Trick or Trick

Before we had kids, we had a dog. Before we had kids, I bought the dog clothes. I justified this by reasoning that we lived in Idaho at the time, and it was cold, and so obviously the dog was cold and “needed” to wear a sweater, or a yellow rain slicker, or once, in a moment that probably emasculated him more than being neutered, pink sparkly high-top tennis shoes.

I also bought him Halloween costumes. One year he was Elvis, and another year he was a lobster. He was not a fan of any of this.

Then we had kids, and the dog stopped being “the baby” and turned into just the dog. And, much to his delight, instead of dressing him up, I could dress up my kids.

The Princess, while being princess-obsessed, has never actually been a princess in a big fluffy dress for Halloween. The first year, she was a goldfish. Next she was a witch. Then she developed opinions of her own. While I was in the hospital giving birth to Caveman, her grandma was buying her an Ariel mermaid costume (the actual real $40 costume, and not even used!!). Between then and Halloween, I found Caveman an awesome sock monkey costume, so at least I still got to dress him up.

Having a preschooler with opinions on clothes and Halloween costumes is tricky. Last year, not only did Princess choose her own costume, Dorothy, but the entire rest of the family as well: Caveman was the Cowardly Lion, I was the Scarecrow, and Hubby was the Tin Man (although Princess, for whatever reason, actually wanted him to be the Wicked Witch-he refused). On the one hand, I want to encourage her to express herself and be creative, and what better time to do that than Halloween? On the other hand, right now she changes her mind every two minutes and comes up with really weird costume ideas. Frankly, I was hoping she’d finally want to be a regular princess and wear one of the zillion princess dresses she already owns.

At first, she said that’s what she wanted. Then she wanted to be Alice, and I had visions of how ADORABLE Caveman would be as the Mad Hatter or the White Rabbit. Then she changed her mind.

“I want to be Mary had a Little Lamb.”

Um, ok. Costumes online (yes, they do exist) ranged from $35-$150. I put in some bids on eBay. Fortunately I didn’t win any of them, because a few days later she wanted to be Wendy from Peter Pan. Score! I only need a nightgown!

Then yesterday she casually mentioned this: “I’m going to be a Wendy CAT for Halloween!”

What?!? When I asked her to elaborate, she told me, “Yeah, I’ll have a Wendy nightgown and ears and a face like a cat, and curly hair with a ribbon, and cat ears, and a blue ribbon on my nightgown, and a long tail!”

SIGH.

I’m sure tomorrow this will morph into a Wendy BALLERINA cat, and then PRINCESS Wendy ballerina cat. Before you know it, I’ll be up all night on the 30th hot gluing a mermaid tail to a nightgown with a tutu, long fuzzy tail, and turtle flipper arms.

At least Caveman doesn’t care what costume I put on him, and I’m not dressing up the dog.