The Great Halloween Debate

Folks who know me well know that one of my favorite topics is my five year old granddaughter.  Sylena Camille was born a year before I turned 50, thereby making me a grandmother long before I was ready for the job.  She came in to this world with a personality so delightful and engaging that she knows no strangers and strangers want to know her.  She has compassion for everyone and is quick to wipe away the tears of kids and adults alike.  She loves to laugh, sing, dance and skip.  What she loves most though, after her mom and her grandfather ("Pop Pop", she calls him), is cake.  Her very first "time out" was at age one and a half and on her very first day of daycare.  She mistook the cake served to her and the other children as all hers.  And by this I mean that she thought that all of the slices were hers.  One of her favorite songs is "A Spoon Full of Sugar".  She sings it with gusto and always leans forward to yell out the word cake, thereby drowning out the orchestration and Julie Andrews.  I absolutely delight in it.

My great joy these days is driving Sylena to and from school.  She is so fortunate to be able to attend kindergarten in a loving, nurturing setting in a little school tucked into a corner of North Baltimore.  She loves going there and I love taking her.  Much to my surprise all of her classmates call me "Grandma Dana".  I've come to love it.  Our "car talk" to and from school is often interrupted by the family of Chihuahuas that live in the glove compartment, the fairies that emerge from the sun glinted speckles of dust or Sylena's concerns about the baby girl squirrel that hangs out on Melrose Avenue and can never seem to find her way home.  These conversations are spontaneous and wonderful.  They stretch my creativity like no legal brief I've ever written.

The other day as her mom and I were driving Sylena to school I spotted the first Halloween decoration of the year.  "Look Sylena!  There's a HUGE black widow spider crawling on that gate!  Halloween is almost here."  Her response?  "I don't have to go to school on Halloween."  And so it began...

My reaction: "Oh yes you do. Halloween is on a Monday this year."

Sylena: "No Grandma. It's Halloween so, no school."

Me:  "Sylena, you always go to school on Mondays. Halloween is on a Monday this year.  So, you'll have to go to school on Halloween."  (Trying to be rational in an if this, then that sort of way)

Sylena:  "No Grandma.  Look at the calendar.  It says no school on Halloween." (Underscored this time)

Me:  "Well I have looked at the calendar and it says Halloween is on a Monday and that's a school day."  (Frustration spilling over, wishing a Chihuahua would spring out of the glove compartment)

Looking for an end to this debate (and just why am I debating a 5 year old?) we opt against the "stop, drop and go" offering, park the car, go in to the school and ask the teacher to please tell Sylena that she has to come to school on Halloween.

Teacher:  "Well, our teacher professional day is on Monday, October 31st.  So, no school on Halloween."

Me:  "Oh."  (Made small)

Sylena:  "LOL!"

Moral of the Story - Don't debate a 5 year old unless and until you have all of the facts.

Lesson Learned - No, I am NOT smarter than a 5 year old!

What will I be doing on Halloween?  Hanging out on Coldspring Lane enjoying the "Miss Shirley's" fall breakfast menu (wonder if they'll be serving "humble" pancakes) with Sylena and her mom, plugging the school's calendar in to my iPhone and making a note to confirm no school on Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But, what about Valentine's Day?