Baby's First Halloween (and other big choices)

Now, I'm not saying it's hard to choose Carrie's costume (although it potentially could be). It's hard for me to decide on two things:

1 - How does one go about celebrating Halloween (or any holiday, come to that) for a child so young that he or she will neither understand nor remember said holiday?

2 - Do I dress up?

Let's begin. Other than the photos we'll take - which won't be many, knowing my track record for keeping the camera handy - how will anyone even remember this event in the context of Caroline? Even in the course of the questions everyone asks about their childhoods, the chosen costume for the first Halloween doesn't usually come up. So, do I dress her and pass out candy? Do we go trick-or-treating with my older sister and her kids? Do we just have a normal night? This last option appeals to me the least, because Halloween is my second favorite holiday (right after my birthday) and skipping it altogether seems...lame. (Bear with me here, I'm too tired for vocabulary).

This leads me to choice number two: do I dress up? Once I got too old to go trick-or-treating, I always volunteered to pass out candy. And, every year, I dressed up to do it. Somehow, my parents were still surprised when I decided to major in theatre, but that's another post. I would go all out with the SFX makeup and thought-out costumes. I even invented backstory for the characters I became each Halloween. When I got to college, more of the same (except now with beer!) So, this will be the first Halloween that not about me. But, honestly, I want to dress up. I feel like this is one of those little things that makes me who I am and I don't want to lose sight of that. On the other hand, I might just look like a complete weirdo all dressed up and surrounded by adults in street clothes.

I may or may not have had a perfect middle ground: I could always dress up as a new mom. Put a burp cloth over my shoulder, clip a pacifier to myself, exaggerate the dark circles under my eyes and strap the baby in her carrier. Seems kind of lame, though, if you ask me. I mean, last year, I wore a corset. Just sayin.