Claudia is spreading her wings. She was her own Dungeons and Dragons character for Halloween, meaning the explanation of what she needed was so long it was clearly put in use partially to drive me away. This is okay, when you get these faces from a girl who is thrilled with having done her own makeup, after a tutorial from Tara.

Béla went along with my idea this year, although I was surprised he allowed it; John Wick. Asian American? Killing machine? NOT Bruce Lee or any other tired stereotype? He was up for it.

Took a bit of work to get him serious though. I kept having to yell at him to remember that the Russian mob had killed his dog or he just kept smiling.

Waiting in a frenzy to be part of Young XJ’s SECOND Halloween…

And then our Men of Constant Slight Movement met up for some seasonal blurriness.

Best moment of the evening when the kids were handing out candy and a mom said, “Did you not realize that was Claudia and Béla?” … I had never seen her and introduced myself. She said the kids had been a fixture of the playground for years and Béla had always included her little boy in things that the bigger girls were doing in the field. She said he was the sweetest boy… and I was so touched. But not surprised.

There’s really no one in the world who DIDN’T think of my kids, particularly Béla, as a fixture of “our” playground.

And now they are so much more.

Sitting in the front room with a friend, trading candy… and bound to be surprised when our well-deserved sushi arrives.