Nope.  I will blame it on marketing.  The costume store had the Dora costume hanging right at 3 Year Old’s Eye Level.  Frankly, they could’ve doubled the price on it, and I’ll bet dozens of parents like us would’ve had to get it.

So she chose to be Dora.  I tried to talk her into Zombie Dora.  I could do it.  But no.  Dora. 

These costumes were bought several weeks ago.  Yesterday, as I’m spreading the blood and gore on my costume, the day of Beggar’s Night in our town (we do it on any day but Fridays and Saturdays, to avoid older kids causing too many problems…)… and she says she wants to be a zombie.

Needless to say, my heart burst with pride, but with only hours to go before we head out the door to claim our bounty, I am left with only a cute, colorful Dora costume to manipulate.  As I looked at the babe and thought about what has to be done there, thought about the decor that still had to go outside (all the stuff that plugs in/turns on/spews gas/jumps out), thought about still feeding four kids dinner… I actually TALKED HER INTO KEEPING HER DORA COSTUME.

One would think I had been drinking at this point, but no.  I’m still shocked I did it.  And it was good.  She was happy.  I was sort of happy.  But my hubby, in his words of wisdom as usual, reminded me that I still have Ayla to corrupt.  And it was good.

(for the record, I have several layers of clothes on, I’m no Kate Moss, but I’m not 10 of her either… lol)

She actually wore the wig all night. 

Putting makeup on a 10 month old is like trying to bend a potato chip.  But she thought it was HYSTERICAL.  She kept the Zombie Baby cape on the whole evening!

And with Daddy the silly clown…

We had a great time, the girls were phenom.  Autumn’s already talking about next year!

I can feel my heart beat faster as I open the catalogs to shop for costumes for the girls this year… quivering in anticipation to see what’s new… let’s see… um… butterflies.  Ladybugs.  Dora??

Kill me now.

Let me explain something.  Halloween, to us, is not rainbows and Care Bears.  It’s not Bunnies and Diego.

Halloween is zombies, skeletons, screams, and blood.  And it’s fun.  Halloween is watching the candy-buzzed children jump when the sound effects machine warbles a choked shrieeeeeek at the bottom of the driveway (cleverly controlled by remote, to blast at just the right second).  It’s the fog machine, masking the motion-activated shrouded mechanical figure that will jump out at the closest person to be fated to walk in it’s path.  It’s the howling of the ghosts from the upper window of our home, where the speakers are set to blast a full two hour’s worth of frighteningly eerie noises.

There’s no room for Princesses here.

It’s the seemingly inert man in the corner who jumps to life (yes, that’s the hubby) as soon as someone braves the front porch steps, which are mysteriously lit by a flashing strobe light.  It’s giggling at the bigger kids who jump at the Frankenstein face that begins to sing a ridiculous, and not by any stretch scary, song when they walk by.  It’s trekking to the sidewalk to drop the Snickers bar into the bag of the toddler too afraid to come near enough to reach into the bowl that I hold.

Yeah, it’s that good.

It’s watching the kids that cross on the other side of the street because they remember us from last year.  And it’s watching the kids line up at our porch because they remember us from last year.

It’s not about cute ballerinas.  Not here.

What’s wrong with skeletons, zombies, or Bloody Mary for toddlers?  Nothing.  As I hear the collective gasp of every I’m-on-the-bandwagon-by-the-book-OMG-you’re-wrong-to-dress-your-toddler-up-in-anything-but-a-commercially-approved-happy-flowers-out-our-arse-costume mom in the world that’s reading this, who wouldn’t dream of dressing their cute little girl in anything short of Strawberry Shortcake, lemme ask… why not?  Why is there not a market for scary costumes for little people?

Don’t get me wrong – butterflies and ladybugs are cute on toddlers.  But it’s just not for us.

This girl is adorable.  Oh yeah. 

 Yeah.  And she had a GREAT time.   

Now… what shall they be this year?  Hmmm…. the fun is just beginning.