The Crooked Crown

This Halloween was a little bit strange, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. It’s usually one of my favorite holidays, definitely ahead of Thanksgiving, and close second to Christmas. I love dressing up, decorating the house, the excitement of the kids when they realize they are going to be gathering a crap-ton of candy, pumpkin patches and themed pictures…but this year, it was all just sort of blah for me. I think my blah-ness could be attributed to many things, the giant basketball I’m carrying around these days, the sleep I’m not getting, the fact that we spent most of Halloween day on the road, which was not very comfortable for me and the giant basketball. But whatever the reason, my grumpy mood was contagious. I pretty much had to bribe Lu to put on her costume, the one she’d spent weeks begging me to buy for her. This was the year I finally let her pick out her own getup, and I was less than pleased with her cheap, glitter shedding, itchy, Sleeping Beauty costume, but I kept telling myself this was about what she wanted, not what I wanted for her. We had about 6 pumpkins to carve, but after doing three, we left the others, totally gutted, but no faces on the outside. I drug Lu outside to take pictures, and that’s when the fit started. She didn’t want to wear her crown and her costume was itchy and she was tired and she wanted candy….blah blah blah. It was no fun.

But then I just gave up. Whatever kid, do what you want. Your costume doesn’t fit and your crown is crooked and our pumpkins are pretty lame this year and your hair is barely brushed and it’s cold…I don’t really care. Let’s just goof off, because I’m over this pressure and honestly, my back hurts and I just want chocolate.

I asked her this morning what was her favorite part of Halloween.

“Trick or treating with my cousins and snuggling with you!”

And that’s what I need to try and remember. It’s not about the crooked crown or the ill-fitting costume or the lack of cute pictures…she won’t remember any of that unless I make a big deal out of it. She’ll just remember that her mom let her wear whatever she wanted for Halloween and she got to eat candy for breakfast. She’ll remember her daddy carrying her from house to house when she was too tired. And she’ll remember her cousins taking her to her first house of the night (not the fact that they whined for 20 minutes that she was too slow).

And plus, when I look back, that crooked crown is pretty darn cute.