No Halloween until October

The arrival of Halloween paraphernalia at every store in town has led us to begin the Halloween costume discussion. I’m still not convinced that it’s necessary to have witches and pumpkins out at the end of August, but I am a slave to American commercialism as much as I attempt to dodge it. (One of the perks we had living overseas away from this nonsense.) Blinking lights and spooky ghost sounds call my kids to that corner of Target, and the next thing I know, I’m having to explain why we’re not buying a Spiderman costume the first week of September.

So, instead of ignoring it, I did, ultimately, ask the question: What do you want to be for Halloween? Last year, Alex emphatically said a giraffe. So I as a good little mommy, after trying to find a costume online, I made his giraffe costume as best I could without sewing. (I don’t sew.) I had so much fun making his costume last year, I decided I would try to hand make both kids’ costumes for as long as I could until they wanted to be things like ‘scary man,’ ‘biker chick,’ or ‘man with arm coming off.’ Though I think I could make those too, but by then, I’m sure they won’t want me to come near them with ideas. I digress.

We’ve gone round and round with ideas for this year. I’m not ready for commercialized costumes since I try hard to bring as little Dora, Backyardigans, Elmo, Disney etc. in this as house as I can. But the kids’ responses on Halloween was something like this.

Mom: What do you want to be for Halloween?
Alex: A batcat.
Mom: What’s a batcat.
Alex: A batcat. You know it climbs a building.
Mom: No, I don’t know. Is it a bat or is it a cat? What color is it?
Alex: Mom, it’s a batcat. You know?
Mom: Ok, mommy doesn’t know how to make a batcat costume. Let’s think of something else.
Alex: [thinking for a while] How about Diego (from Dora the Explorer)? How about a hero? Yes, I want to be a hero.
Mom: Ok, what kind of hero.
Alex: I don’t know maybe Spiderman or Batman.
Mom: OK, we can do that.
Alex: No, maybe not.

We’ve had the conversation a few times. He always starts with batcat. What the hell is that? Then we have moved on to a giraffe, a hippo, a fireman and now of all things, he wants to be a ladybug. I wasn’t too stressed about this because my best friend’s little boy, also 3 ½ decided he wanted to be a ladybug. Keep in mind these boys don’t really talk much since she lives far away. So we’re working to figure out a way to make the most masculine lady bug costume possible.

If this isn’t silly enough, here is my conversation with Anna today when this whole thing started up again.

Mom: What do you want to be for Halloween?
Anna: Batcat
Mom: Really, do you know what that is?
Anna: Bat (pause) cat
Mom: OK, let’s think of something else.
Anna: A cat.
Mom: Ok, a cat sounds good. We’ll do that.
Anna: No, I be a dog.
Mom: Which one? A dog or a cat?
Anna: I be a one.
Mom: Oh, OK, you want to be a one.
Anna: No, I want to be a bee. Bzzzzzzz

Next time, I’m not going to ask. Halloween should be left for October. I’m not discussing this again until then.