Happy second birthday, Vivian! The party will be this Sunday afternoon.
I swear, I’m having more fun with Halloween these days than I ever did when I was young enough for the holiday to be aimed at me. Part of that is due to Erin’s willingness to throw herself into the spirit of things, but most of it is due to Vivian, of course.
As she reaches her second birthday, Vivian is reaching that age where she can understand that there is something special about these days. Last year she was just all “oh, they give you candy? Cool!”, and next year she’ll probably be singing “It’s Halloween! It’s Halloween! It’s Halloween!”. This year, however, it’s the time in Vivian’s development where she is essentially introduced to her special days, and she meets them with all the joys of discovery.
Case in point, the second trick-or-treat of her life is something hopefully she’ll never forget. We’ll certainly never forget it. She’d been noticing the accumulations of candy that had been building up over the past couple of days, and wondering about this strange butterfly costume that we were encouraging her to wear, but it was only when the first trick-or-treaters came to our door that she put it all together. You wear a costume and go door-to-door, and people just give you candy? Why didn’t anybody tell me?! At that point, it was all we could do to keep her from scooting out the door before grabbing up a bag to store all the loot in.
I stayed behind to shell out while Erin, visiting grandma Rosemarie and my parents shepherded Vivian through the neighbourhood. I’m told that, at the first few houses nobody answered their door and Vivian’s skepticism increased, but when they finally found a place that was shelling out, well it was the only encouragement she needed. Rosemarie came back and took my shelling out bowls and ordered me after Vivian, since I simply had to see this.
We visited ten houses before we headed back, with images of Vivian bouncing off the walls. And we spent the rest of the early evening shelling out to trick-or-treaters who came to our door, and Vivian threw herself into the spirit of things here too. Give away candy? But of course! This holiday is sooooo cool!!
Let me just say that I’m looking forward to Christmas, although I suspect the ones that Vivian will more enjoy are the ones that she’ll experience when she’s three or four rather than two, since it’s all about the anticipation, isn’t it? Halloween, by comparison, has all the rush of candy.
Erin took lots of photographs, of course, and here are a selection.