Our Spooky Halloween

I've been really excited for the holidays this year because Camilla is at an age where she really gets things. I know she's going to be much more aware of the magic and probably remember it for awhile. We've spent the whole month talking up Halloween. She has been so excited to dress us as Minnie Mouse and for Baby Luke to dress up as a Chili Pepper. (When asked, she has responded that Mommy is going to be a Waterfall and Daddy is going to be a Bee. We have no idea where she came up with these costume ideas.) She was thrilled to carve our pumpkins the night before Halloween.

The day of Halloween, Millie wore her costume all day. She couldn't stop talking about going to a party at the church. She kept trying to get us to leave hours before the Trunk or Treat started. We decided to stop at my Grandma's house first so she could see the kiddos in their costumes. Millie was off the wall hyper by this point, and that was before she'd really had any candy. She could not sit still and was all over Gigi's house when she usually stays within arm's reach of me. She climbed up on a chair and stood there for a little bit, and I decided she should get down before she knocked something over. As I moved over to help her get down, all of a sudden she just fell backwards and hit her head on the brick fireplace. I grabbed her to calm her down and assess the damage and found that there was blood. Grandma got some towels for us, and Mark held one on her head. She bled through it in a few minutes. We decided it was time to head to the ER.

Luke screamed the whole way to the hospital (he was starving) and Millie sat silently in my lap while I pressed a towel to her head. And despite the chaos and the horrible timing of it all, Mark and I just felt the worst about the fact that she was going to miss her party. She'd stopped bleeding by the time we got there, so we knew it probably wasn't too serious, but we wanted to make sure there was no concussion or anything. One hour and a $150 copay later, we left the hospital with one staple in the back of Millie's head. You can kind of see it in this picture, so feel free to skip if that stuff grosses you out.

At this point, we knew the Trunk or Treat should be over, but we went to the church anyways in hopes that it had gone over time. It was getting dark and the parking lot had almost emptied when we arrived, and I didn't really recognize anybody. We had to find a way to give Millie some sort of Halloween. So I jumped out of the car and walked to the small group of stragglers to ask if they would give our daughter candy if I supplied them with some. And of course all the emotions of a difficult night finally boiled over the minute I opened my mouth, and I just bawled while I tried to explain what had happened and what we needed. And all of these kind people took pity on the crazy crying woman and hounded Camilla when she climbed out of the car. They filled her purple pumpkin bucket with candy from their own buckets and told her what a pretty Minnie Mouse she was. She was too overwhelmed to say Trick or Treat, but she didn't really need to. I was so grateful for such a small gesture on their parts to salvage Halloween for a 2-year old who had to miss her party. It's moments like those that make me grateful to be a part of a church family full of good people who are friends even though we may not all know each other well. 

Luke lucked out and didn't have to wear his rather warm Chili Pepper costume on a rather warm October evening. He actually kind of had a good night because Momma held him the entire time which she usually doesn't have time to do. He was really a trooper--the whole night could have been even worse had he been in a bad mood. But I did make sure to do a little photo shoot with him the next morning since there's nothing cuter than a baby in a ridiculous costume.