The day before Halloween was a near perfect fall day with blue skies and a slight chill that gave way to a warm afternoon that had parents peeling off their sweaters at school pick up. “Why can’t Halloween be today?” Many of us bemoaned as rain was on the forecast for Halloween. And it did rain. It was overcast, but luckily not cold. Also, while it rained it was mostly a light drizzle with only a few real downpours. Rainy but not cold, moody and overcast–it’s not perfectly ideal, but also not terrible. It was a little sweet spot that felt just right for Halloween.
A while back on Instagram I talked a big about how amazing Lamp’s costume was going to be. I had plans to integrate her wheelchair like we did last year–in my head it was going to be amazing. And Lamp was on board. And then she wasn’t. She reasoned that if her chair was too fancy people wouldn’t really be looking at her. They’d be looking at her chair. I tried to convince her a couple more times but her initial acceptance turned into a hard no. And so of course, we relented and let her lead the way and do Elsa her way. (Although the white hair wasn’t quite what she imagined as she quipped, “I don’t look like Elsa. I look like a grandma dressed as Elsa!”) She looked beautiful.
PSP came up with her costume all herself spying the mask and wings on sale at Michael’s. For the record she is a black swan. Not THE black swan, just a regular ol’ random black swan OK?
It was also the first year where PSP didn’t trick or treat at all with the family, opting instead for a night trick or treating with friends. By the time I drove her to her friends house and came back, the little girls had already done their route with their dad and were ready to come inside for the evening.
I missed our old routine–the whole family headed out together flanked with neighborhood friends along the way, but still us. All of us. We’re in this little sweet spot of life with kids as we no longer have babies or even a regular napper, and our oldest is game to spend most of her time with the family. But we’re starting to see those pulls of independence from our oldest away from family and towards a social group.
It doesn’t feel perfectly perfect because change and growing up sometimes ache, but it’s a little bitter-sweet spot that feels just about right for this phase of life.
XO,
Migs
