Yesterday, we had a Halloween costume party for my mom’s group. The turnout was great and the kids had a ball, but throughout the entire thing, I was chasing Hazeline down, begging her not to have too much fun in her costume…for fear that “too much” fun would lead to her costume getting dirty. Well, I wanted her to have fun, but the fact is, the costume needs to be worn again on Wednesday and often things don’t look quite the same after they’ve been washed (even handwashed). And then I realized I had done it again – I got my child a totally and completely adorable costume, that is also totally and completely impractical. Let’s look back through the years, shall we?
Exhibit 1 – Halloween 2009
I got so, so excited about Greenleigh’s first Halloween. I think I might have actually purchased her costume in mid- to late August because I just couldn’t help myself. Somewhere around the beginning of October, I posted the picture above on Facebook, to which someone commented, “I hope it’s cool there this year.” Eeek. I never thought about it. I live in an area where it’s regularly in the 70s and 80s in the month of October (at night, no less), and yet I had decided to cover my 6 month old baby from head to toe in fur. Oh, and it was lined too. Adorable, yet an epically bad decision. One that we realized way too late. Luckily, we didn’t actually trick or treat this particular year, but we did have an incident about 2 weeks before Halloween at a costume party where we narrowly got Greenleigh out of the costume before she suffered heat stroke.
When you combine this with her pumpkin patch picture:
It was just a year of bad Halloween clothing decisions. FYI, it was no less than 85 degrees when this picture was taken. I vowed to get a picture of her in the pumpkin patch and then race her back to the air conditioned car for a clothing change. All was fine until I was headed back to the car and a woman exclaimed (very loudly), “It’s just so hot out here. That child looks hot. So hot.” Got it lady. I clearly messed up here.
Exhibit 2 – Halloween 2011
Despite the not-so-awesome picture, I absolutely adore the peacock costume that I made for Hazeline last year. It was easy enough to make and it was original. But impractical? Definitely. Last year at Halloween Hazeline wasn’t walking yet, meaning she trick-or-treated from the stroller. Sitting on her feathers.
And when she was sitting down, it was hard to tell what her costume was. House after house I would have to explain what her costume was. Oh, and all those feathers that I saved my coupons for? Broken. Nearly all of them. Great costume, but totally impractical for a non-walker. I wish I had waited and made it for her this year…
Exhibit 3 – Halloween 2012
What the hell was I thinking? All white? For a toddler costume? Why, oh why, would I do this to myself? My husband says I often get sidetracked by the cuteness factor, and I think that’s what happened here. I saw this costume at Cracker Barrel right after Labor Day and just had to get it for Hazeline. It didn’t even dawn on me how hard it was going to be to keep clean until yesterday when I was fighting a pissed off toddler for her bright pink Go-Gurt. No way was she eating that in her costume with 3 days left before Halloween. That stuff might stain if left too long, and we were far from home. And a halo? Yeah, no way that’s staying on. Even in the picture above, she’s taunting me, letting me know how easy it is for her to take it off. But she did win that plastic duck in her hand as her prize for “Best Wings” at the costume party this weekend, so at least there’s that.
I accept the crown on this one. I will do better next year. And hopefully the year after that too.
Ever buy your child an impractical costume? Or have them want a costume that’s completely impractical?
Great post! When my kids were younger I always went for the cutness factor too.
Weather here in midwest IL is unpredictable so one year it can be cold and the next sweltering hot. And, it seems I always pick the warm costume for the warm weathered years and vice versa. That angel costume is darling, by the way.