Happy Halloween

The younger child decided to be Ivan, from The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. Not the scariest costume if one knows Ivan, the sweet and adorable gorilla. He had a mask in his Dress Up cubby and had black pants and black shirt, so, the costume was easy enough for him to put together.

The older child decided to trick or treat as a Voodoo Doll. Chopsticks and large pompoms became the pins for this costume which I did not help make at all.

Pumpkins got carved, Jack-O-Lanterns lit, pumpkin seeds roasted, trick-or-treating done in the neighborhood...

Your Skeleton is Showing: Rhymes of Blunder from Six Feet Under by Kurt Cyrus, illustrated by Crab Scrambly is a popular read around this time, as is the old favorite By the Light of the Halloween Moon by Caroline Stutson, illustrated by Kevin Hawkes.

As always, this poem from Halloween Hoots and Howls by Joan Horton, illustrated by JoAnn Adinolfi is the reigning champion:

"Woe is me," the pumpkin said. 

"They plucked me from my garden bed, 

Hollowed all my innards out, 

And with a joyful whoop and shout, 

Carved two eyes, a nose, a grin, 

And stuck a lighted candle in. 

Next they set me on a post 

Where every goblin, ghoul, and ghost, 

Howling, prowling through the night, 

Filled my orange skull with fright." 

"As if that wasn't bad enough," 

The pumpkin grumbled in a huff, 

"They later baked me in a pie, 

And now they're eating me -- GOOD-BYE!"

Ever-Scary Clown and the Bucket Head Zombie

Unlike the previous years where I did the major work of sewing/making kids' costumes based on their input and request, this year I left it entirely up to the kids. I offered to assist them as needed, of course, but, I made it clear that I won't be deeply involved.

The 10 year old is fully capable of  designing and possibly sewing her costume if needed, but she has her plate full this term with school and extra activities. So she opted for the Ever-Scary Clown.

There is no doubt clowns are scary as this survey shows, and of course we learn a lot more from this article about the History and Psychology behind this fear of clowns. Speaking from personal experience, the clown make-up was what gave me the chills as a little girl, even though their slapstick antics is commendable when I look back as an adult.

Now, we did talk about picking a character from a book, or for that matter, a scary character from a scary book if she wants. But, she said nothing can be scarier than a clown and was firm about it.

With a dedicated "Dress Up" cubby from toddlerhood, to which we have been adding and subtracting items constantly, the ten year old has always loved playing dress up at home, even talking her little brother into some dress-up role-play activities. Assorted wigs, bead necklaces, jewelry, mermaid tails, pirate stuff, cat mask and tail, hats, goofy glasses, home-made fairy skirts, home-made butterfly wings, home-made crowns... just a simple collection of  items, always handy. So, the clown costume was easy to pull together.

The make-up was the fun part: nothing too elaborate, just some basic elements to suggest a hint of the sinister.

The seven year old decided early on that he wants to be a bucket head zombie from PVZ. He had the clothes, and he asked to borrow my brown coat and Papa's tie. The only thing left to do was get the bucket that goes on the head. He was going to use the large yogurt tub at first, but wanted to paint it all gray and wasn't sure if the paint will stick. So, I bought a fabric bucket-style bag from Dollar store -- sold as a Halloween trick-or-treat bag. He painted the green bag gray, with some red paint for blood just like the bucket head zombie is depicted in the game.

Again, make-up was the fun part - just an all-over gray with some dark circles under the eyes and some red around the mouth from eating brains.

As usual, they picked out their pumpkins, scooped out the innards and got them ready for carving. Papa, the official Carver Extraordinaire, let them pick out their designs and carved the pumpkin with effortless ease, especially thanks to these newfangled Pumpkin Carving Kits.

Pouring down rain didn't stop them from going trick-or-treating, although the younger child had his reservations about venturing outside.

Happy Pumpkin Day, my little Ostracoderm!

As much as the older child is into spooky stuff, the younger is averse to it. He prefers to celebrate the trusty old pumpkins on Halloween.


Papa, the official pumpkin carver, took requests from the 9 year old and the 6 year old: "Stack-o-Lantern" is the 6 year old's and "Melting Witch" is the older one's.

Both the kids drew a bunch of pumpkinhead robots, and pumpkinhead people, colored them in, and gave them as Happy Halloween cards to their friends.

The older child added an extract from a short poem (by Joan Horton from Halloween Hoots and Howls,) to her card. I might have not-so-subtly hinted that she add this poem. It is one of my favorites to read aloud around this time. Another seasonal/topical favorite is By the Light of the Halloween Moon.

I packed mummy-face pizza for lunch, by request, for the kids. We had Black-and-Orange Pasta for dinner: Black rice pasta and pan-seared carrots with a touch of balsamic vinegar and Bragg liquid aminos. Why Black-and-Orange? The answer of course is, Why Not?

The black rice pasta turned a dull purplish grey on cooking, so, I added a touch of black gel color I had leftover from the penguin cakepops project I made a couple of years ago.

Costumes: The six year old zoomed in on Ostracoderm. Since no one knows quite what it looked like, it was something I enjoyed making, based on fossil evidence and artists' impressions on the web.

The older child wanted to be a resourceful, rough-and-tumble, potions-expert witch, fashioned after Bridget Zinn's Kyra (unlike Hermione Jean Granger, who is a superb-intellectual-witch minus the potions).

[Aside: The older child was allowed to buy one book at the school book fair this year. She chose Poison by Zinn; am trying to stay several chapters ahead of her to screen; settling for paraphrasing and skipping parts that seem out of her range at this time and letting her read the rest herself. Zinn, a young and talented Portland resident, succumbed to cancer recently, Poison being her debut novel. I had to buy this book - her life's work.]

The 9 year old made her own little witch's broom from the fallen tree in the backyard. Yep, a huge limb of our tree fell in the recent storm. Luckily not on our roof, and not on the power lines and phone cables. Looks like that's enough firewood for the winter.

The kids' dentist's office has a Candy Buyback! Not that I expect the kids to haul pounds and pounds of candy from their trick-or-treating; they have a small-ish home-made fabric bag which when full is a bit much, and doubles as a clock: if it is about half-full, it's the perfect time for them to head back home.

I was standing at the store a few days ago, trying to read the labels and pick and choose the treats to give away, leaning towards raisin boxes and packaged fruit leathers, when the other half very kindly relieved me of my moral constipation.

"I know what you are thinking... but, let it go. It's OK," he said and took over the task.

So, this year, the neighborhood kids knocking at our door are not going back with organic apples or oranges, or finger puppets or glow sticks or play clay...

Another year just rolled by...

Nice and quiet, just the way I like it. It was a low-key birthday with Papa and daughter cooking up some treats-- mainly because the girl loves it more than her Mama.

 However, my favorite was the Lemon Poppy Seed cupcakes with Lemon Curd filling. It was perfectly moist and not too sweet. Of course, the little girl decided to add the "filling" by gouging out a top piece from the cupcake, but, it was still delicious.

The Vadaam Stand was a surprise present from my parents. It worked out well!

Halloween came and went with the usual fanfare-- pumpkin carving, roasting pumpkin seeds, and trick-or-treating.

Older child was an Elf Princess (more like Galadriel than Arwen in her mind, I think...) The elf ears were achieved with some scotch tape and foundation and a pioneer girl dress doubled as an elf princess outfit.

The younger child was set on being a Banana, but changed his mind.

 Deepavali, the festival of lights, had a special significance for me this year. Am glad it was special and hope many more are like this.

 All in all, an uneventful few weeks have rolled by this Fall where I cherished the everyday things. The yearning to sit back and do nothing is growing stronger by the day. Even just for a day, if I can linger in bed, read my favorite book, not worry about feeding the family or being productive... just shut down and recharge... sounds like a distant dream.

10 Bizarre and Spooky Poetry Books for Halloween

There is always this fine balance as parents to encourage what we think is healthy and positive while gently steering our children away from what we believe is undesirable.

While the younger child doesn't care much for "spooky stuff" unless it is funny, the older one cannot have enough of it, the darker the better. The younger one is excited about poetry (the rhyming kind) while the older could take it or leave, as long as it is a good read (by her definition, of course).

So, when we decided to explore a theme for October, it seemed like poetry books that celebrate the creepy while balancing it out with humor, was a natural choice.

Of course, it was unavoidable to run into "Hallowe'en" along the way - there are very few children's picture books about the menacing macabre theme without the implicit association with All Hallow's Eve.

As usual, we raided the local library and found what we could and read the books one after the other, in no particular order. Some of the books below are for 8+ while others might be just fine of the 5/6 year olds.

1. Your Skeleton is Showing: Rhymes of Blunder from Six Feet Under
by Kurt Cyrus
illustrated by Crab Scrambly


Hot off the press, so-to-speak, this book of poems is both bizarre and funny. Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt's October 2013 pick seems to appeal to the young and not-so-young alike.

A young boy wanders into a graveyard and encounters a lost dog - well, ghost of a lost dog who is looking for its (ghost) owner. As they wind their way through the graveyard, they 'meet' various other 'inhabitants' and learn a bit about how they each met their macabre fate. In the end, the boy finds what he was looking for as does the dog.

Freddie Diggs who would not stop picking his nose; Wanda Gripp who loved to hug everyone and didn't think twice about hugging an anaconda; High-wire Pete who couldn't tie a knot; we learn about them via hilarious poetry- about how they fell, or what they are up to in their afterlife.

Kurt Cyrus is not stranger in our house - quite a few of his books (written & illustrated!) are all-time favorites earning a firm spot on our bookshelf. While I am curious to know why Kurt didn't illustrate this book, or had he chosen to illustrate it how different would it be, I am very glad to see Crab Scrambly's presentation of the grisly mixed with the amusing.



2. Los Gatos Black on Halloween
by Marisa Montes
illustrated by Yuyi Morales


This bilingual poetry book has just enough spooky Spanish words to complete the reading experience. From context and the illustrations, we can glean the meaning easily even if the Spanish words are unfamiliar at first.

Under the bright full luna, a host of creatures go about: los gatos black emerge; las bruhas fly on their broomstick; los fantasmas rattle their chains and shriek their pains; los esqueletos rattle their bones and clatter in a dance; los muertos rise from the graves and join the others at the haunted casa for some music and dance on their one night of celebration.

However, the party stops when they hear a knock on the puerta. What disturbs them the most is los niños yelling "trick-or-treat"!

While the illustrations are rather darkish and mildly eerie, the humor in them counterbalances and adds a certain charm that complements the reading experience.

What a fun way to incorporate a second language into the reading experience!



3. Creature Carnival
by Marilyn Singer
illustrated by Gris Grimly


I have tremendous admiration for Marilyn Singer's poetry. Mirror, Mirror and its follow-up book Follow, Follow present Reverso poems that she pioneered.

From the inspiring collection of poems about nature in Footprints on the Roof and its companions How to Cross a Pond and Central Heating, to child-friendly non-fiction presentations like Bottoms Up! and Eggs, many of Ms.Singer's books have resonated with me as a parent.

What's not to like about creatures from myth, legend, and popular culture? From Godzilla to Dragons, a menagerie of animals are presented via clever and witty poems, possibly appealing to the older children and adults. The illustrations by Gris Grimly match the poems in wit and humor while highlighting the eerie and the  gruesome.



4. Skeleton Bones & Goblin Groans
Poems for Halloween
by  Amy E. Sklansky


I fell in love with Amy Sklansky's Out of this World poetry book about space.

This book is a collection of rather tame poems for the young, not too scary, and not too funny either, and all about Halloween as the subtitle says.

Some are perfect for the 5 year old to enjoy - like the one about Jack O'lantern and the one about what costume to wear for trick-or-treating.

I fell in love with the artwork in this book: beads and fabric!



5. Two Skeletons on the Telephone 
and Other Poems from Tough City
by Paul Duggan
illustrated by Daniel Sylvestre


Murphy the Rat immediately caught the attention of the 8 year old - the tough rat who calls out, "Here kitty, kitty" itching for a fight.

Murphy's Favorite Sayings is a short 4-liner that again reiterates Murphy's obsession with cats:

Murphy has a few sayings he loves to use,
Like "a stitch in time" or "tit for tat."
But the one that really expresses his view?
"There's more than one way to skin a cat."

Many of the poems are humorous and silly enough even if not laugh out loud funny. None of them are scary or gross, even if they might appeal better to an 8+ year old better.

Two skeletons on the telephone-
Yackety-yack all day.
Just a pair of empty heads
With nothing much to say. 
[Read the poem]



6. You Read to Me, I'll Read to You
Very Short Scary Tales to Read Together
By Hoberman, Mary Ann


Another wonderful book from the You Read To Me, I'll Read To You series, this is a collection of poems that two can read aloud taking turns, alternating the color-coded lines/verses. For example,
I'm a witch
A wicked witch
My hat and cape
Are black as pitch.

I'm the broomstick 

That she flies on.

I'm the broomstick

She relies on.

None of the poems are scary - the two-voiced poems are quite easy to read and fun to take turns and "act it out". The illustrations have a cartoonish charm while supplementing the reading experience.

[BookBrowse at Hatchett Book Group]



7. See My Lovely Poison Ivy
And Other Verses about Witches, Ghosts, and Things
by Lilian Moore
illustrated by Diane Dawson Hearn


The VSS Illustrator Interview features the wonderful Diane who illustrated this poetry collection by Lilian Moore (1909-2004).

Sometimes creepy just for the way it is conjures up images in our head, as Laura Purdy Salas shares, the poems are nevertheless ageless and timeless, and possibly appeal to 8+ age group.

Witches appear prominently, along with other creatures. The poems are clever and are presented from fresh and unique perspectives. I Left My Head reminded us of Shel Silvestein's The Loser in Where the Sidewalk Ends. Lost and Found was another interesting one where Lost: part announces the wizard's pet gone missing, please feed daily (p.s: Reward) and the Found: part announces a dragon breathing fire and eating 20 large meals a day, please come and get him (p.s: No reward needed.)


[image source: Visual Storyteller's Studio illustrator interview]



8. Halloween Hoots and Howls
by Joan Horton
illustrated by Joann Adinolfi


This is a delightful collection of poems. Some of them are quite silly and child-friendly and the 5 year old loved them.

Like the one about the pumpkin which starts,
"Woe is me," the pumpkin said / "They plucked me from my garden bed"

and goes on to describe the pumpkin getting its innards scooped out and then carved and then placed in a strategic spot which is infested with foul ghouls and ghosts, and in the end becomes a pumpkin pie, ending with, "They later baked me in a pie / And now they're eating me - Goodbye!"

And then there are a few that are quite perturbing and I skipped reading them to the younger child knowing his sensitivities. Like, the vampire poem which is short yet eerie:
"One waking vampire rising from his tomb / One thirsty vampire stalking through the gloom
... 
While you're fast asleep at night / He's searching for your room."

Of course, the 8 year old found all of them funny and silly - especially the gravestone ones like,
"Beneath the sea lies Captain Blank / A pirate made him walk the plank / He sank."

The illustrations are beautiful and amusing, not at all grim and dark.


9. The Gargoyle on the Roof
by Jack Prelutsky
illustrated by Peter Sis


Gargoyle, griffin, gremlin...
Werewolf, troll, basilisk...

Jack Prelutsky's brilliant style along with Peter Sis' quite terrifying illustrations made this perfect for the 8 year old. The humor does not come across easily and can be quite grim if taken literally sometimes.

Also, even some of the simpler references are probably more suited for older kids... like, the lonely troll who says he has brought his telephone so feel free to call him, especially since it is a "troll-free number" - the 8-yr old has no idea what a "toll-free number is" (possibly because I've not explained it to her yet and she has not had a need to know it), so the play on it is lost at first read.

Or, when the mother gargoyle sings her lullaby, "Dream your lovely daymares/ Where terror is delight" - if taken literally, it can get rather disturbing, but in the light of the whole poem where the mother tucks her babies in just as the sun comes up, when they'll all sleep like stones, it brings in a weird sort of smile to the reader just picturing this strange tenderness.



10. Witch Watch
by Paul Coltman
illustrated by Gillian McClure


Definitely more for the 9+ range, the entire book is a long poem that tells the story of a Cockney boy who is caught spying on his neighbor (witch) by hiding in a ditch, and is forced to do many chores.

The tough part was the accent - hard to read to translate to "understandable" English at times, but, all the more fun, as the older child has a fascination for the subtle differences in English accents (thanks to Doctor Who), along with a strong liking for all things Irish, Scottish, and Welsh.

Not exactly a fun read-aloud book, this is one of the tougher books in this pile here. The pictures are quite bizarre and filled with nuances that can be unsettling if the child is not ready for it.



Bonus:

11. By the Light of the Halloween Moon
by Caroline Stutson
illustrated by Kevin Hawkes


An all-time favorite, this book is a cumulative rhyming tale about a girl who is sought after by various unpleasant creatures, and how she stands up to them.

While not a collection of poems, the jaunty lilt in the text makes it a fun read-aloud book.

[Read More]



[image source (unless otherwise specified above): multcolib.org]

Pine Tree, Saltwater Taffy, Human Muscular System

"I am going to be a Pine Tree for Halloween, Mama." Sounded pretty final and pretty good to me.

Some Wired Paper Pine decoration and string came together to make the sparse Douglas Fir-like Pine Tree costume. A pair of brown corduroy pants with knee pads that I sewed and the green fleece shirt (also sewn by me long time ago) was the basic outfit. (A cat sitting on the pine tree is a bonus. Nevermind how it got there.)

"Saltwater Taffy. That's what I want to be!" declared the 7 yo a few weeks ago, a wide grin escaping through the gap-teeth.

Some red fleece from my stash, white shiny tulle, cellophane paper, and some thread and pins came together to create the simple strawberry-flavored saltwater taffy costume.

Human Muscular System? That was the costume for the Human Body research that the older child shared in school.

The white slim-fit pants I had sewn for the Canada Dress and a turtleneck white long-sleeved shirt got scribbled with markers and brushed with paints to create the bloody mess that represents the muscles in our body.

The much-anticipated Trick-or-Treat-ing was done as usual, the treats stashed away.  Probably to be discovered months later in small doses...

The best part was the pumpkin carving, as always! "Wicked" was Ana's choice; the tiny pumpkin in the foreground was designed by Og - all carving executed by Papa after the kids scooped out the innards of the pumpkins. My job was to sort out the pumpkin seeds and roast them to enjoy as snack...

A Magic Rainbow and a Mummy

Come September. One of the coveted LPs from my dad's collection. (Which he just gave away to some stranger, along with the HMV turntable). To this day I cannot say these two ordinary words together without the tune ringing in my head...

Well, anyway, I was going say, Come October, the house buzzes with talks of pumpkin and harvest and Deepavali and Mama's birthday... and for the last few years also CROCUS at Saffron Tree.

Plus, of course, Costumes.

I've expounded enough about Halloween here before, so, will skip that thought except to record that I am not fond of spooky stuff. Just personally. It manages to disturb me enough with no ROI that it hasn't been worth it for me. I cannot watch horror movies for sure - just peeking between the cracks in the fingers over my eyes seems too much of an effort to sustain for an hour plus.

So, of course, I don't encourage spooky stuff for the kids.

However, I have no objections to people getting their thrills. D for one loves off-beat horror, cult classics, weird stuff. He is a well-adjusted human being. (As far as I know). So, no judgments is my motto on this. For adults.

However, growing up in a culture that celebrates a festival every other day, with actual customs and manner of celebration varying form region to region, family to family in India, I have come to look upon Halloween and Thanksgiving as reasons to set up a tradition that I am comfortable with and hopefully pass on to the kids.

Coming from a tradition where death anniversary of the family's forebears are observed in a solemn manner, it didn't seem odd for me to read a book about Dia de los Muertos to my kids. And it was quite fun for Ana to do a related craft with her friends.

I still remember the joy and wonder I felt when I watched D carve a huge pumpkin on my first birthday as a newlywed. He made it look so easy and effortless and I loved the way the candle shone through carved pumpkin Jack-o-lantern.

So, pumpkin carving has become a firm tradition for the last decade. Kids have gotten into it. Ana and Oggie scoop out the innards, separate the pulp and seeds so I can roast the seeds for the next week's snack.

Dress-up is always fun. Especially if it comes out of one's imagination. With that in mind, I've tried to encourage the kids to come up with costume ideas. I cannot forget Ana's first. How stubbornly sure she was about being a Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich!

Now, it's not like Halloween sneaks up on us unawares on anything, but for some reason, Ana and Oggie don't settle on their costume until just a week or two before Oct 31st. Which leaves us scrambling to get it ready in time.

This year's costume discussion started with Oggie leaning strongly towards Watermelon, his favorite fruit.

I was pushing for squid in a not-so-subtle way - with ulterior motive, of course, and not because of some strange love for the sea creature. See, I was particularly thrilled about the Octopus costume I had made last year.

After a lot of back and forth, with me tossing out some of his cute ideas as I wasn't up to making the costume, we settled on Mummy.

Thanks to the Boston MFA trip and the Egyptian wing there, Oggie was fascinated with mummies. Now, he doesn't quite get that it is just dead people, preserved. he thinks they are a special species. Anyway, so, Mummy it was.

How to make a mummy costume? Well, I sort of made it up. And it worked out rather okay. Oggie has very specific dislikes so I couldn't just wrap him up more. He was willing to wear a hat but refused to be wrapped up anymore than that, so, his costume had to be simplified: A partially unwrapped Mummy.

Ana has come up with interesting ones in the last few years and this year was no exception. She very firmly said she wanted to be The Magic Rainbow With A Pot O' Gold At The End!

How to make a magic rainbow costume? Well, I tossed around cardboard cut-outs, strips-of-color outfit and such. After googling around a bit, I loved the cutie here: Sunshine and Rainbow. And that's what I did, with a few edits.

Which parent willingly allows a steady candy diet? None that I know of... The kids' dentist says indulge them once a year, rather than small sugary treats on a regular basis. Enough said on that already... refrain from insufferable preachiness I remind myself.

Anyway, pencils, erasers, little activity books, apples, are all fun to hand over when the doorbell rings with the Trick-Or-Treaters waiting eagerly... However...

Happy Halloween!

Octopus, Blue Flower and Pumpkins

Last year, it was a ghost and a hand-me-down giraffe costume. It was simple. No fuss.

And dress up is a fun activity, not necessarily restricted to one day in a year. Especially since the Dad in the house is unbelievably sportive, no fuss, no pretensions, not much vanity to inhibit the spirit of things...

Anyway, Ana wanted to design her own costume this year. After considering a pickle and Shaggy (yes, she likes Scooby-Doo, thanks to her dad), she settled on being a flower. A blue flower. Like bluebells. Maybe more teal blue than purplish blue. With petals standing up on the head, not around the face. Maybe not bell-shaped petals per se. Leaves around the neck. Body is the stem.

As she started describing it, we talked some more, and I sketched a possible outfit.

And, since Og naturally tunes into Ana's enthusiasm and interests, he began throwing out suggestions as well. First, he wanted to be a crane - the machine, not the bird. Then, a zebra. Finally, after talking it over with his dad, he decided to be an Octopus. A blue octopus.



Here's some sewing notes on making the costumes



Keeping up the tradition of carving pumpkins, D, the resident carver-extraordinaire, listened to each of the kids' ideas and worked his magic. The two smaller pumpkins from our home-garden were for the adults in the house to design and carve. Mine is just a hint of a kitty in the pumpkin. And D's is a small yet fairly menacing pumpkin-head.



We used two larger pumpkins from the Pumpkin Patch for the kids. Og needed some leading questions, naturally. Do you want circle nose or triangle nose? Square eyes or circle eyes? How many teeth? and so on... which he answered with the confidence and precision only a 2 year old commands :)

Ana designed her pumpkin to be a fairy house. It was quite complicated as in her drawing below. After talking it over with her dad, she made some adjustments in her design and together they came up with an executable plan.



The kids enjoyed scooping out the innards, so, I pretended to be busy elsewhere.



Oggie helped separate and collect the seeds from the pulp, which got roasted in the oven to become a nutrition-packed snack:

1. Rinse and soak the raw pumpkin seeds in enough water with a tablespoon of soy sauce stirred in, for an hour or even up to overnight (can skip this - I just do it to get the seeds salty enough rather than sprinkling salt afterwards)
2. Roast in the oven at 275 °F for about 45mins to an hour
3. Heat some Smart Butter Omega™ Light with some brown sugar - a tablespoon each per half cup of pumpkin seeds (more if preferred); add the roasted and slightly-cooled pumpkin seeds, stir till sugar caramelizes a bit
4. Sprinkle some ground nutmeg, cinnamon, paprika, black or cayenne pepper, or any favorite blend of spices

I just got over a stomach flu, and Ana just recovered today from similar symptoms... overindulging in candy is not really an issue as we don't. Over-indulging in roasted pumpkin seeds? For sure!

Jack of the Lantern

...You were once a yellow pumpkin, Growing on a sturdy vine;
Now you are my Jack O'Lantern, Let your candle light shine.

Ana's full-throated rendition of this cute little song has been echoing in her school and home for the past couple of weeks, signaling the joys of the harvest season.

I treasure the pumpkin seeds much like the Native Americans apparently did. And since all of us at home simply love eating them for a snack, I enjoy making a good-sized batch around this season.

Considering the several scoops of seeds tangled up with the innards of the pumpkins we were carving, it was just a matter of cleaning and extracting them, soaking in salted water and roasting in the oven, to enjoy the unique taste and texture of fresh roasted pumpkin seeds.

Pushing aside the grim Irish folklore surrounding Jack O'Lantern, blurring cultural delineations by drawing parallels between 'drishti bommai' of Tamil Nadu this year, we enthusiastically kept up our tradition of carving pumpkins, as we have done for the past several years, around the end of October.

Ana 'designed' the Jack O'Lanterns: she drew the eyes, nose and mouth on the pumpkin that Appa carved out in his inimitable effortless style. Oggie 'helped' by trying to put the top back on the pumpkin when we kept taking it off to scoop out the innards, while I acted busy cooking dinner and taking pictures :)

I do like to ramble at times, don't I? I was getting to it: The Costume!

After several attempts at swaying her young mind, I tucked my tail between me legs when a firm, "I already told you, Amma, I don't want to be anything else!" settled the issue, and let Ana wear the exactly what she wanted - viz., A Ghost Costume!

Boo!

I know, I know... quite a let down after PBJ last year. But, her mind was made-up and I respected her resolve, heaving a huge sigh of relief, thanking the stars for making it so darned easy this year :)

Of course, for another year or two, Oggie won't know the difference, so he gets Ana's hand-me-down costumes. Which is how he ended up in a 3-year-old well-maintained giraffe costume that Ana outgrew, to go trick or treating with his Appa and Ana...

... while I stayed home to greet the kids ringing our doorbell...

... and snatching the opportunity to write this update.

No HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) in the candies handed out. Sugar? Yes, wouldn't be candies otherwise. But, certified organic and made with real fruit seemed to take the focus away from sugar.

Now, I know, I have to just let kids have their little ultra-sweet moments - gosh! haven't I gorged at every Deepavali, every Krishna Janmashtami, every Ganesha Chathurthy, every Pongal, every Vishu, every month on some pretext of festival?!

Considering we don't buy candy otherwise, it seems like a nice way to let Ana enjoy a few within reason... deprivation is not a great answer to developing healthy eating habits, but, that has to wait for another post...

Halloween Costume 2008

What do you want to be for Halloween, Ana?
Peanut Butter Jelly!

Maybe you want to be a faerie, you think?
Nope. I think I want to be a Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich!

How about Tinker Bell? You like Tinker Bell, right? Maybe you can be Tinker Bell for Halloween?
No, Amma! I want to be Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich!

O-kay! Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich it is.

And, so, I bought some foam and fabric and made this costume for her. Am glad she didn't ask for anything too complicated... thankfully, this was a terribly simple one to make and I had a lot of fun making it.

As mentioned last year, I have mixed feelings about Halloween: I do not approve of the candy-binge, I do not like the spooky horror stuff, however, I do like the fact that kids can get very creative and design their costume and even perhaps make it themselves, or at least help make it when possible... I know I couldn't make Ana's costume last year and I ended up buying one after severely knotting my innards with moral anguish...

And now that schools and neighborhoods are becoming very politically correct about it, this becomes a Happy Fall Festival! instead of Happy All Hallow's Eve! which is fine by me. Which makes carving pumpkins almost mandatory :)

Every year since D and I got married, we have carved pumpkins - we each get to design the features and carve as best as we can.

There is something very relaxing about scooping out the innards of a pumpkin, composting the pulp, roasting the seeds, and carving a Jack-O-Lantern, lighting a candle inside it and watching it take on a personality of its own in the dark...

However, this year, Ana decided to make up her own design - she wanted "circle eyes", "circle nose" and "crescent moon mouth" and that's what D made. And, she said the other one can have "triangle eyes". D found it very exciting and rewarding to try and carve a pumpkin to Ana's design...

D was very enthusiastic about showing off her costume in the neighborhood and he took her trick-or-treating, promptly stashing away the candy-loot out-of-sight, while I stayed home with Oggie who was running a 101.5°F temperature due to nasty ear infection and so was terribly fussy and unhappy, poor baby! He has been sick for quite a few days now, and I didn't really want to put him in any sort of costume when he is feeling so poorly... there is always next year...

We had fewer trick-or-treaters this year than last year, and I guess I was right about that invisible 'X' mark... And, to my surprise, instead of the traditional little loot basket or little bag, they all came with huge pillow cases as candy-sack... Of course, D bought a bunch of bulk candy from Winco which are not the usual Reeese's or Hershey's, but, fruit-flavored hard candy and sour gummy-worms this year, so, the 'X' probably got reinforced and doubled...

All Hallow's Eve 2007

Being introverted and terribly self-conscious, I've never put on a costume for Halloween so far - not even so much as an elegant feather mask. I couldn't bring myself to do it.

When we had a party at work last year, with prizes for dress up, and were divided into teams to encourage competition and participation, I was not surprised to find our Engineering Team defying frivolity and the general geniality around the office with our everyday wear. I went dressed as a Train Engineer In Indian Outfit - basically, wore shalwar-kameez with a grubby old engine-driver hat that D gave me. The hat remained hidden until it was time for the costume-judge to pass by...

Needless to say, I didn't win any prize - not even the coveted Least-Imaginative-Costume-Ever.

While I was blissfully unaware of Halloween as a child, I have had plenty of time to think about it and look into it over the last 15 years. And, from what I have gathered so far, I am not particularly averse to the sentiments.

Just about every culture seems to celebrate and honor the dead in their own way - sometimes it is solemn, sometimes it is joyous. For some reason, the term Pagan has invited negative connotation in the recent past, but, let me not go there now...



Ana was about 6 months old for her first Halloween. We went to the Sauvie Island farms and bought large pumpkins, among other things.

D loves carving pumpkin lanterns, which apparently was based on Irish/Scottish tradition of carving turnip lanterns. Since pumpkin has been associated with harvest season in North America, and since it is abundant around this time of the year, D has established this tradition at home of carving pumpkin lantern for Ana each year since.

Last year, when Ana was about 1½, I sent her to her daycare in a makeshift witch costume: black turtleneck onesie, black tights, black-and-orange skirt... it seemed like they played "dress up" at her daycare anyway... they used to give me pictures of Ana - either draped in some powder blue princess outfit or wearing a silly reindeer antler - around holidays.

We had a few pumpkins from our garden which we carved. D took her trick-or-treating around the neighborhood while I stayed home and gave out organic trail mix packets and apples to unsuspecting little trick-or-treaters, possibly driving them to mark an invisible 'X' on our door for avoiding next year...

D and I have our adult conversations about how the costumes are probably manufactured in some sweatshop, where kids who make these costumes dream about wearing them but can't and so on... I wanted to make a costume for Ana again this year, but, couldn't. So, after much deliberation and chats with other family and friends, it seemed like we could try to rethink the costume-angle a little.

Ana remembers her Trick-or-Treat trip from last year, and they have been feeding Halloween fodder to her at daycare. So, even though she doesn't quite know much, she knows about wearing a costume and that "Halloween" is something special to do. And she seems quite wired up for it this year.

So, I caved in and bought her a cute little ladybug costume, with the understanding that when she is a little older, she can help me make her costume and we would be more conscious and discerning and what-not. For now, she is only little once, and might as well have fun if she is up for it... which she seems to be.



D carved two cute pumpkins yesterday, with Ana's help - they scooped out the innards together, he asked her about the kind of face pumpkin should have - happy or scary - and ended making one of each.

As D had to work late, I was hoping not to go trick-or-treating under the pretext that I didn't want to disappoint the trick-or-treaters stopping at our house. Thankfully Nana (my mum-in-law) was visiting, and volunteered to take Ana trick-or-treating much to my relief as I was not up for it at all. Just to a few houses on our street with strict understanding that Nana will intercept a major portion of the treat and hide it forever.

Highlight of my Halloween-day: Nana dressed up Ana in her lady bug costume and brought her all the way to my office! I was thrilled to see my wee little bug innocently yet shamelessly flaunting her cuteness. It is not everyday that I get to see my baby during lunch time and take her over to the Waterfront park, look at the seagulls and geese, and have fun. Thanks, Mom, for bringing her in - perhaps you should visit more often so you can do this more often... wink, wink.