Twick or Tweet

 Now, you tell me. If this little dude showed up at your door on Halloween dressed like a pumpkin, and he just stood there smiling at you and not saying anything, even though his mother had spent a week teaching him to say "Trick or Treat," wouldn't you just dump your entire candy bowl into his bag?

Me too.

 And then if this cutie patootie woke up Halloween morning and told you that instead of being a witch like always, she was going to be a Pretty Pink Fairy, so you dressed her up in layers of pink tulle and gauze and made her a crown and gave her a wand, and then she came home from pre-school and announced that she was not a Pretty Pink Fairy after all; she was a Not Very Nice Pink Fairy instead, and by lunch she was a Mean Pink Fairy, and by afternoon snack she was a Bad Pink Fairy, and by evening she was knocking on doors dressed as a Witch–wouldn't you think she was totally hilarious?

I'm right there with you.

Of course, if this chicklet–who looks like an ad for Yo Ho O's Cereal–started running about making everyone walk the plank, speaking with Arrrrs and Matey's, and refusing to wear a coat over her costume even though it was snowing, so you had to layer her up with many pairs of long underwear and tights and turtlenecks and little knit gloves, wouldn't you just love to take her around the lily-livered neighborhood to plunder candy?

I agree.

 And finally, if this little munchkin turned around and you found that he had a lightening-bolt scar drawn onto his forehead with eyebrow pencil, and he'd been wearing jeans but he'd herked on them, and there'd been a cape but he kept twisting it around backward trying to get it off, and the Harry Potter glasses? They'd been chewed until their little pipe-cleaner selves no longer resembled anything so much as a soggy caterpillar, wouldn't you hug the stuffing out of him?

Yep. And I did.

That was then. This is now. My little Halloweenies are all growed up. Mostly. And they don't really look like this any more, except reminiscently in a few facial expressions and a bit around the eyebrows. But that personality you see their in their eyes and in their posture? That's ALL there. And will be for many Halloweens to come.

Thank heavens.