I’ve Created a Monster……NO, A GHOST!

I love dressing up. My first year working at a public library I somehow conned the entire staff at my desk into dressing up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. I think it was more about humoring the new Associate Librarian than about a real desire to wear a lion’s mane to work, but they looked great and we (at least I) had a really fun time.

A year later, I was married and pregnant so Laylee got her first Halloween costume. We went as an 8-ball. Someone suggested that since Dan was tall and skinny, he should go as the pool cue. Considering the new life burgeoning within my womb, that costume seemed a tad Freudian for my liberal-arts-educated mind to handle. Instead, I made him a green shirt with 6 pockets.

The following year, Dan dressed up as his boss. They are computer guys and all wear t-shirts and caps every day. So Dan used crayons to draw his boss’s college and hockey team logos and pinned them to his own hat and t-shirt. Voila! You could hardly tell them apart. It was pretty much hilarious. But for our church Halloween party, he humored me and dressed up as a dwarf to carry Snow White around. Is it just me or does she look exactly like Magoo in drag?

The following year I chose Eyeore because – hello! So darn cute. And again Dan played along with the weird hats. Aren’t we precious? I was a few months pregnant with Magoo and already showing because he was - and is - a giant.

This year I really wanted us all to dress up as characters from my favorite show, The West Wing. Magoo could easily pass for President Bartlet. Just give him a 3-piece suit and some reading glasses. Dan and I would be the bodyguards and Laylee could….um….be……Congressman Matt Santos, Latino for President?

Well, I could get everyone on board with my plan except Little-C. She apparently has developed a mind and opinions of her own.

How about C. J. Craig?
Nope.
Donna? She’s so cute. You know she ends up with Josh.
No can do.

Since she’s never seen the show and I suspect she’s an aspiring right-wing extremist, we settled on dressing her as a woodland fairy and Magoo as a sumo wrestler…….until we read the little ghost story board book that Grammy sent in her Halloween package.

Now there will be no more discussion. Laylee MUST BE A GHOST! Never mind that I’ve already spent mega-bucks buying the fabric and billion little flowers for her fairy costume. Never mind that she was gonna be so cute and everyone would gasp and say, “No! You made that? You are a woman of unspeakable genius!” every time they saw her in the costume.

It took me a couple of days to get over myself and realize that if the kid wants to be a ghost, she can be a ghost. If she wants to dress up in a sheet with a hole cut out for her face to peek through – no assembly required – that is just fine. It shouldn’t be about me.

Heather, one of my favorite new bloggers, has a great post about our need to dress our kids to stoke our own egos. You should check it out.

When I have pictures of the ghost and the fat man, I’ll post them. As for me and Dan, I think we’ll keep a low profile this year…..unless anyone has a good idea for funny hats, especially funny hats relating to ghosts and large men in loin cloths.