Halloween Madness 07

NaBloPoMo 11/1: Halloween. It's never been one of my favorite holidays. I'm not a big costume person. I don't decorate the house. We wanted to go to the Tanaka Farms organic pumpkin patch, but never made it. I thought about buying a pumpkin, but never got to the market this weekend. The last two years I threw together costumes for Maiya on Halloween night.

Halloween 2005 - Sushi Chef
Halloween 2006 - Butterfly

As a parent/feminist trying to raise a healthy child, I am wary of Halloween. Don't get me started on the early sexualization of girls with wench, French maid and seductive witch costumes. (See Newsweek article Eye Candy.) Then there's the princess costumes and the whole corporatization and Disney or other corporate or movie-tie-in characters. I'm not into the hero-type police "man," Superman, Spiderman costumes for boys either. Yesterday I saw two boys with police officer costumes and plastic guns in holsters. Now that's scary.

Then there's the issue of Maiya, who lately often refuses to wear pants, socks, shoes, jackets, long-sleeves, etc. It's been all about the dresses or skirts and purple Crocs only--so I had been stressing about her willingness to wear a costume. Then there's the candy thing--Maiya has hardly ever had any, and it's a slippery slope that we don't really want to slide into the junky food.

That said, I was kind of nervous about this Halloween and thought we might just skip the whole Trick-or-Treating thing this year since Maiya was saying that she didn't want to wear a costume. This morning, we went to our childcare program so that I could help get the toddlers organized to go trick or treating (non-candy snacks--crackers and cookies mostly) in our office. Here is Tomie the Cat, and the kids gathering in anticipation and chaos.Maiya was excited to go to the office and take her plastic pumpkin "basket" as she called it, but she was clingly and didn't want to wear her Ladybug costume (from Evelyn & Naomi). So she went with me as I took pictures of all the kids. I was a little sad for her since she looked a little overwhelmed and the kids were having so much fun.

Tonight I had class, but after checking in with Maiya who was cranky all afternoon, we made plans for her to help daddy pass out candy. I told her what to expect and just before I left she was starting to get excited about people coming over and even put on the costume.

When I got home from class early, Tony & Maiya weren't home so I went out to look for them. I found them across the street. Maiya was wearing her costume AND a jacket. I was thrilled!

At our neighbor Joe & Karen's house

At our neighbor Sofia's house
Ladybug Ladybug, Fly Away Home