'I Would Be Most Content if My Children Grew Up to Be the Kind of People Who Think Decorating Involves Mainly Building Bookshelves"

Yesterday was conference day, so Little One had the day off. (I'm hoping that it is pure coincidence and not bad news that my conference with her teacher was the only one scheduled for Friday instead.) Now unlike The Boy, Little One does not use these days as an opportunity to catch up on sleep. She stomped downstairs about 8:00 requesting pancakes. Now Little One has no patience for the fact that I might have other things to do, so seeing me on the computer, she repeated those 2 words that send chills up my spine when I am busy.."I'm starving!". Ok, I said, give me 10 minutes, to which she gave me the look that says "I may not make it that long." So I finished up the paragraph of the article I was working on and joined her in the kitchen. "Cereal?" I asked. "No." ....."Eggo waffle?"......"No".......I knew where this was headed. Chocolate chip pancakes were on the tip of her tongue, but I headed her off saying "How about biscuits?"........"The package kind or your kind?" Now, I knew this was a trick question, because she likes both...but I trapped her. "Which do you want?"......"Ummmm. Yours" .....Ok, fine. So I whipped up some biscuits. And for the next 10 blissful minutes, she sat quietly eating and watching TV while I worked.
After finishing her breakfast, she asked "What are we doing today?" ..."Well, I am going to finish some writing right now and then we will go out for lunch." ......This did not go over well, but she sat quietly and stared at me....an stared....and stared...."WHAT???" I asked. "Just waiting for you to finish.".....So I closed my computer and gave up. "What do you want to do?".......Well, she launched into a long diatribe on how we were the last pathetic house in the neighborhood that was not decorated for Halloween. "But it's not until next week!" I reminded her. "Mom! Look around! Everyone else is already done." I glanced out the door and down the street. Sure enough, every other house was decked out in full Halloween regalia. When did this happen? When I was little, you carved a face in your one pumpkin on the day of Halloween, and set it on your front porch. By 9:00, the teenage boys had busted it, and that was that. These days, the decorations rival Christmas......
Oh well. I decided to get into the "spirit" (no pun intended) of things. "Let's go get the witch in the basement" I suggested. "NO MOM. That is not even a real witch. Not scary at all!"....Well, if truth be told, I knew this. In fact, that is the reason I bought her. She was cute and chic...a very fashionable witch who looked like she had just been shopping at the mall....but she did have pointy shoes and a witch's hat. ....Little One described what she envisioned...spider webs with spiders and 'scary stuff".
In the end, we headed to the store, and with a set budget of $10, we compromised on some scary/chic decorations. Of course when we got home, the neighborhood kids were home from school, so Little One left me to decorate on my own, shouting "Make it Scary! Don't be Cute!"...ah, words to live by....

So on a beautiful fall afternoon, I wrapped sticky, fake webs all over the front porch and through the bushes...and added a few ugly spiders to the mix. But I also put out my chic witch...because life is all about compromise...

until tomorrow.....