It’s Halloween, dear friends. My absolute least favorite holiday, but one that I have endured for the sake of childhood memories and some extra chocolate stashed away throughout the remainder of the calendar year.

Naturally, Halloween evokes a level of nostalgia that renders me useless to the point where productivity grinds to a halt and suddenly I can think of nothing else but finding each and every old photo of my babies dressed in their costumes.

Allow me to share my all time favorite with you: 

My girls were wildly obsessed with the Disney princesses. We had all the VHS tapes and they watched them as often as I’d allow. Princess dress-up was the game of choice and there were dresses, along with a variety of accoutrement, strewn around our house at all times. It was not unusual to find a magic wand in the pantry or a plastic heeled dress-up shoe on the bathroom counter.

So that year, my oldest obviously chose to dress as Cinderella. My youngest, on the other hand, was just barely grasping the concept of trick-or-treating. She didn’t give an ounce of care about what costume she wore, so in a genius move I grabbed some gray sweats and declared she would be Cinderella’s mouse. 

Her greatest desire was to carry that plastic orange pumpkin and fill it with things. She carried it around the house for days leading up to the big night, filling it with anything that would fit inside, which made it interesting when we needed the remote or some socks.

This is the same kid who, at 14 months, was extremely diligent when it came to throwing trash in the trash can. Which sounds good in theory, but unfortunately she was unable to make a distinction between what was actual garbage and what was something we’d like to hang on to. When I found a few dollar bills and a serving spoon in the trash can, I realized I needed to keep a closer eye on her.

Anyway, when my girls were little, I had the foresight to document a lot of their daily antics. I frequently wrote on a personal blog and managed to capture some of their funniest quotes and conversations that would have surely been lost to time and aging brain cells. Lest you think I’m pulling this out of my 45 year old brain – or from thin air – I assure you that is not the case.

So today, during my “nostalgia scroll” through my old blog, I stumbled across this memory that I had all but forgotten! 

After the princess stage came the Taylor Swift stage. Not the “Anti-Hero” Taylor but the “Tim McGraw” Taylor. My 4-year-old-sang that album word for word and couldn’t get enough. She announced that she wanted to dress up like Taylor for Halloween that year. 

Part of me mourned the fact that she didn’t want to be a princess again. But I wanted to encourage her creativity and figured it would be an easy costume. All I needed was a dress with some boots and maybe a little microphone. 

Then, this conversation happened:

We were walking though the beauty supply store when she made a beeline for the hair extensions.

L: “What are thooooose?!??!!”

Me: “Those are hair extensions. It’s like a wig. You wear them to make your hair long.”

L: “JUST LIKE TAYLOR!!!!”

Me: “Um, yeah….” (I did not like where this is going)

L: “I have the perfect idea. We can buy this and I can wear it on Halloween when I’m Taylor!”

Because I have principles, I made the executive decision that she would instead wear a $5.99 blonde wig from Wal-mart.

But in the end, it didn’t matter. As 4-year-olds do, she changed her mind. She decided she wanted to be Tinkerbelle at the 11th hour and I’m so glad she did. 

Otherwise I wouldn’t have this treasure.

They don’t keep, mamas! Take all the pictures and write all the things – even when they’re big! You’ll be so glad you did!