And Then I Stepped in Gum . . .

For Halloween, I Think I'll Be "Supermom"

I've decided Halloween must be the new Christmas. After all, Christmas is so associated with icky religion, making public celebrations of the holiday complex (and leading to a huge proliferations of snowmen -- ask me sometime about my theory of a future religion being founded around Frosty the Snowman). Look at how big Halloween decorating is these days. I'm resisting being sucked into that -- just jack o'lanterns for me, thanks. Oh, and some Halloween luminarias. And maybe a pumpkin-shaped basket or two. But I draw the line at hanging lights for Halloween!

I am fully sucked into making costumes, though. In fact, that's what I've been consumed by for the last week and a half or so, and is the reason for the lack of bloggage. This year, Katie wanted to be a horse, and I decided Ian would be a dragon. Actually, Katie started out as a unicorn, and I thought the dragon would be a cute complementary costume, but then Katie changed her mind and well, I couldn't think of anything else for Ian and I thought I might be able to change Katie's mind back and, well, that's what they're going to be. Maybe. Because after a week of working on Ian's more-complex-than-I-realized costume, I finished yesterday, and he refuses to wear it. Sure, if you talk about Halloween, he'll say, "Da [Katie], , I bleah." (Bleah is his word for dragon, stemming from the cute dragon puppet in the Baby Mozart video that turns to the camera, sticks his tongue out and says, "Bleah!") And he's been doing that for days. But when I tried to get him to put the costume on, he said, "Nah" dismissively. And when I forced him into it, he had a fit. This doesn't bode well for the next few days in which we have 4 or 5 events to attend.

Katie's horse looks almost like a horse. It's furry, and has a mane and tail, and that's pretty much the most you can ask for, I think. (Remind me, though, never to let the children be anything furry again -- there are tufts of white fake fur all over the house.) And isn't it good that I planned a fake fur costume for one and a fleece costume for the other to keep them warm on Halloween -- and it's going to be 85 degrees? Oops.

I also spent a solid hour this morning making pumpkin-shaped peanut butter sandwiches using orange bread and a cookie cutter for Katie's class's Halloween party today. And I was assigned this task. Good grief.

Anyway, I know sewing the costumes is over the top, but something in me rebels against store-bought costumes, even though I know they've come a long way from those plastic smocks and masks that came in the cardboard boxes. Remember those? My mom never bought us those. Instead she made us beautiful and creative costumes every year. When I was 7, I wanted to be Juliet, so she made me a green satin ballgown with rhinestone trim. My little brother, that year, was Cookie Monster, complete with blue shag fake fur. Oh, the horror for my little newly formed sensibilities of what kinds of things coordinated appropriately -- to my mind, Renaissance princesses and monsters just did not GO.

But I got over it. (Yes, I did -- I'm just retelling it now, for those of you who weren't there. No, I'm not still obsessing over it.) And over the years I was a butterfly, a geisha, and an Indian girl, among others. John (my brother) was once a Pepsi can -- that was an impressive bit of work. So obviously the importance I place on handmade costumes comes from my mom. Sometimes I wish I could let go a little more -- I mean, on the one hand, I look at, say, Disney princess costumes at Target and think they're pretty cheaply made and cost $20, but on the other hand, I spent more than that in money for the materials for the kids' costumes and waaaay more than that in time. But maybe that's an investment in fond memories for my kids. So maybe it's worth it.

In the meantime, I haven't had time to think of a costume for myself. Maybe I'll just go with a big red S on my chest.

posted by Jennifer Morgan, at 9:50 AM