Halloween When You’re 6 & 3
You’re 6, and you’re dressing up as a Michigan State football player. You don’t know anything about the university’s continued failures to do the right thing. You know we have a new coach, we’re not great this year, and MSU is Daddy’s favorite team. You came home from school telling me how you cheered “go Michigan…” and a fellow State fan/friend in your class responded “STATE!”... over and over again. That delighted you. When we got squashed by U of M this year you said “that’s ok because they’re a really good team and we tried our best, and that’s all that matters”. That delighted me.
You’re 3 and you’re George—the little brother of Peppa Pig, your current favorite cartoon. George is a sweet little baby brother pig who just wants to play dinosaurs and hang with his big sister Peppa—who mostly adores George, except when she doesn’t. I wonder if you can relate?! Your costume comes with a pink piggy hat, a shirt with extra fluff in the tummy and a pink curly pig tail. When we ask what Geroge says, you snort. You are SO cute I have to bite the inside of my cheeks to contain myself from squeezing you too hard. You LOVE candy and almost tripled the houses you trick or treated at, near sprinting to each one until announcing at the farthest point in our journey “my legs are broken”.
You both decided you wanted to be something else the day before Halloween and reverted to costumes from last year for a split second. These decisions: black cat vs football player vs this TV character vs that TV character, how fast to run through the neighborhood collecting candy and when to call it good, plastic pumpkin vs pillowcase, how to thoughtfully sort through the candy haul you proudly dump on the floor to the cheer of family and friends celebrating you…. I’m so thankful, so lucky, so glad this is what fills your heart and your mind. Just as it should be.
You’re 3 and you’re George—the little brother of Peppa Pig, your current favorite cartoon. George is a sweet little baby brother pig who just wants to play dinosaurs and hang with his big sister Peppa—who mostly adores George, except when she doesn’t. I wonder if you can relate?! Your costume comes with a pink piggy hat, a shirt with extra fluff in the tummy and a pink curly pig tail. When we ask what Geroge says, you snort. You are SO cute I have to bite the inside of my cheeks to contain myself from squeezing you too hard. You LOVE candy and almost tripled the houses you trick or treated at, near sprinting to each one until announcing at the farthest point in our journey “my legs are broken”.
You both decided you wanted to be something else the day before Halloween and reverted to costumes from last year for a split second. These decisions: black cat vs football player vs this TV character vs that TV character, how fast to run through the neighborhood collecting candy and when to call it good, plastic pumpkin vs pillowcase, how to thoughtfully sort through the candy haul you proudly dump on the floor to the cheer of family and friends celebrating you…. I’m so thankful, so lucky, so glad this is what fills your heart and your mind. Just as it should be.