costume struggles

I love the month of October! The change of the season, those crisp, cool days with splashes of intense color, the smells, apples and pumpkins, golds and reds...and of course, decorating for Halloween! Marek gets really into the season, too. We put up Halloween banners, pumpkin lights, owls and cats, candles, made Halloween cupcakes already...we're in the October mood! We read books about apples, pumpkins, and Halloween. Our current favorite is Moonlight the Halloween Cat by Cynthia Rylant. This is one of those Halloween books to start off with if you have really young children. Not scary, but covers all the basics of Halloween - pumpkins, cats, costumes, children and candy! Cynthia Rylant is also one of the best children's authors writing for children. She can create a good picture book (Dog Heaven and Cat Heaven are wonderful to give to someone who recently lost a beloved pet and The Relatives Came accurately portrays the festive, crazy atmosphere of relatives coming to visit, along with the inevitable sadness that ensues when they depart), an entertaining and well-written early reader (this isn't an easy task - how interesting can a beginning reader really be? If you have doubts, see Henry and Mudge or Mr. Putter and Tabby books!)...even chapter books of note (Missing May won the prestigious Newbery Medal).

Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara is also a really good, new addition to this genre. This picture book has great black, orange, and white illustrations. Of course, there's ghosts in the house, but there is also a resident witch who knows just what to do with those ghosts. She catches each one and then puts them to use - as curtains, sheets, blankets, tablecloths....very cute. Check it out at your local bookstore or library!

Anyway, despite all of this Halloween happiness going on at our house, Marek has been not-so-thrilled with the idea of dressing up in a costume. Last year I had two wonderful (and unfortunately, expensive) costumes ready for him to wear on Halloween. He flatly refused. Up until yesterday, he tossed the notion of dressing up this year to the wayside. But we were looking at a book yesterday of a child dressed up as a pumpkin and he said he'd like to be a pumpkin this year. Yes! So, I'm going to sew him a costume and then hope, hope, hope he'll actually wear it this year. He already declared that the pumpkin couldn't have a stem, be squishy or soft or....well, I'm ignoring those requests because honestly, how can you make a pumpkin costume that isn't soft and at least somewhat squishy?? Wish us luck!