Halloween

So Ellie is trying to understand and get the hang of this Halloween stuff. She now recognizes the "fooky" (spooky) decorations that go with Halloween. She calls any skeleton or skull she sees a "pirate" (her bigger cousin Emian -- who she really looks up to -- LOVES pirates...), and she's become obsessed with pumpkins, particularly green pumpkins, and she loves to draw them (she's very good at it!). The other evening Donovan and I were trying to explain to her that on Halloween you dress up in a costume, and then asked her if she knew what a costume was. She replied, "Yes! Uuuhhh....okay, tell me!" So I told her a costume is clothes you put on to try and look like something or someone else. I gave her a few examples. Then we asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween and gave her some ideas. One of the ideas was Tinkerbell, and she immediately said, "Yeah!! TINKERBELL!! Then I can FLY!" to which I replied, "yeah, you can pretend to fly!" Ellie answered, "no! I don't want to pretend!" I couldn't help but smile and laugh inside as I realized her little two-year old understanding of what we meant when we asked her what she wanted to "be" for Halloween. She took us literally and she thought that she could "be" Tinkerbell and since Tinkerbell can fly, that meant she would be able to fly too! (Ellie -- like her mommy -- wants to be able to fly more than anything...) I had to explain to her that she wouldn't really be Tinkerbell, she would just dress up to look like Tinkerbell. Pretty disappointed. Ellie doesn't want to be Tinkerbell for Halloween anymore, now that she understands it doesn't mean she'll be able to fly. She promptly decided she wants to be a pumpkin!