Boo!

I'm sure many of you sat awake last night wondering what Lois's Halloween costume would be. I should have saved you a night's sleep and told you earlier in the week! Shame on me.

When Andy was 6 months old, I made a panda costume for him. He was simply squeezable in it and when we tried it on him for the first time, he displayed his first genuine smile for the camera. Of course, I can't find the darn picture - which I know my family will find hard to believe. I've got a photo organization system that could rival the databases at the Pentagon. I spent a half hour looking this morning, and just couldn't seem to put my hands on it. Darn!

Four years later, Maggie was a panda bear for her second Halloween. Five years later, Maggie was a panda bear for her third Halloween. (Maggie is a spritely little thing. Honestly, I bet she could still squeeze her little fanny into it.) And do you think I can find those pictures, either? I know I have them because I've scrapped them.


Terrible, photo I know. But there's the proof. I never put real photos on my scrapbook pages. I scan the real thing and then print them off. So where are the originals? I think it's a vast right wing conspiracy to point out the inadequacies of my photo storage system. But I'll save my conspiracy theories for another time.

So here we are in 2008 and Lois, like her cousins before her, is a panda bear. When I made this costume, I wouldn't have believed that my own child would someday wear it. Which makes the fact that she DID wear it, all the more amazing.



I'm happy to report that she happily wore it all night, it kept her nice and snugly warm, and it now smells of cheddar cheese dust. Have I mentioned her cheesy poof addiction?

Lois has several years of costumes to look forward to. Over the years, I've made numerous costumes for the kids - Andy more so than Maggie. Next year she could be a duck?! She could be Batman.


She could be a pink and purple Snow White.


She could be an Army soldier.


That Army soldier one was extra cool. Andy wanted to be our friend, and my former student Mr. A for Halloween that year. At the time, A was serving in Iraq, but he sent me the real patches from his army uniform to sew on the one I made for Andy. When A came home safe and sound, Andy was so proud to show him what he had worn for Halloween that year. Of course, by the time A was home, it didn't fit quite so well anymore, as you can see in the above picture. But it was a quite a tearful moment. *sniff sniff*

Anyway - that's some list of costumes, isn't it? I'm hoping that our sweet girl will choose to be the solider instead of the princess. What do you think my chances are??

I'll leave you with a picture that captures exactly how blue and beautiful Lois's eyes are. (Click the photo to enlarge it.) For some reason, most pictures I take don't seem to make her eyes appear blue. But they are. And they are gorgeous thanks to Brushfield spots which are common in DS kids. As I say, extra chromosomes have their privileges!