Happy Halloween!

Well, Ella had a successful 2010 Halloween. For weeks she has been talking about how she’s going to be a silly clown (siwy cwown…in Ella speak). GiGi made Ella (and my twin nephews who you can see here) adorable clown costumes for Halloween, and Ella was very excited to wear it. And Ella was very clear that she was a silly clown, NOT a scary clown. Although she did want Joe to be a “Scaaaary Scarecrow.”

This afternoon Ella and Joe carved her pumpkin. She was happy being the observer and didn’t want to touch it at all. The entire time she kept saying, “It’s yucky!” I have to agree, especially after my wonderful husband requested toasted pumpkin seeds, which meant I sifted through all the grossness to get them nice and clean so I could toast them. I can completely confirm that pumpkin guts are in fact “yucky.”

Unfortunately, Ella chose to watch her Barney Halloween video instead of nap, which resulted in a minor meltdown that almost prevented us from going trick or treating. I decided to just change her bandages without a bath (I rarely do this, but today we really didn’t have the time for the whole bath and bandage change). So as I was finishing up her last hand, Ella decided she had had enough, thus crying ensued. Oh, it was a mess. She was tired, not feeling so hot (she has a little cold and her advil had worn off), and all she wanted was her monkey jammies. I know many of you are thinking that her bandage change is what caused her to be so upset. No, that was just the straw that broke the camels back. She skipped her nap, and today the bandages were the trigger that set her off. It could have just as easily been that she wanted to wear a pink bow instead of the purple one. Bandages are second nature around here and most days we finish her bandages and go about our day like anyone else. The meltdown didn’t have anything to do with the bandages, it simply happened because she was tired.

Anyway, one of the nice things about having a 3 year old is that she actually understands a lot. So I told her that if she wanted to go trick or treating then she needed to wear her silly clown costume, but if she put on her monkey jammies then she couldn’t go trick or treating. She completely understood. I left her without clothes (just bandages and a onesie) and we went into her room to rockie and read a book. By the time I finished the book (about Curious George going to a Halloween party) Ella was fine and very excited to get on her clown costume. I knew she’d be fine with the purple shirt and overalls, but I wasn’t too sure how she’d respond to the ruffle around the neck. As soon as I told her it was a “clown necklace” she was more than happy to put it on. She was also willing to wear her clown nose, but it kept falling off. Her cute little button nose wasn’t enough to keep the red clown nose in place.

Now the waiting game began. I got Ella all ready and tried to let her watch TV but all she kept saying was how she wanted to go trick or treating. So we went downstairs and I got her shoes on. She sat on the bottom step for about 30 minutes waiting for it to get dark so we could go. We moved outside so I could see if there were any other kids out that early (not in our neighborhood) and she sat on the front stoop for another 20 minutes. We came back inside and the poor child was just staring out the window. She was ready to get out there and get some candy! As soon as I saw one family out I grabbed Ella and off we went.

She did a great job! I knocked on the doors and she would patiently stand and wait for the person to come to the door. She would say “Trick or Treat,” then reach for the candy. She didn’t quite get that they put the candy in the bucket for you. She wanted to grab it from their hands and put it in herself. As we left she told everyone thank you. We just visited the houses on our street, and by the time we got to the last one Ella was ready to go home.

As soon as we walked in the door she said, “Mommy, can you take off my clown costume. I just want to wear my jammies and eat candy!” As soon as I got her changed she sat at the table and started digging through her bucket. Yes, I let her eat 4 pieces. Luckily she also had some chicken nuggets and squash, so it was a fairly well rounded meal.

All in all it was a successful trick or treating experience. In spite of all the sugar, Ella went to bed quickly. She was one exhausted clown!