to me yesterday).

The door is fully decorated with stickers. I've been ordered to find some cobwebs to line the bushes in the front. As far as landscaping, I think I'll just let the mums continue to die and rot in the spirit of this upcoming event.

Costume-wise, we're also quite ready this year. I still can't believe I actually bought the costumes so far ahead of time. It may have even been in September!

The girlie wanted to be a princess, and upon purchasing the pink velvety number lined with golden ribbon and a matching cone-hat (honestly, if the equivalent were made for a woman, it would be beyond tacky!) - she wanted to put it on. Right away. Once we were in the minivan, she stripped off her T-shirt and had me pulling the itchy pink dress over her head. I had warned her that the outfit might be itchy, but there's no telling a 2 year old what to do. So with the full concoction on, I buckled her into her carseat, and then we went grocery shopping for dinner items.

Surprisingly, despite her pink cuteness, we didn't get many looks in the supermarket, or any comments either for that matter. I guess people are used to seeing little tykes in all sorts of outfits these days. That is, of course, until she started screaming "Itchy, mommy itchy, ITCHYYYYYYYY!!!!!" about half way through my shopping list. I didn't have a change of clothes with me as her T-shirt had been tossed to the back in her haste to get the costume on. So I had to take the gown off, and use it as a blanket of sorts, so she wouldn't be topless in the store. She actually preferred wearing it that way. I think I also said "I told you so" at the time (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it?) but the logic of that fell upon deaf ears.

Well, I haven't been able to get her into the dress again since. I do, however, have a backup plan, in the form of a fuzzy Winnie the Pooh outfit, complete with the head/hat of Winnie. Actually, it's a weird costume. It sort of looks as if Winnie's been decapitated and is sitting on top of my kid's head. At least that's what it looked like 4 years ago when L wore it, quite happily, despite looking so "Grand-Poo-Bah - ish". I'm still hopeful G will get back into the dress.

L talked me into getting him a "Scream" ghost costume. Now, he hasn't seen the movie. But let's just file this purchase under the "What was I thinking" category. The big brother doth love to chase the little princess around the house in it, scaring the living daylights out of not only her, but his easily freaked out mother at the same time. He's also added a toy Ninja sword to the ensemble, to increase the deadly factor.

Now that we also have CANDY in the house, we've started to map out the plan for evening of October 31. Mommy will stay at home, and give out the candy. Daddy will take the kids out as per usual. This year, however, we have been ordered by the little one to dress up in full Halloween gear. Everyone. That's right, Mommy must be a witch, Daddy is going to be a crocodile. I wonder what zodiac compatability calendar she's been reading to hook us up as that couple?

I asked whether I could be a princess too, but no, that honour is to be bestowed on herself, and on Pam, one of her brother's best friends' moms. And that makes sense, because Pam is such a pretty, sweet mom. And G's mom, well maybe she's just a little more evil, nasty and green.

My mother used to love the fact that all of my little friends were so afraid of her when we were young. She felt that a healthy dose of fear was good - to keep the kids in line. Truth be told, her bark has always been a lot worse than her bite - I think it was just the pure volume of her voice that was enough in itself.

With me, well the volume isn't so much there. But I guess according to my daughter, the scary factor that I inherited is proof that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree in my own case either!

PS- this is of course, in no way to imply that my mother is a witch in any sense of the word. Far from it in fact. My mom's wonderful. She can be, however, quite loud.