A Two Year Old With Opinions????

Last year, I was visiting my sister right before Halloween and we did a fun project where we made the kids costumes out of hoodie sweatshirts, felt, and glue! It was great! The only problem is that it was so hot on Halloween here in Yuma that I could only bear to put him in it for a few minutes at a time.

This year, I've been thinking for months about making a costume! NJ's really been into jumping lately, so I thought I a Tigger costume would be great! Can't you just see a little two year old boy jumping around in a Tigger costume!?!? For some unknown reason I never doubted my ability to sell NJ on the idea- he's barely two years old, after all. At first he didn't really get the concept, but after I told him all his friends would be wearing costumes, he agreed to the concept. Simultaneously, I've been working on the Tigger idea. We've been reading a lot of Pooh books lately and I've been really talking Tigger up! I was thrilled when he fell in love with a small stuffed Tigger at Walmart, which I uncharacteristically bought for him. Then, in accordance with my general parenting philosophy, I gave him a choice between being a Tigger and a frog costume. However, he refused to get excited about either. Sometimes when we were talking about it, he'd say "frog." I generally chalked it up to him still not getting the costume concept.

Wow, now that I write it all out, it seems so premeditated and manipulative... it really wasn't like that... honest! I don't even know why I got so sold on the Tigger idea to begin with.

Anyway, I was very excited about making another costume at first, but lately I've been a little more panicky about it. I picked up another course to teach (rather unexpectedly) and suddenly I've got way more to do than time to do it in. So yesterday we visited a few stores looking for a pre-made costume. I was disappointed to not find any Tiggers in his size, so we looked through some of the other costumes. My primary complaint with the bought costumes for kids is that they're made all footsie jumpsuits made out of polar fleece- don't they know that it's still HOT in some parts of the world???? So, I was focusing on the cooler, simpler costumes. The problem with these is that they're $30 and only consist of a vest, a hat and some trinkets, but whatever- Halloween is in less than two weeks and I can't have my boys costume-less- especially after I told him ALL his friends would have costumes!

So, we're looking through the train conductors and the cowboys, the firemen and the veterinarians but he's just looking at me, totally unimpressed. We go to leave the store and pass by the fleece jumpsuit costumes and do you know what he says? "Di-saur mommy! Di-saur!" Seriously? dinosaur? Since when is he old enough to get ideas on his own?????? I look and sure enough, it's three different adorable dinosaur costumes made for below freezing temps.

We leave the store, and don't mention it again, but now, anytime anyone asks him what he's going to be for Halloween, he says, "di-saur!" with that cute little two year old voice...

So, last night we went to Joann's to look at patterns. When looking at the kids on the patterns, NJ picks out the one kid in a dinosaur outfit, so I pick it up and head back towards the material. Now, I don't really sew a lot, my machine doesn't even have a stretch stitch, and I've never made anything from one of those patterns in an envelope so I called my mom in Tucson for a consult. After a few minutes she says, "It's too bad I'm not there to do it with you!" (It really is too bad because she's a pro at this stuff and NJ loves to watch her work, as shown in these photos from last month!) and then she adds, "how about I just make it for you and send it over next week?" *audible sigh of relief* I'm not sure I realized how stressed I was feeling about this silly costume until she offered to make it. I said, "Yes, thank you!" and instantly felt better (even though NJ was beside me yelling about something and my husband was sitting there looking pitifully tired.) Next she asks about colors and, to my surprise, NJ quickly says "Green!" (I should have know he'd have an opinion.)