It’s true. I’m a mama who love to dress up. Like this:
And like this:
As a result, Halloween has always been one of my favorite times of year. When I found out I was having a little boy, I was so excited about all the dress-up possibilities. I had visions of making him superhero capes…astronaut outfits…cool pirate getups. The works! Yet life clearly has a sense of humor, because I was blessed with the world’s most adorable child…who hated costumes. He’s an impossibly good natured boy— happily wearing any outfit I put on him. Except, of course, when that outfit might involve a character.
It all began with Wolfie’s strict NO HATS policy as a baby. Wait, no hats? What what? He’s a baby! How can he hate hats? Trust me.
When Wolfie was one, I bought a little prefab puppy dog outfit for Halloween. But because that seemed just a leetle bit boring on it’s own, I  made Greg dress up like a Westminster Dog Show handler—with Wolfie as his prize-winning pooch! Since Wolfie was still so little and liked to be carried around, they made an awesome pair.
Except my sad little pup refused to wear the “hood” that had the puppy head on it. Too much like a hat, of course.
At least I managed to sneakily draw a little nose and whiskers on him and he still looked pretty adorable.
The next year I got him the cutest little cowboy outfit…it came with wee chaps, a cowboy shirt and a super sweet lil vest. I didn’t even try and add a cowboy hat, but I figured this outfit was pretty much like regular clothes. Easy peasy, right? WRONG. What I neglected to remember was that Wolfie is a very proper little man and he liked his jackets and hoodies zipped up. And a vest? Well it’s like a perpetually “open” jacket. Yeah the vest? He didn’t like it ONE BIT.
He threw himself on the ground like a cartoon character, sobbing. Keep in mind that normally Wolfie was the sweetest, most low-drama kiddo around. Greg and I looked at each other half laughing and half shaking our heads….like “Really? You’re going to throw yourself on the ground over a VEST?” Thankfully he gets over things pretty quickly and once the offending vest was removed, he was all sunshine again.
The next year I had a great plan….and seemingly Wolfie-proof! Greg and I would go as Mr. & Mrs. Frankenstein—and Wolfie? He would be the Crazy Mad Scientist. Genius, right? All he’d have to do was wear a wee little lab coat (buttoned all the way up, of course) and make his hair all crazy. It was the perfect plan. Greg looked great.
I even left Wolfie help me put on my “spooky” eye make up so he wouldn’t be scared—this was a huge success.
But when it came time for his own costume, well…once again, you can see how Wolfie felt about all this:
I explained to him that Halloween was all about dressing up, and if he didn’t like the Mad Scientist outfit he could really be anything he wanted to. After some thought he declared. “I wanna be a punkin.” I was a little floored. “Um…..a pumpkin?” “Yes. Punkin, mama.” My costume-adverse child goes and picks the roundest, poofiest costume around?? “Wolfie, you know a pumpkin is very round, right? Are you sure you want to be a pumpkin?” “YES. PUNKIN.” OK. So I have to admit that I was totally a terrible mom and thought this was a lame costume idea (I know, I KNOW), but I wanted him to be happy, so a pumpkin it was. I searched high and low for a non-poofy pumpkin costume and FINALLY found one (it ain’t easy, folks). I came home triumphant. YES! Wolfie will be so excited! Except……
Oy! I can’t lie. It became a Battle Royale. He was going to wear that freakin’ pumpkin costume if it killed me. I finally calmed him down and like all savvy moms…..I negotiated a bribe. “Listen. If you wear the costume, I’ll give you something. Something good.” His ears perked up. “What?” he sniffled. “Um…you can have some chips.” Yes. I know. Bribing with snacks. What can I say? I was desperate. And Wolfie’s a salty boy, so this worked better than the promise of chocolate. With a sigh, he was resigned to his fate:
The final verdict: “I’ll wear it. But I won’t like it.”
By the next day (which was actually Halloween) he had a miraculous change of heart and happily wore Ze Pumpkin. Hallelujah!
Oh my silly little Wolfie. I’m happy to report the last two years were amazingly struggle free and he has decided costumes (and HATS!) are A-OK. His friend Emmy got him into Pokemon and decided he wanted to be Pikachu. Not only did he wear the outfit, he wore the kooky hat dealie too! Whooo hoo! It was a cheap-ass flamable costume, but HE WAS WEARING A COSTUME. Listen, I’ll take what I can get. And apparently this is a rather “rare” costume, and he got lots of props from the big kids who all shouted at him, “We chose YOU Pikachu!” He was beaming.
Last year he continued the Pokemon theme and dressed up as Pikachu (again) at school and as Ash, Pikachu’s owner, on Halloween proper.
This year Wolfie is plotting yet another action hero character (Ben 10, anyone?). I do my best to suggest crafty, cute things, but ultimately I just want my boy to be happy and feel great in his costume—which means he gets to choose. Hey, I’m just happy he’s enjoying the fun of dressing up. I have a feeling it’s going to be a fun Halloween, ya’ll.
PS Don’t forget we’re looking for great costume photos! Send me your best (or worst!) home made halloween costumes! Read more about it here. We’ll be posting them all in a fun Costume Parade next week! You can send them to Alix [at] modernkiddo[dot] com.
