When you wish upon a fountain...

Margot has $15 to her name (well, actually a $15 credit with me) and it is burning a hole in her pocket. We made a deal over her 5 pounds of Halloween candy: if she donated the candy to the troops in Afghanistan, I would take her to Toys R Us and buy her a toy that costs less than $15.

Can you believe the timing? On November 1, Toys R Us sent a huge holiday catalog to the house.

Margot poured over the catalog for days. She covets an Easy Bake Oven, a Jeep 4X4 that she can drive, and some giant Barbie paraphernalia. All of these things cost more than $15.

On Tuesday, Nov. 2, I took M to get her Flu Mist for the season. Beneath her doctor's office is a fountain that she likes to visit. I gave her a penny for wishing. She scrunched her face, tossed the penny into the fountain, and we returned to the car.

She couldn't stand the suspense.

"Mommy, I just want to tell you what I wished for!" she said.

"You can't!" I told her. "It won't come true."

She considered this for a moment. "Well, I just want to tell you so I'll make another wish that I won't tell you about."

"Ok, what was your wish?" I asked.

"I wished that Toys R Us would lower their prices."

Halloween 2010

Halloween 2010 was pretty perfect, as Halloweens go. The temperature was chilly (but not freezing), it didn't rain, and there were plenty of leaves to crunch beneath our shoes as we walked from house to house. Margot began trick-or-treating with her dear friend Lucille, and then ran into a gaggle of neighbors and a classmate. The groups merged and became a tornado of candy-fueled insanity, and yet the kids still remembered to say "Trick-or-treat,"thank you," and "happy Halloween!"

I am certain that Margot's bag of candy weighs more than she did at birth.

Happy Halloween everyone! Now we are onto November, which is my second favorite month of the year (after June).