Last year, we were still getting used to having a kid, and it didn't occur to us until very close to Halloween that Jake might need a costume. But we managed to scrounge one up that he was happy with. He even wore it twice.
This year, we had learned our lesson, and as soon as we saw Halloween stuff appearing in the stores at the end of the summer, we took Jake to pick out a costume. Since he seems to have developed definite opinions about what he likes and doesn't, and about what he will and won't wear, we just took him down the aisles and showed him the options. He chose Bob the Builder. Perfect. Obsessed with tractors and tools and all things manly and constructionly.
Over the weekend, I pulled out the costume to show it to him. Immediate and loud and repeated protests of, "No Bob Builder!!!" Ok, maybe he was just grouchy and I had bad timing. I put the costume away, certain that he'd change his mind as soon as he realized I had put it away. Nope.
On Halloween, Jake got to wear his race car pajamas to school (no costumes) for their day of Halloween activities, which included trick-or-treat-ing to the different classrooms, and making lots of little paper projects. Anyway, when we got home, we had about an hour to get dinner, get ourselves ready, and get to our friends' house where a bunch of us were meeting so our kids could go out together. But again, Jake would have nothing to do with the Bob the Builder costume. Except the hat. He was determined to keep his race car pajamas and his race-car-shoes-that-light-up on. Scott's solution to this dilemma was, "fine, he can go in pajamas without a costume." But that just seemed fundamentally wrong to me. I felt defective as a parent - unable to find a creative solution to make my kid happy on this once-a-year special occasion.
10 minutes before we needed to leave, inspiration finally hit, when Jake announced, "No Bob Builder, I race car!" Aha! Much to the chagrin of my husband (who hates to be late for anything at all), I rushed out to the garage to find a cardboard box, then began pulling things out of my craft room and started to make a race car. Pretty simple. Cut a hole in the top big enough for Jake to stand in. Cover the box with red paper. Cut out wheels and cover with grey paper. Adhere the wheels with ribbon. Make over-the-shoulder harness from ribbon. Voila! Race car in about 20 minutes. And a happy little boy. Whew!
