Huge Parental Responsibility

I have been obsessing for many months about one of the huge parental responsibilities - choosing my son's first Halloween costume. Literally, I have been thinking about it since early June. And I am not that "into" Halloween as a general rule. Frankly, Halloween still kind of freaks me out and I get more than a little spooked when scarily-dressed children come to my house Trick-or-Treating.

Oh, but the responsibility of choosing that first Halloween costume. Really, it will probably be the only time I can choose for him. Next year, he will be almost 2 years old and (if he takes after me) he will be hell-bent on choosing for himself. Of course, we will probably have a small battle over his choice because of my dislike of the commercialism of childhood (with certain exceptions as previously noted on this blog for Star Wars, Snoopy Sno-Cone Machines, and Hello Kitty).

I think it is difficult mostly because he has very few tangible "things" he is into at this age. He likes food and bottles, but it seems a little silly to dress him as a baby bottle full of soy formula. He loves his pacifiers, but that also seems a little silly (and a very complex costume that might look more like a condom than a pacifier, I might add). He sleeps well, but dressing him as a sleeping baby is redundant.

His only real obsession, aside from getting control of the remote, is anything with wheels. Trucks, cars, chairs, buses, vans, strollers, wagons . . . I mean anything. He nearly flips himself out of his stroller trying to watch the wheels turn when we are walking. But, he can't really be a wheel for Halloween, can he? It would be pretty hard to fit a wheel costume into a car seat or the stroller. And I am pretty sure he couldn't crawl in it.

So, then I thought about the "average" baby costumes. Animals are always good for this age, but boring. I thought about making him a little devil but, despite my best efforts and training, he is actually a pretty good little kid and devil doesn't really fit him.

I also thought about doing a duet of a costume with him and the dog. Like maybe he could be a cowboy and the dog could be a horse. Or he could be Han Solo and the dog could be Chewbacca. Or the dog could be melted Popsicle and he could be the Popsicle stick. But this poses two problems: (1) I would have to buy or make two costumes and (2) I would have to bring the dog Trick-or-Treating. Not appealing.

I have actually purchased a costume because I didn't want to leave it to the last minute. Even though I have technically made the decision, I am still obsessing about it. What if it is not the best costume for his first costume? What if he doesn't like it when he looks at the pictures years from now? I think I may need mental help. Seriously - I have gone off the deep end of obsession with this.

He is going to be Shrek. Mostly because he sort of looks like Shrek, in a really cute way. I mean, he has normal-shaped ears and he's not green, but he kind of looks like Shrek. So much so that some of his teachers started calling him Baby Shrek. It stuck. And he looks really damn cute in the costume.

Of course, now I may have to find a donkey costume for the dog . . . the cat's already in his puss-n-boots costume . . . but maybe I could find a hat somewhere . . . . OK, I need to stop.