“Well, no, I’m not very happy. Why would you think I would be happy? I don’t particularly like my tiger costume. Why can’t they figure out I am a mouse? I especially do not like the hat. Actually, I don’t like hats at all. Every time my moom puts a hat on me, I pull it right right off.” Yes, even when it was 10 degrees and blowing snow. It’s a wonder nobody ever called the child protective services on me. Sheesh.

Halloween 1988. Lizard Breath was a unicorn. My Little Pony style (or were you actually My Little Pony?). A little lavendar unicorn (pony?) with a rainbow-colored mane and tail. Mouse? Well, I don’t know. I thought tiger was a pretty good idea. It certainly seemed to match certain aspects of her personality. I found some tiger-striped fabric and zapped up a tiger costume with ears and a tail and everything. Cute? Yeah! Or not.

Of course, a 1-1/2-year-old doesn’t understand anything about Halloween. This is a kid who could count to ten and clearly enunciate sentences like, “Would you please read this book to me?” She was thinking things like, “What the heck does trick-or-treat mean? And why under the sun are they trying to teach me how to make a growly noise? This is really stupid.”

What Mouse did get excited about around that time was shoes. Yes. Shoes. She would be sound asleep one minute and then sit bolt upright yelling, “Shoe on! Shoe on!” And so, on that wonderful old holiday Halloween Shoe On, when the GG took his unicorn and tiger out trick-or-treating, they got around the corner to Shuggy’s house and guess what? There was a shoe pile just inside the door. Do you have a shoe pile? I have a shoe pile. Right inside my door. The tiger got totally excited by the pile of shoes and started yelling, “Shoe on! Shoe on!” And so it went for the rest of the evening. “Trick-or-treat? I don’t know what the heck that means but I love all these shoe piles.”

Of course, by the end of the night, she had learned forever more that the stupid old tradition of “trick-or-treat” meant that you ended up with a huge bag of candy and your baggy old moom would actually pretty much let you eat it. And so you did, until you kind of forgot about it enough that she could squirrel it away somewhere. Around about Easter, she would throw it out but I guess that would be a whole ‘nother story. Maybe we could classify it under “parenting gone awry”. Or not. Today? She thinks the tiger costume is cute and wishes she could still fit into it. Really! Love you, little Mouse.

P.S. I was going to post about this yesterday but then I got into that whole Twitter mix-up. I am happy to report that the issue *was* fixed yesterday and I actually got an apology today. It *was* a mistake and I wasn’t the only one. I am pretty impressed with the customer service, especially since I don’t pay anything for Twitter.

Onward!