Happy Halloween!!

Ah, Halloween. The age-old tradition of dressing your children to the latest superhero craze. Walking for what seems like an eternity in search of the ever evasive full-size candy bar, and perhaps a little change from an elderly neighbor. When I was a child, much to our distaste, we received apples. Yes, apples, and pennies, and perhaps the occasional bag of popcorn. Of course there were a few candies in the mix, but nothing like today's children receive. Our costumes, were simple. One year I was the Queen of Hearts, another year, a daisy. Simple and to the point I think. Our mothers usually made our costumes, and handed us a pillow case with an added, "Have a nice time dear."



Fast forward to the year 2008.



"Mom, I want to be a Power Ranger. No wait. I want to be a Storm Trooper..." my son stands there shaking his head as if the answer will fall out onto the table in front of him.



I just laugh. I knew this was coming. Last year we had a pirate, ninja, and Spiderman. Yes, that's right. My son had three costumes for one holiday. My daughter just says "Mama, Emma is a princess." then she giggles, and does her princess twirl. Easy. With a two-year old daughter undeniably obsessed with Disney princesses, I can no doubt throw together a costume.



"Mom!" my son glares at me.

"Yes, dear?" (Sarcasm.)

"Mom, what should I be? I can't decide!"

"Well..," I begin. "I would be a cat. Yes definitely a cat. Cat's are nice and furry."

"Awww Mom!! I'm a boy, and I hate cats!!"

"Well, how about a ninja turtle?" I smile, knowing that we still have that costume hanging in a closet from previous years. Yup. Makin' it simple on myself.

"No way! I was a ninja turtle three times!"

This is true. Each year, I would just tie a different colored band around his head and tell him that he was Leonardo, Donatello, etc. Oh, well. I tried.

" I want to be a Power Ranger. Definitely." he stands there defiant in his decision, while I just shake my head, knowing that tomorrow it will be something else.

"Okay then, I will go to the store tomorrow and get a Power Ranger costume." And then I catch myself, and attempt to avoid the inevitiable melt down he is sure to have if I get the wrong color costume.

"Oh! What color Power Ranger do you want?"

He looks at me with that oh man, I have no idea look. "Umm....blue? No, red! No, yellow."

"Yellow it is." with a small sigh of relief, I look to my daughter.

"And Miss Emmi will be a princess, right?"

"No Mommy. Emmi a bug." Great, here we go again.



I slowly make my way to the costume section at Wal-Mart. With my daughter in tow grabbing at every brightly colored Halloween item in sight, I finally come to the Power Rangers. I find one yellow left in my son's size. Mission accomplished. Now, where are the bugs? After some searching I find a cute little lady bug costume and show it to my daughter.

"See Em? A beautiful lady bug."

"Nnnnoooooo!!!!!!" She immediately drops to the floor in a fit of rage. Arms thrashing, I can barely make out the words.

"Emmi be a fly!!"

A fly? Seriously?

"Hmm. I don't know honey. I don't think they make fly costumes for baby girls." I say with a shrug. With that, she goes into a full blown histerical cry. Time to run for the check out, past the annoyed looks of people who clearly don't have children. I mean seriously, were these people never children? Did they arrive via spaceship or something? I hate people that become furious when a child acts out as if the mother must be the worst on earth. If you don't like children, stay home.

After a brief struggle in the car(she felt the need to throw herself out of the carseat a few times), I went home to give her a nice long nap, and hopefully surprise my son with his beloved yellow costume.

As soon as he gets off of the bus, he whizzes past me straight to his costume, hanging neatly before him. I give myself a silent pat on the back for a job well done, and ask how his day was.

"MOOOOOOMMMMM! I wanted the yellow ranger from Power Rangers: Jungle Fury, not the regular old one!!!!"

I take a deep breath, walk slowly to my bedroom and grab a pillow. I scream into it as if I'm being murdered.

Halloween night~

"Having fun, honey?" my son just gives me a look of sheer anger as he walks to the next house in his "regular old" yellow ranger costume, swinging his pillow case in the air. I look to my daughter who is happily skipping along saying "trick or treat!" in her sing-songy little voice. "Are you having fun baby?"
"Yes Mommy! I love Halloween!" She skips past me in her fly costume to the next house with her brother. Yeah, that's right. A fly costume. (I put two mini mesh strainers over her eyes, and saftey pinned her old fairy wings to her back....)