BIOBaby: Halloween 2009
November 3, 2009 by nina
Filed under Blog It Out, Baby
This was Jack’s 2nd Halloween and Kali’s 11th. I must admit that I kinda live vicariously through Kali when it comes to this holiday. With her biracial looks, she’s able to pull off costumes that I could only dream about. As a little brown girl, I would never really look like Wonder Woman, Lil Orphan Annie, or Dorothy. I’d look like a little black girl dressed up as Wonder Woman, Lil Oprhan Annie and Dorothy.
Kali and I do this delicate dance every year when it comes to her costume. At first, the struggle was getting her to dress up as a character I wanted. Unless Michael Bay or someone else in Hollywood “reimagines” the shows/books/characters we grew up with, most kids today wouldn’t know who they were. If you asked a teenage boy what the General Lee was before that God-awful Jessica Simpson movie, they wouldn’t be able to tell you. And girls that Daisy Duke was a pair of coochie-cutting shorts.
Then we fought over the definition of a costume. One year, she wanted to be Hannah Montana and the “costume” consisted of a blond wig, some leggings under a mini skirt, a denim jacket and a fake microphone.
“Ma, pleeeeease?!”
“No. Kali, that’s not a costume. No one will look at you and know what you are. You’ll just look like Kali in a blond wig with really bad mall clothing!”
Now, our battle is over what is an appropriate costume. Thanks to porn, even an innocent cheerleader’s uniform takes on a sexual tone. And it doesn’t help that costume companies are tarting up the little girls’ costumes younger and younger. This year Kali wanted to be a vampire witch. That’s some shit somebody made up. Another way to add an extra few bucks to the cost of a witch costume by adding plastic fangs.
We settled on a Japanese princess costume. I kept calling it a geisha until Donny said he thought that might be a Japanese whore, and then we just stuck with Japanese princess until we knew for sure. The costume consisted of a kimono, kimono belt, and two red sticks to place in her hair. Very simple, inexpensive and extremely pretty.
Jack was a baby devil.
So, Saturday gets here and I chose then, hours before they were due to go trick-or-treating, to make them try on their costumes. Jack kinda looked like the long-lost red Teletubby. And Kali, well, Kali looked gorgeous. I was so tempted to get a burlap sack and have her go as a 5lb bag of potatoes instead. She put on some black tights and open toe flippy-floppy shoes. I put her hair in a bun, applied the sticks and even let her wear a little make up.
It was drizzling out so my Aunt and I drove the kids from house to house… at first. Then the rain let up and Kali and her friends wanted to walk so we followed behind them at a slow crawl. Hey, that’s how they roll in the suburbs. Well then Jack kept trying to jump out the window to get to his sister, so we parked the car back at my house and busted out the stroller to hoof it.
After about three houses Kali started complaining about the hair sticks and wanted to take them out. I told her no and watched as she sulked her way to the next house.
“I don’t understand why I can’t take the sticks out! They hurt!”
When she was out of earshot…
“Because the sticks make the costume. Without the sticks you are just a ten-year-old girl in a silky dress with too much makeup on. The sticks make you Japanese. Without them, it looks like I let me daughter leave the house looking like a whore!”
Two houses later, the sticks were gone. A house after that, she had changed from her shoes into pink Converses. By the time she was hitting the last few houses, the bun was gone and her hair was flowing down her back in a ponytail. It looked like I sent my child out trick-or-treating in a robe and sneakers. *sigh*
Speaking of trick-or-treating, my aunt and I realized after a few houses that the girls weren’t even saying it as doors were opened.
“Are you guys saying trick-or-treat?”
My little sister replied, “No. We just smile.”
“For the love of… are you at least saying thank you?”
Kids today do not know how to trick-or-treat and half of them weren’t wearing real costumes! Pajamas aren’t costumes, people! Stop letting your kids leave the house in them.
The next day, Kali was walking around the house in her kimino with it unbelted. It looked like a silk robe. With her underwear peeking through she looked like that character that opens the door on an Law and Order: SVU episode. You know what I’m talking about. Stabler and Benson go to interview “a lady of the night” and she answers the door with her open robe, a cigarette in one hand, and a drink in the other.
“Girl, if you don’t put some clothes on!!”
Halloween will be the death of me.
Nina is a 34-year-old mother, wife and writer who spends her days blogging, studying, changing diapers and watching ridiculous amounts of TV. She currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband, two children and three TiVos.
yeah, I don’t like the way that even childrens’ costumes now are made to make them look like sluts…and it irks me even more that parents BUY that shit……
Jack is too cute…I love his smile!!!
AND..I refuse to give ‘treats’ to any child that doesn’t say ‘Trick or Treat’…unless they are too young to talk, in which case, should they REALLY be getting candy?????? Those little ones that are just barely born get nothing from me either. They don’t even have TEETH to eat the candy. One lady called me on it last year and I told her she was too old to be trickortreating and to come back again in a few years when the kid could actually eat the stuff I was handing out………
Jack is the cutest little baby devil and seriously you want to see a full length picture of Kali in her costume. The pictures you posted are gorgeous. She is beautiful Nina (which you already know).
LMBO @ No. Kali, that’s not a costume. No one will look at you and know what you are. You’ll just look like Kali in a blond wig with really bad mall clothing!”
I took head shots and then Donny left to run an errand with the camera. By the time he came back she’d taken out the hair sticks, her hair was in a ponytail and she was wearing sneakers.
Good luck with Kali, she is beautiful. She does have an exotic look to her. Maybe you should start campaigning now about how being a box of crayons will be a good look for her next year. Anything that’s boxy and doesn’t require makeup.
And Jack……it doesn’t matter what he is, he could be a roll of toilet paper and he’d be the cutest.
Geisha isn’t a Japanese whore, but geisha girl is.
I think she rocked the look.
dude man dude… I am at work cracking up over ther SVU reference! I could so picture it and I don’t want to picture lil girls in silk robes with tehri panties showing! LMPRAO!! I have tears coming out!
I knew someone would get it! She was just walking around all grown. I was like, put some clothes on!!!
I SO GOT THIS REFERENCE 2!!! You just reminded me how pissed I was earlier that SVU was shooting an epi at my school today (john jay) and Im not there because I work tuesdays this semester. UNFNBELIEVABLE! yeah im still mad
I totally know what you mean about arguing with the kids about what costumes they’ll wear. I LOVE halloween, and I insist we all dress up as a family theme. This year it was Peter Pan (I was Peter, Hubby was Cptn Hook, the kids were Tiger Lily, the Crocodile, and Tinkerbell), last year it was the Three Little Pigs (The kids were the little pigs, I was Mama Pig, and Hubby was the Big Bad Wolf). So when one of them doesn’t want to dress as the theme they are OVERRULED! Not sure how long I can get away with this, though.
I love Halloween. Ive loved it since I was a young’n and I dont even like candy like that anymore. I love what you came up for Kali’s costume but Jack’s… Until I saw the devil’s wing I thought you really did mean teletubby.
I really despise what costumes are coming to be for Halloween. Like why are people trying to make their kids all kinds of slutty at the age of 10 and younger??! -_- I may love Halloween but I really wish the costumes were different. I can only imagine what will be costumes for my kids in 10 years.
I dont know how long you have been reading Nina, but I remember a blog a while back where she talked about “Prostitots”, which is basically the oversexualization of young girls clothes. Sadly we are seeing this trend in regular fashion. Therefore, if adult women use Halloween as an excuse to be the slutty cop, the slutty french maind, the slutty witch, the slutty pumpkin or hell, just a slutty slut, why wouldn’t that trend trickle down to young girls too? It is a sad sad thing, and quite disturbing. I honestly can’t stand it. And while I am on the topic….. Can someone PLEASE tell Katie Holmes that Suri is too damn young to be walking around in high heels? what they hell is wrong with that girl. I understand she wants to wear lifts to be like her Daddy, but please!
I got egged one year for not handing out treats to the uncostumed. Kali is gorgeous, but I think Donny ws right about the geisha bit. Princess indeed. I see you didn’t dress up with them this year.
Glad you all had fun. I was sad we only had a few trickor treaters before we left for our party…so Matt got bags of candy instead.
Kali is so pretty. Both kids looked adorable – though I can totally picture it by the end.
Speaking of cheerleaders and Hannah Montana, it was popular in my neighborhood for kids to come as these characters only dead. Several girls showed up in costumes with bullet hole stick ons on their temples. I found it very disturbing.
TH went to a party this year and his best friend got drunk. We ended up driving him home to his parents and getting pulled over by the police.
Lots of fun!
I am a bah-humbugger. I stayed home with all the lights off at my house. I didn’t want to give candy to anyone. Kids don’t know how to trick or treat anymore. They just stand on your doorstep, say nothing, and look at you like “bitch, give me some candy.” They don’t wear costumes. And they sure as hell don’t say thank you!!!
This was the 1st year that the kids made plans without me.
I’m lucky in that his best friend’s mom is also my friend. So I did hang for a little bit.
Truman was a Mime! Totally in character from the time I put his make up on. But he did sign Thank You and Please lol.
Shelby’s costume about made me stroke out!
James was machine gun Kelley with his friends they were a band of 20’s gangsters.
Jack is gonna cause all kinds of hell for you when he starts school and girls see those curls and that smile. TROUBLE! I am telling you he is too cute.
Kali is as always just stunningly beautiful, dressed up or not
Kids today have no idea what you’re supposed to do on Halloween. I’m that ass that makes them say not only trick or treat, but also what their costume is. No answer, no candy.
Kali looked BEAUTIFUL and Jack was just too cute!
I miss Halloween!!!!!!!!
They don’t really have it in NZ – along with all the other American holidays that I miss from my childhood. I don’t feel like I get to properly share any of those holidays with my kid because even Christmas is done differently over here and it falls in the middle of summer.
I loved the pics…your children are, in a word, adorable.
I left the lights off this year too…I had a Halloween Costume Party to go to and didn’t even buy candy. My party was with a bunch of hospital folk and boy do they know how to make a costume. A good friend was a Summer’s Eve Douche and he carried around a douche bottle to spray people with (much more funny when you’re hammered) and one of the docs was a nasty specimen in a specimen bottle. He made the whole thing and it was gross but amazing. The best part came when the cops showed up and Office Dangle went outside to greet them. I was on the floor laughing by then.
Glad the kiddos had a good time.
Jack looks adorable and as for Kali, Donny better get a gun because in a year or two you’re gonna have all the neighborhood boys banging on the door! She takes after her mama. This Halloween I did a zombie walk. There were about 1500 of us and it was awesome!
Your kids are adorable
I’m 27 years old and I still go trick-or-treating. I dress up and I say trick-or-treat and thank you at every house. My boyfriend was laughing at me cuz I was going up people’s driveways instead of their grass, even tho the kids were just trampling over it. This year I was a zombie doctor. I saw a bunch of kids with no costumes, just jeans, a tshirt and a pillowcase. Wtf, put some effort into it! At least buy a mask or something
As for the slutty costumes, I was going to be Dorothy this year but couldn’t find a non-slutty Dorothy costume. It’s ridiculous. And I did notice that the little girl costumes look a little questionable.
didn’t get to trick or treat this year that week the whole family came down with flu, ear infections, or some other sickness. we watched some disney halloween movie, made popcorn balls and caramel apples in the house instead. the kids still had fun.
what i find to be hilarious is when i see kids that are “ninjas” but all they have on are either black or white sweatsuits. halloween is a fun time i think it allows the creative genious in us all to come out.
Girl, I wanted to take Kali’s hair down with a quickness just looking at these pictures, how does she look so grown? She is too pretty and looks way older with her hair up like that! You better lock that girl up right now or I am coming to Atlanta to do it for you.