Last year our baby looked like Yoda. For the past few months Jeff and I have referred to her as “Ewok Baby” because of how she totally sounds like an Ewok. Partially because of her little made-up language full of babbles and partially because of her tiny, raspy little voice. I mean, technically it’s called “ventilator voice” but you know, whatever.
I wanted to put her in a bear costume and put the ewok mask over it but I couldn’t find one in her size. Also, I totally know that Ewoks don’t use light sabers but don’t tell that to Scarlette. Scarlette turns EVERYTHING into a light saber. I’ll turn my back for a second and she’s fished an empty paper towel roll out of the recycling bin and is yelling “YIE GABER!”
I blame that on her father. And her uncles.
This was our first year trick-or-treating with Scarlette. And by “trick or treat” I mean we went to two of our neighbor’s homes before it fell dark.
One hand clutching Jeff’s and and the other holding tightly to her “Yie Gaber” we set across the yard to Mister Al’s house. We had been trying to tell her how Halloween works. “We’re going to visit our friends and if you say “Trick Or Treat” they will give you candy!” we told her. I didn’t think she really understood so as we walked I said “Scarlette, you are going to get a sweet from our friends” and then she started bouncing up and down chanting “SWEET! SWEET PLEASE! SWEET PLEASE!”
In our house, a “sweet” is a single dark chocolate chip from my baking stash or the Unreal version of m&m’s. Scarlette will do anything for a sweet and she could hardly contain her excitement. She even knocked on the front door. But as it swung open and our neighbor bent down to tell her hello she shrieked “MAMA!” and hid her face in my chest. After a little bit of coaxing she looked up in time to see him put two small Almond Joys in her bucket. She reached in, pulled them out and with one in each hand she turned to me with a furrowed brow and said “No Sweet?”
We sat at the bottom of our front porch steps to pass out candy. While we waited on the neighborhood kids to arrive Scarlette busied herself by removing all of the candy from our basket and putting it piece by piece into her own bucket.
Smart kid.
She passed out the tins of candy stars to the first group of children and we reminded her to say “You’re Welcome” when they thanked her. By the time the second wave of kids reached our driveway she was super enthusiastic about her new position as candy-passer-outer. “WELCOME! WELCOME!” she shouted as she dropped a piece in each bag that was held in front of her before they could even get their thank-you’s out.
I can’t wait to see her experience Christmas.
