Trick or Treat

For some reason unbeknownst to us, our town decided to make the day before Halloween the "official" day for trick or treating this year. Audrey decided she wanted to be a cat... or a princess...or a cat...or a princess...or... Finally she settled on cat, which was great - I already had the necessary articles on hand since she did the feline thing three Halloweens ago. (Actually, the cat ears were part of a costume that I wore several years ago. The rest of that costume, however, was not appropriate for a child of three to wear, so this time we had to make do with a black turtleneck and pants. :P )
Lila, of course, had no say in what she would be stuffed into for the occasion. On Halloween, babies everywhere are forced to don ridiculous costumes for no other reason than to amuse their parents and, as such, we thought we'd get a kick out of turning her into a chili pepper. As you can see, she was a very large, very tightly encased chili pepper. I bought the costume before she was born, and unfortunately (for her) I couldn't predict at that time that she would become the world's longest infant. Thus, she had prematurely outgrown this particular get-up well before the big event. But that did not stop one determined mom from bending, folding, shoving, cramming and tucking appendages and precious rolls of baby fat inside the garment until all buttons could be fastened. Yes, there were tears in the beginning, but once her lungs became sufficiently compressed from the pressure of the suit, the crying ceased and we were able to snap a few pictures. The length of time it took to take those photos is exactly how long Lila's first Halloween lasted. As soon as she was extricated from the offending pepper and circulation had returned to her fingers and toes, she hit the sack.

That left Audrey and me to hop on the neighborhood hay wagon for some hard-core T or T'ing while Fred stayed behind to dole out candy to the other trick-or-treaters. Audrey scored some serious junk that night, and to ensure her good health and the integrity of her teeth, Fred and I have been eating much of the chocolate and chewy stuff for her. Parenting is very tough but you do what you gotta do for the well-being of your children, right?

So that night, after washing cat whiskers off and pulling on pajamas, we told Audrey she could have one piece of candy before going to bed. Inside her loaded down plastic pumpkin bucket were Reese's peanut butter cups, full-size Baby Ruth candy bars, Snickers, M&Ms, bubblegum, Blow-Pops, and the like. With all that "good stuff" to choose from, my sweet little girl dug and dug until she pulled out a tiny, pinky-sized Tootsie Roll and said quietly, "I would like to eat this, I think."