Trick-or-Treat

Last night was Halloween, and Jarrah went trick-or-treating for the second time. She was a bumble bee. I got the idea when we saw "Winnie the Pooh" at the Junior Theatre this summer, and Jarrah was mesmerized by the big production numbers with dancing bees around the perimeter. "I want to be bee!" she exclaimed, several times. I made a note of that. After a lengthy search for a costume that was neither too fluffy nor too sexy (what is UP with the sexy toddler costumes?) and did not cost as much as a Dior original, I hit the jackpot. See for yourself!

The daytime pics were from "Haunted Aquarium," an annual event that is supposed to take place at night, but got rescheduled due to the fires. I think it ended up being just as fun as the dark version last year. That's Joy, Olivia and Linda with Jarrah.

The nighttime pics are from Scot and Synthia's annual Halloween shindig, for which they provide a pizza dinner to friends and their assorted young ones, plus a cozy starting line for trick-or-treating in the form of their house, nestled in the historic neighborhood of Burlingame. It didn't occur to me until today how all the kids seem to be girls!

Jarrah enjoyed trick-or-treating last year, but somehow in a year she's become a total professional. She went up and down steps on her own, holding steady in the crowds of big kids, and remembered to say "Trick-or-Treat!" and "Thank you!" She didn't like any dilly-dallying between houses, and would command "Next house!" if we tried to wait for anyone. Considering how candy is like the nectar of the Gods to her, I was impressed how she respected my oft-repeated instructions not to eat anything enroute.

The one way that she is still my Halloween baby showed up in her fear of "scary" houses. At nearly every house, even if it simply had a porch light and a friendly old lady waving and calling "How cute!" she asked, "It's not a scary house?" "No, not scary," I'd say. "It's friend-y?" she'd persist. "Only friend-y monsters?"

And the houses that were actually trying to be scary, with the dry ice and spiders and witches and ghosts and mummies? Well, we stayed on the sidewalk for those. She wasn't taking any chances. At one house where she wasn't quite sure, she gripped my hand and we walked all the way up the steps towards the strobe lights, and then she suddenly thought better of it, spun on her heel and sprinted back down.

That's okay. There's always next year to work on that bravery.