And so begins the “bouncey” season.
The Kiddo came home this Friday before Halloween with a sackful of candy and a wiggly body bouncing with excitement. It wasn’t just the wind-up of Red Ribbon Week (with its opportunities for her to go to school as a rock princess and a scary witch), but Halloween.
Halloween officially kicks off the holidays – and it gives the carte blanche to kids everywhere to eat tons of candy from then until the last Valentine’s Day sucker is gone. I swear, retailers have gone in league with dentists, and between the two have created a Faustian pact.
Even though I let The Kiddo eat her fill of candy for the first 48 hours after Halloween, and I dole out small judicious amounts every day after that, we never seem to get finished with the Halloween candy until just in time for Christmas – which brings more candy. We don’t get through with THAT candy until Valentine’s Day … and that supply lasts us until Easter. You get the picture. Summer is about the only time her poor tooth enamel gets a break (uh, no pun intended).
But the excitement is more than sucrose-based. Halloween also signals that Christmas is coming at us with the unforgiving speed of one of those oncoming locomotives in math word problems. The Kiddo realizes that she has to make the very big, very important gift decision: what is the one BIG gift she wants for Christmas?
Oh, just so many reasons to bounce.
Years ago, I had the pleasure of knowing a woman who had all her Christmas shopping done by Halloween. (No, she is still alive and well as far as I know. I did NOT dispatch this paragon of virtue to the great Boutique in The Sky.)
Me? Christmas shopping? Isn’t that something to be done after Thanksgiving? You’re not considered a slacker unless you’re in Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve buying something besides batteries, right?
But I have learned that if I don’t take advantage of all The Kiddo’s excess energy, and focus it with laser-like precision onto the one gift she might like, she’s going to be bouncing from one big gift idea to another all the way up to Christmas Eve. And we all know that Santa’s elves need some lead time to get those special orders onto the sleigh.
So even though it’s not even Thanksgiving, and my body is resisting all impulses to the contrary, Christmas-time, it is a-coming. That being the case, I’m geared up for the bounces.
6 comments:
I may be a bad mom, but I let my kids have at their candy until it's gone. Inevitably, they lose interest in it within two days, or whenever the chocolate is eaten up. My mother only allowed us one or two pieces a day for weeks, and all I thought about was that candy. I think it scarred me until adulthood, LOL. Now, they eat what they want, and weeks after the holidays I always end up tossing out the majority of the Halloween, Christmas stocking and Easter basket candy, And (hopefully) my kids will end up saner children than I was! That's my plan, anyways!
Happy Halloween!
I do everything I can to keep candy away from my child. All sugary snacks for that matter. Ever since she ate that piece of cake on her first birthday and I saw what it did to her, I've been desperate to keep sugar out of her little body! ;)
However, I decided to give in and let her have some candy she brought home from her preschool Halloween party today. She took one bite of a candy bar, made a yucky face and pointed to the fridge. The girl wanted some blueberries. Score one for mom!
I know this won't last forever. But I will enjoy it for now...
I love this time of year. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And bouncy kids make them all the more enjoyable. :)
We don't celebrate Halloween here, but it's a sign that Christmas is coming - love this part of year :)
Nicole, my mom never let us have candy except at Christmas, and now chocolate holds an awesome power over me, so you may have a good approach.
However, like Elizabeth's sweet girl-child, I'm not much for sugary sweets -- and I credit my mom's limitations for that. Chocolate I adore -- but I want the dark, bitter chocolate. Yum!
Kathi, I just don't remember bouncing as much as The Kiddo does ... I guess I did, though. Boing, boing, boing!
Miss Bee, The Kiddo ADORES all things Christmas, and she'd be a completely ecstatic child if she could only turn me into a Martha-Stewart-mom who decorated with all sorts of ribbon and greenery. Me? I'm doing REALLY well to get the tree up before Christmas! But I love the way that Christmas is new and fresh every year because of The Kiddo -- I see it all anew with a child's eyes.
Hey Cynthia! Not sure if you'll appreciate this brand of humour, but I laugh myself silly at Allie Brosh's blog. Check out "God of Cake" for a story on kids and sugar overload: http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/10/god-of-cake.html
Hope all is well with you :)
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