This was our first Halloween with a kid old enough to really get trick-or-treating - and dressing up in a costume. Turns out that, just like with her birthday party theme, it was a little hard for me to accept the idea of letting it go (ugh with the Frozen puns) and following Rowan's wishes when it came to choosing her Halloween costume. She's barely two years old; I kind of just wanted to slap a costume on her and call it a day, much like her first two Halloweens.
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| 2013...Five-week-old Yoda, she was. |
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| 2014...Princess Leia (photo credit goes to my friend Stephanie!). |
But J.J. convinced me to get Rowan's input on her costume. Still, that's easier said than done when you're talking about a toddler with no cognitive reference for Halloween costumes. I figured it was best to explain the broad ideas of Halloween, costumes, and trick-or-treating to her and see where she went with it. About six weeks ago, I brought it up to her one day while we were reading stories, telling her that after her birthday, it would be Halloween.
Her eyes lit up. "Yeah! Hallo-leen!"
She already had the concepts of treats and neighbors down pat, so I told her that on Halloween, we dress up in costumes and knock on doors to get treats from the neighbors. "Treats! Treats from neighbors!" she repeated.
"What kind of costume would you wear?" I asked, just to see if she was following.
"A kitty-cat!" she responded immediately. Random idea, but I totally did a silent cheer. Yay, an easy, cute costume that wasn't a princess! Look, if she wanted to dress up as a princess (let's get real: Elsa), I'd have gotten on board. But I'm guessing the next five or so years will be princess Halloweens, so I was hoping for one last non-Disney-princess costume. (And yes, I'm aware that dressing Rowan up as Princess Leia last year does technically mean she was a princess, but that's totally different, right?) Anyway, I was all for the kitty-cat idea. A kitty-cat would be great.
BUT. Since kids are known for changing their costume preferences right up until and including the last minute, I asked her again a couple days later. This time, she had a new answer: "Thwip! Thwip!"
I laughed - "thwip thwip" was her word for Spider-Man. A Spider-Man costume? Okay! I knew J.J. would be psyched; he's the reason Rowan even knows who Spider-Man is. In her world, he's the dude on Daddy's favorite pajama pants.
Figuring she was going with a superhero theme, I asked her who Mama and Daddy would be and was met with a resounding, "Thwip! Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!"
Ah. Apparently all three of us were going to be Spidey.
I asked her about our Halloween costumes literally at least once a day during September and October, and her answer remained the same (minus the one kitty-cat request): Spider-Man for Rowan, for Mama, and for Daddy. Meanwhile, she acquired a Spidey action figure...and a bona fide obsession with everything Spider-Man. The two went on walks around the neighborhood every evening...
...practiced their gymnastics together...
...and ate dinner together (thanks, Rachel, for her most beloved water bottle, which she is cradling and kissing here)...
...and eventually, Rowan declared that she was "Spider-Man's mommy."
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| Shit! It's okay, Rowan. Happens to every mom at some point. |
All in all, she was psyched and ready for the big day. We tried on her costume (ahem...$6 pajamas from Target plus a hat from Grandma), and she immediately went into Spidey mode, crouching down and shooting webs from her hands.
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| Additional web-shooting practice at our mommy group Halloween party last Tuesday. |
The day before Halloween, we had a dress rehearsal - we attended Ann Arbor's Main Street Trick-or-Treat event, which was crazy busy and lots of fun. Most of the businesses had huge bowls of candy waiting for the tiny trick-or-treaters. Vault of Midnight, the comic book store (and a frequent haunt of Rowan & Daddy's), was giving out free comic books in addition to the candy. Naturally, Rowan chose the Spider-Man comic, which she happily snagged after perusing the entire store:
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| "There's Spider-Man, and there's Spider-Man, and there's Spider-Man...and I'm Spider-Man, too!" |
When Halloween finally rolled around, we had one excited Spidey on our hands. We killed the time between nap and trick-or-treating by finally carving a pumpkin (hey, better late than never, right?):
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| I wouldn't let her wear her costume to carve the pumpkin, since I knew she'd flip out if it got messy right before trick-or-treating, but she insisted on still wearing Spidey gear. This girl. |
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| J.J.'s Spider-Man pumpkin turned out pretty cool, but the other pumpkins are from our Month of Half-Assed Pumpkin Projects. |
And then it was time to go. Honestly, I wasn't sure if Rowan would freak out at the prospect of having neighbors open their doors on her - she wasn't a huge fan of it last year, and she still is pretty wary around strangers. But apparently the costume empowered her, because she ran to every door, pounded with both fists, and shouted, "TRICK OR TREAT!" (Thankfully, she learned to pronounce "trick" correctly a couple days before Halloween, instead of her previous highly inappropriate and highly hilarious mispronunciation: "Cock or treat!") She lasted way longer than I did (ugh, it was cold and rainy, leave me alone), roaming the neighborhood with J.J. until it was pitch black outside.
And even though Halloween used to be a total pain-in-my-ass holiday (WORST freaking holiday of the year when you work in a child care center), it's growing on me now. I mean, the fact that I participated in - encouraged, even - family group costumes for two years in a row says a lot.
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| 2014...Princess Leia with her parents {spoiler alert}, Darth Vader and Padme Amidala. |
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| 2015...three Spider-Men, just like Rowan requested. (Boot covers by Grandma!) |
I've moved on to prepping her for a visit to Santa already, figuring that our six weeks of trick-or-treating prep worked out nicely. Maybe it'll go smoothly if she gets to wear her Spider-Man costume to see Santa? Haha.
Hope everyone else had a happy Halloween!
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