Week 44: Toddlers (Part 3)

Sorry, no post last week.  We took another trip to Rexburg to visit my cousin and then with Halloween I simply ran out of time.  I also lost my battery charger for my camera and both batteries are now dead. . . I really need to find it today. 

As usual this Halloween we procrastinated finding costumes.  A day before the family Halloween party while shopping at Goodwill trying unsuccessfully to find SOMETHING to use as a costume, Alex found a plastic pirate sword that he immediately fell in love with.  Since it was only $2, and since grandma was there, the sword came home with us and I finally decided we would all be pirates for Halloween.  Matt and I had dressed up as pirates a couple years back for a party, so we already had costumes, and really, how hard could it be to make a little boy's pirate costume?

Since Alex refuses to wear anything on his head these days, I opted to forgo the pirate hat altogether - it just wasn't worth the battle.  I bought a cheap white shirt at Hobby Lobby and painted red stripes on it.  I make a little black vest out of scrap fabric and a red sash to go around his waist.  My mom and I made some boot coverings to go over his black shoes (so that it looks like tall pirate boots), have him wear his black church pants, and ta da!  He would be one good looking pirate, . . .well, ok it could have been better, but really, I only had a day to put it together.

The night of the party came.  This is the outfit we ended up with.

No how, no way was he going to wear the sash or the boots.  We only got him to wear the vest after several minutes of screaming.  Matt and I both tried to be strong, "Look kid!  You are going to put this on, you are going to look darling, and you are going to LIKE IT!!"  I'm the mom, I'm bigger than him, and he should do what I say.  After all, all I really want is for him to have a pinterest worthy costume and to have that perfect family photo to post on facebook.  Is that too much to ask?  I'm rapidly learning that for a two year old, yes, that is often WAY too much to ask. :)

We fought the costume battle again on Halloween.  I improved my tactics this time around as I was getting him ready to go to Matt's work for some trick-or-treating.

"Alex, let's put on your vest!"
"NO!!"
"Alex, do you want to go see dad and get some candy?"
"Dad? Yeah!!"
"Then let's put on your vest and we can go."
"NO!!  NO!!"
"Do you want a treat?"
"Yes!"
"Put on your vest and you can have a treat."
"NO!"

I gave up.  Matt tried again once we got there, but was equally unsuccessful.  Alex went as a kid in a striped shirt for Halloween.  Parental fail.

But on the other hand, maybe not.  Yes, our costumes were not even close to pinterest worthy, but Alex had a blast collecting candy.  It was so much fun to see him walk around to 250+ desks collecting candy, refusing to let us carry his plastic pumpkin even though it got way too heavy for him to carry.  And it appears that we are raising an extremely independent child who knows what he wants and isn't afraid to fight for it.  And maybe that's not such a bad thing after all. . .

Happy photographing!