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Love Bites

The other day my children and I went to one of those fabulous everything-but-the-kitchen-sink party stores to shop for some new outdoor Halloween decorations. According to my kids, the smiley pumpkins I usually put out were lame and we needed to step it up a notch. My homemade wood-carved personalized Trick-or-Treat sign would be replaced with a plastic Grim Reaper Tombstone; my homespun black garbage bag spider sitting on a yarn web was exchanged for a costly, yet cheaply-made Zombie Clown Animated Door Knocker. And just when I thought it could not possibly get any worse, I heard the following:

“Oh mom, while we are here let’s buy our costumes!” Suddenly the words, “When I was your age …” began to form on my lips. When I was your age we used to make our costumes. A brown paper grocery bag would become an Indian Princess vest; a sheet with holes a ghost. One year my mother taped a dozen purple balloons onto a leotard and I went as a bunch of grapes! There were no mass-produced, overpriced and extremely commercialized costumes.

I paused for effect.

My children rolled their eyes and then ran off to survey the huge display board of trendy Halloween gear.

And then it happened; right there in the middle of this Creature Feature Gothic Ghoul World, I saw my baby girl transform into a preteen. In one split second she passed over the sweet Cupcake Cutie and Polar Princess costumes and narrowed her sights instead on the Twilight Bite Teen Vampire outfit.

“I want this!” she shrieked and started babbling  on endlessly about Team Edward and Team Jacob. Who was this child? And which one was Edward anyway … the vampire or the werewolf?

I must have been in a state of shock because we left the store, bag in hand. In it was the $34.99 “Stake in My Heart” costume for my sweet daughter Grace and the latest Comic Book Super Villain facemask for Jay, my son.

This new tween age was very unnerving. Grace had never seen the Twilight movie or read the book, yet she knew all about it. Was this normal 9-year-old behavior? My trepidation vanished when I heard the following conversation on the car ride home.

Jay: I thought you were scared of vampires?

Grace: I am not!

Jay: Then why did you want to sleep in my room after we watched the Batman vs. Dracula movie the other day?

Grace: I thought you were scared. I was trying to be a nice sister.

Jay: So then why did you sneak garlic out of the refrigerator?

Grace: Jay! Vampires are cool. Edward is the coolest!

Jay: I’ll tell you this – if you end up marrying him, I’m wearing a turtleneck under my tux at your wedding.

Grace: What if I end up with Jacob, he’s a werewolf?

Jay: Werewolves are OK, as long as you don’t mind dating a guy who sheds.

Grace: GROSS!

Then they went on to talk about whose turn it was to take a shower first when they got home.

The anxious knot in my stomach suddenly unraveled. Yes, my little girl was growing up, but not all the way, at least not yet.

More importantly, I finally knew what that smell from her nightstand was – garlic!

Sharon Fuentes is a mom and freelance writer who had planned on dressing up as a chauffer this Halloween until she realized it was her daily outfit.

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