A two-year-old's Halloween fears.

I only have a short time to do a Halloween-themed memory post, so I'll remember my niece's fear of Halloween when she was two years old.

One day in September 2005, I pulled out a cheap plastic inflatable ghost to put up for Halloween. Allie saw it and became scared and snuggled close to my mom. I was surprised she was scared, so I moved it closer, and my mom said, "Mark, don't scare her." I didn't get why she would know it was scary--she was only two years old, and it was just a white squiggle with a happy face on it. Why should that be scary? It kind of freaked me out--like did she know something about ghosts that we adults didn't?

I hung that ghost up, and it would lose air, so I would have to periodically re-inflate it. Every time I got close to it, she would worry for my welfare.

She became scared of everything to do with Halloween, although I don't remember a lot of specifics. We had a large jack-o-lantern decoration in our yard, and she was scared of it. I think my sister told us that they had been at a house with lots of witch decorations and she was freaked out.

After some time, however, she became less scared, and once she said, "Pumpkins aren't scary!" And once she need "I not scary [scared]!"

By the time she was three, however, she was no longer scared of Halloween.

Happy Halloween!