Thursday, September 13, 2007

Air-Blown Halloween Glory

Yesterday afternoon, Lana and I were waiting for my prescription* to be filled at Mega Grocery Store Chain that is Not Wal-Mart, and we had about 20 minutes to kill.

We wandered around the store for a few minutes, and I just let her look at whatever she wanted to look at (with the exception of a rack of condoms in the health and beauty aisle, which I think she was drawn to because the boxes were so many different colors. I am sure that the marketing geniuses at Trojan and Lifestyles would love to know that their boxes are eye-catching to four-year-olds, but, I really wasn’t ready to have “that talk” just yet.)

We came to the “seasonal” aisle, currently decked out for Halloween, which I had been vaguely trying to avoid because Lana is totally a Sugar Addict (as am I), and I didn’t want to have to have a fight about the fact that we were not going to buy a gigantic bag of fun-size Nerds. (Mostly because, if we had a giant bag of fun-size Nerds six weeks before Halloween, they would be LONG GONE before Halloween arrived, which really isn’t something that anybody in my house needs. Talk about a sugar rush.)

In the middle of the aisle were two of those giant inflatable items. You know what I am talking about – recent additions to holiday decorations, also used for sporting events? This is what I mean - http://www.inflatableseasons.com/ ). Anyway, there were two of them: one kind of like this http://www.inflatableseasons.com/4-ft.-Ghost-coming-out-of-Pumpkin-p-16239.html and one kind of like this http://www.inflatableseasons.com/Skeleton-Head-Hard-Shell-Mini-Tornado-Globe-p-16230.html except that it had a spooky looking house inside instead of the skeleton head.

Lana was fascinated by the ghost coming out of the pumpkin, because, well, she’s four and it was a giant inflatable pumpkin. And also because about once a minute, the ghost would settle back down into the jack-o-lantern and then pop back up again. It was a jack-in-the-box-jack-o-lantern, if you can imagine.

She stared at it. She was TRANSFIXED by all its air-blown glory. At first she just stared at it quietly, and then she made a sound, a sound like, “oooooooooooooohhhhh”, a sound of complete and utter delight.

One of the store employees walked by and said, “Do you like the pumpkin?”

“Shesh” she breathed, almost reverently. (This is how she pronounces ‘yes’ – I don’t know if it’s a speech impediment or a by product of the fact that she is still learning to speak English.)

“What are you going to be for Halloween?” the store employee asked.

Lana looked up at me, confused. (We haven’t really discussed Halloween with her. This contact with the giant inflatable jack-o-lantern-jack-in-the-box was her first exposure to the concept.)

Lana looked at me for an answer to the employee’s question.

“This is her first Halloween,” I said.

The employee looked at me like I was nuts.

“We adopted her in Vietnam eight months ago, so, she’s never seen Halloween before.”

“Oh,” the employee said. “Well, this is sure going to be fun for her. What about Christmas? Do you think she celebrated Christmas before?”

“Probably not - definitely not the way we celebrate here” I said.

“Well, if she’s that impressed with the pumpkin, I think she’s going to be REALLY excited when Christmas rolls around.”

I think the employee might be right about that. Very, very right.

LM

*Evidently, one of the reasons I have had NO SUCCESS in losing any weight, despite all my Sydney Bristow/Dr. McDreamy inspired walking, is because my thyroid has crapped out. Which is why we were waiting for a prescription to be filled.

5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh my gosh, that's hilarious! I can totally see it. And you are right, Christmas is going to be something else entirely!! haha Sorry about your thyroid, hope the meds help.

Thursday, September 13, 2007 1:46:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Zeeb saw one of those animated inflatables at Christmas and had a similar reaction. And every time he sees a picture of a jack-o-lantern he says "I want that!" so I know he's going to love the pumpkin patch. ;-)

Thursday, September 13, 2007 3:16:00 PM  
Blogger Kelly said...

I think she is going to absolutely love holiday season. I can't imagine what it must be like for any 4 year old, let alone one who has never experienced any of it before. How fun for Lana!

Thursday, September 13, 2007 3:22:00 PM  
Blogger maxhelcal said...

I was just saying to my husband about how excited I thought Bronte was gonna be for Christmas. She will be loving life! Halloween spurred my thoughts about it too as I had gotten out three costumes yesterday to see which one Bronte would like. ( a bumble bee, a lavender fairy costume and a Minnie Mouse outfit which is SO CUTE that we got in Disney World ) We have LOADS of Halloween costumes. It's my favorite holiday.

I hear ya about the thyroid. I take 300 mcg of Synthroid every morning. I was told that was a pretty high dose. Anyway, I discovered it when I was 32 and had gained almost 60 pounds over the course of 6 months. I was major tired and started losing my hair too. I did finally lose 35lbs but kept the extra 25 on and my weight has been an uphill battle ever since. I recently just started the South Beach Diet. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm on day 4 of phase 1.

~Michelle

Thursday, September 13, 2007 5:48:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What an experience - the holidays through the eyes of a child who hasn't experienced it all before. It's not like I think big, inflatable pumpkins are the be-all-end-all of a proper childhood, but still, how fun! Sorry about the thyroid, but the meds should help. My sister's thyroid crapped out in her earl/mid 20's, and she lost weight immediately after getting on the meds. She also felt much better (which is more important anyway, right??). I keep getting mine tested every so often, hoping it will explain why I'm exhausted all the time, but then I remember that I have four kids. Duh!

Friday, September 14, 2007 9:41:00 AM  

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