Halloween: Sir Landon, Queen Elsa-Claire, and Princess Anna-Cora

Halloween! It is the best. And Halloween on Saturday night is even better.

When we last talked, Cora, who is already anti-candy, proved herself to be super anti-costume at her daycare party on Friday. On Saturday, we knew the dragon costume was not going to happen, so my new goal was to get her to wear the sweet little cape that came with her simple Anna dress from Target. We had a party to go to at 5 (yay! It's take 3.5 years but I think we have neighborhood friends; this is very exciting) down the street and Cora naps till 5, so we were able to dress her while she was still in her post-nap fugue state.

By the time she was fully aware the cape was on and tried to get it off, we were whisking her out for pictures and ignoring her attempts to pull it off her neck. So she ignored my attempts to get her to look at or smile for the camera. I have a whole series of these where she kept flipping around to face wherever I was not.

She was mad at the candy bucket, and then it hurt her feelings when she threw it on the floor and it... stayed there? She rallied when I offered to hold her (mood meter switches to pure joy and all smiles-- "MAMAAA!!").

And then I got one of her by herself, but the big kids were NOT allowed to come near her.

We proceeded to the party where chili was eaten by all and then commenced the trick-or-treating with a horde of sugar-hyped children.

Cora stuck to the safe confines of her stroller and had her heart broken when I kindly suggested she come walk up to one of the doors (of a good friend/neighbor) with me.

We ended up back at the party house and the big kids went outside to watch Charlie Brown on a blow up screen and play some mysterious game that involved a lot of running. Claire immediately set up shot with her besties from Kindergarten and they discussed important things for the next 2 hours.

Cora hung onto my leg in the house while I conversed with adults while drinking beer, knowing the big kids didn't need a thing from me and our house was 5 driveways away. It was awesome. Every now and then Cora would yell "Mama!" with all the joy in her heart and everyone would laugh and then she'd go back to focusing on hugging my leg. It was the most grown-up focused I've been able to be at a party in years.

Claire came inside at one point and Cora ran over and gave her a hug, giving me the picture I was asking for in our front yard 3 hours earlier.

Anna and Elsa. Family forever. Love it.

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P.S. Unrelated, but have you seen this bloggess thread? It is the best thing on the internet right now. I've been reading them to James and keep crying because I'm laughing so hard that I'm ruining all the punch lines.

P.P.S. I took this picture of Cora stealing candy from the big kids' (not awesome) hiding place yesterday afternoon. I considered stopping her, but thought it would be funnier to let her eat the candy and then spit it out in horror like she's done with ALL OTHER sugary delicious things we've ever given her. She pulled out an Almond Joy, the grossest candy ever, and I could barely hold back the giggles as I anticipated her reaction. She unwrapped it, toddled off to the kitchen trash can drawer to dispose of her wrapper, and sat herself in her booster seat at the table like the self-starting 3rd baby she is and took a big bite. I giggled, prepared to run over and wipe off her tongue with a paper towel like I had to do the last time she tried cake. She took a second bite. She threw her arms up in the air and yelled "YEAH!!".

I have never been more shocked. She ate a whole fun sized candy bar and loved it. She spits out cake, cookies, and anything sweet, but an abomination of coconut and almonds and milk chocolate has her cheering? It was a shocking moment for me. I've been forced to question all my candy prejudices. Obviously we haven't been meeting her sugar needs at all. What's next? Mounds? Banana flavored laffy taffy? Bit o Honey? The only thing more shocking was when I took this to facebook and my whole feed defended the deliciousness of Almond Joys. They're wrong, but I'm glad to have some ambassadors in this new world where we don't weed out the Mounds and AJ's and immediately put them out in the bowl for new trick or treaters to dispose of. We're a house that consumes coconut. I'm still wrapping my head around it.