NABLOPOMO 2009

So, Bridget has posted her call for NABLOPOMO writers. Read more about it here. Knowing that I have committed to write thirty posts in thirty days makes me feel too busy to explain it myself. After all I am (will) be doing so much writing already.


So, I thought I'd start out by recapping our Halloween. I've never really properly celebrated Halloween. We spent most of my trick or treating years in third world countries where trick or treating wasn't the norm. I remember one Halloween where some ambitious American parents got together and decided we needed to have an authentic trick or treating experience. So, we put on our costumes and in a large, chaperoned group were led from one expatriate house to another until tragedy struck. I don't know if we were led to a wrong house, or if it was the right house and the residents had just forgot to tell the guards to expect us. Anyway, our night of trick-or-treating fun ended by a bunch of Honduran guards swearing at us and telling us to go get jobs and stop begging. There are a lot of beggars in Honduras and they regularly go door to door asking for food...much like we were. The fact that we were white kids in costumes just made us weird.



I went trick-or-treating once in the States, but I was old enough that it was weird. I did feel like a beggar. I never really got in to Halloween.

Yesterday, however, was a blast. It was Sophie's first Halloween. (Okay, it was her second, but since we did not dress her up last year, buy any pumpkins, or attend any Halloween events I am counting this one as her first.) We dressed her up in a monkey costume and then Chris and I both wore green shirts, brown pants and a few cut out leaves and bananas to be trees. Sophie loved loved LOVED being a monkey. She's only 15 months old so I didn't think she'd get it, but she did. Monkeys are one of the few animals that she can make appropriate sounds for. That kid was making monkey noises all night and laughing her head off. We walked to our local grocery store celebration and then to our ward Trunk-or-Treat (see a later post to hear about our car-less situation), and she could barely stand upright she was cracking up so much. She cried when I took off her monkey costume.

Plus, she is an excellent trick-or-treater. She is STELLAR at reaching into candy bowls, grabbing multiple items, stuffing them into her sack, and then quickly going back for more. One old lady thought her greedy skills were so cute that she insisted on letting Sophie keep going till she got bored. Sophie did not get bored and I finally pulled her away after she emptied a third of a big candy bowl into our bag (no exaggeration). Sophie cried when I took her away from the bowl. She's no dummy

We ended up with so much loot! And the best part is that all Sophie gets to eat is the lame apple we got. I guess we will let her play with the wrappers as well. It was pretty fun to have an intense candy swap with Chris while Sophie was obliviously eating her dinner of peas, whole wheat bread, apple, and pepperoni (she really likes pepperoni). The poor sap didn't even realize what we were doing.

I think Halloween was the best day of Sophie's life so far. It was pretty high up Chris and my books as well.