Children & Halloween

Some recent comments have inspired me to write this short and sweet guide to children and Halloween. 1st, my big sis is absolutely correct, you can never spend too much money on a costume that will only be worn once for approximately 20 minutes and be the recipient of so much baby urp that you will never be able to resell it on Ebay to recoup your money. Why? Well, just look at the below pictures. Just one of those photos is worth any amount of cajoling, pleading and bribing necessary to get your child to wear whatever ridiculous costume you've picked out. 2nd, I am particularly lucky this year because my oldest is six, which, as it turns out, is the best age at which to manipulate your child into wearing the costume you picked out by telling them that Little Bo Peep is, in fact, a very famous "singing star." Okay, so she didn't actually believe that, but she did really like the idea of having her sister and Britney (our dog) as her sheep. Unfortunately, it appears as though the booming doggie costume business (and that is not a joke) have neglected the lucrative farm animal corner of the market, and so I was unable to turn Britney into a sheep (since I clearly lack the creative gene my mom possesses, making such a costume was out of the question). Still, it was easy to console Caitlyn with the knowledge that Britney was actually a sheepherding dog, though she very much attempted to be a small children-herding dog since she was completely overwhelmed by the multitude of trick-or-treaters on the streets. 3rd, three months is the absolute best time to get an infant to wear a costume (so plan to have your children in late July or August) since they are just old enough to fit the costume, yet completely oblivious to anything going on around them. And so they will sit quietly since they are not yet old enough to complain or be embarressed by your obsessive mommy-ing, while you take the previously mentioned pictures of cuteness. And that, my friends, is what I've learned so far about children and Halloween. I understand from my friends with older children, a species far different from the smaller versions, that it gets successively more difficult as time goes on and you have to worry about your pre-teen wanting to go out as something "sexy" or co-ed parties, etc. I hope to God both of my children are as geeky as I was during my middle school years so I don't have to deal with that!