I ordered Joe's Halloween costume at least two months ago. Because I'm the kind of person that if I don't do things super early, I will always put them off to the very last minute and make them into a mini-disaster. I'm especially infamous at this with Halloween costumes, where I virtually always go as something that can be cobbled together at the last minute from stuff in the house. So it truly was a big win for me that I was so on top of ordering this stupid knight costume.
Anyway. Costume came on time, we made sure it fit and that Joe didn't hate it (which he didn't, three weeks ago) - everything was dandy. But, of course, right at go-time this morning, he decided that he wasn't going to wear the costume to school unless he also got to bawl uncontrollably the whole time. I tried all my awesome parenting tricks - soothing, cajoling, bribing, demanding...all to no avail. Hate to admit it, but I seriously considered sending him to preschool and making the teachers deal with this situation. They are the pros, right?? But I guess preschool teachers are right up there with mailmen, trashmen, and the like--they really are people who you really don't want to hate you cause they can truly mess with your life. I gave up and let Joe win that round.
So we bailed on the knight costume. John stayed home for an extra hour and a half this morning to help me scavenge the house for a last minute costume that Joe could wear to preschool. Cause who wants to be the only kid at preschool without a costume!! Since he won't wear hats or anything on his head, makeup of any kind, or anything at all scratchy, we were severely limited in our scrounging options. In his infinite wisdom, John thought of a monk costume - so he cut up a brown crib sheet, tied a piece of white fabric cut from one of his shirts around the waist, and voila. Joe accepted this costume, and eventually even learned to like it, but there was no lack of tears throughout the process. Needless to say, I was beaten down by Halloween by 9:00 this morning.
Later, when we had more time to discuss, John and I decided that trick-or-treating would be a terrible experience unless we came up with some costume that Joe would be willing to wear. Which basically meant that we had to fool Joe into thinking he wasn't wearing a costume at all. More severely limited options. After some rummaging through our costume stuff (we have a lot), a couple of quick trips to Wal-Mart and Babies R Us, and a minor breakdown on my part (special thanks to the hubster for talking me off that ledge), we came up with his "rockstar" costume. Actually, I'll credit John 100% with the idea, and me 100% with the implementation. Teamwork: the key to somewhat successful parenting without attempting to gouge out your own eyes out in the process.
The best part of the new costume: Ian had a coordinating one! He played the part of the lazy band member that everyone wants to kick out but doesn't want to hurt his feelings (that basically means that he just hung out in the bjorn while Joe did all the work).
Can you tell that it's harder to get Ian to STOP smiling than it is to get him to smile? That kid is gonna be a serious charmer.
In the end, after all the drama, Halloween 2011 was a pretty big success. Everyone loved Joe's costume - one lady even singled him out of a crowd to take his picture - and it didn't take Joe too long to realize that this whole trick-or-treating thing might be a pretty good deal for him. Everyone loved Ian too because, well, he's adorable. So, first stressful event of the holiday season behind us. Next stop: Thanksgiving.
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