Today is October 31st or Halloween so when I heard my children up early, making a commotion in the bonus room, I thought they’d be gearing up for the day’s fun at school, at the neighborhood party, wearing their costumes and, the pinnacle of the evening, trick-or-treating.
I was surprised when they came downstairs and greeted me with, “hey mom, it’s Bryna’s birthday.” Our neighbor, and mother to two of our favorite sitters, shares her birthday with Halloween, something she said she’s never really liked. It was frustrating as a child and as an adult she doesn’t like to take away from the enjoyment the children get from the day.
I was touched my children were more interested in their favorite neighbor’s birthday than the more selfish pursuits of candy for the day. I didn’t think much of it at the time because we had to get ready for school and the morning got away from us.
The children each had their own different celebrations at school but came home excited for the evening to come. We had coordinated Shane, Bryna’s daughter and our regular sitter, to take my daughter trick-or-treating. My son was going to find friends to go with with all the children in the houses just surrounding us. I wasn’t even worried about asking parents (although we confirmed later that it was okay) because he can manage himself.
My daughter was going to need someone to walk with her at her pace and take her up the walks to the doors and help her get candy in her bucket and Shane said she’d be glad to do so when we asked her a few weeks ago.
When Shane came over before the pre-trick-or-treating neighborhood clubhouse party my daughter was in a tough mood. Some of the children on the street had come in the door and wanted to tell all about their costumes. They told her they liked her watermelon costume but for some reason my daughter withdrew and didn’t want to wear her costume, go trick-or-treating or have anything to do with Shane.
But there was one thing she did want to do. She went upstairs and brought down two pieces of braille paper, folded over into an envelope of sorts. My daughter told me she’d made a birthday card for Bryna (that morning) and could I interline it for her in print so she could give it to her?
I translated the braille and read the sweetest words from my daughter, phonetically spelled in the way a child does when they’re learning words, and read about Bryna’s birthday, how she hoped she had enough candy for Halloween, that she hoped she had a happy birthday and that I had gotten her some of the shirts with the thumb holes in them like Bryna had told her about and, “wasn’t that grate?”
She had written “Love Reese” in print on the bottom of the page in what was legible to me, but only because I’ve read enough of her print. After finishing interlining the card I gave it to my daughter who went over with Shane to give the card to Bryna.
Bryna told me later in the evening, when we met on the street handing out our adult drinks to the parents that walked by, that it was the most special thing to her. She said it made her cry and told my daughter she was crying as my daughter read the braille with her fingers and told her what her card said. My daughter didn’t think she meant she was really crying so Bryna took her hand and let her feel the tears on her face.
My daughter, who had been so excited about her costume and trick-or-treating, only to withdraw when her friends came around, was now back to herself. She and Shane did so much trick-or-treating she stopped in at the house to empty her bucket to go back for more. She told Shane she was having the best time with her.
My son was off on his own although I saw him when he stopped in at our house. He and I had the same costume—light-up space aliens. He also came in later with quite the haul of candy. We didn’t give all of ours away either. It would appear I picked the wrong time to go a month without sugar.
The Big Boy Update: Today was Mystery History in my son’s class. My son is a second year but he was excited to see his third years friends (equivalent to third grade) do their Mystery History presentations. Each student researches and writes a paper about their historical figure’s life in first person. They dress up as the person and then present to the class as well as parents. We aren't told who the person is. At the end of each presentation the presenter says, “who am I?” and we get to guess. I was tremendously impressed at the students, some of whom spoke for five minutes with well-written, detailed information about their historical figure. My son is thinking about who he’ll be for Mystery History next year when he’s a third year.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter came home with a backpack full of activities she did today all centered on halloween and pumpkins. Some was writing, some was math, some was learning about pumpkins. She was so enthusiastic about it she wanted to show me everything. But we had no time. I had to rush her through a few of them, promising to get to them tomorrow but she had to get her watermelon slice costume on so we could go to the neighborhood Halloween party.
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