I hate Halloween

OK, for the longest time I have LOVED the season of fall - the leaves changing color, the cooler weather, the wonderful fall festivals, pumpkins, and Halloween. Halloween has always been one of our favorite holidays. I don't know why, really, it is just a great holiday. That is, until you have kids. Now, I know that like Christmas, Halloween should only get better once you have kids. After all, you can go trick-or-treating again and you get the chance to really get into costumes again. Ah, the costumes. Today, that is why I hate Halloween. Like my crazy attempts to make my kid's birthday cake, I like to also make their Halloween costumes. So, I always start asking way in advance. Last year Alex wanted to be a Jedi Knight. He saw a costume he liked on-line, so I broke down and bought one. This year, Alex said he wanted to be a Jedi Knight again. No problem, saves me time and money. Jenna said she wanted to be a zebra. Great I thought, it was Alex's old costume from two years ago that my mom and I worked very long on. What an easy Halloween for me!! Yay!! Here comes the bubble burst, two weeks ago, Jenna started to say that she wanted to be a ghost for Halloween so that she could scare people. I didn't mention that a three-year old dressed up as a ghost was only going to be seen as cute and not scary. I kept on her and she was persistent about the ghost. So, Tuesday night Jenna and I set out to the store to buy our ghost making supplies. Wednesday night we started to make the costume - which, to say the least, was HORRIBLE!!! She wouldn't hold still, I cut the hole for her face too big, and everything ended in chaos with lots of yelling and tears and hostility. Jenna ended up saying she didn't want to be a ghost anymore. Feeling like a failure of a mother for fighting with my three-year old and in the process killing her dream of being a ghost, I sent Joe out to the store to buy another sheet. I then stayed up very late trying my best to get this costume done in time for the Halloween party at the library today. (Once again, I owe it all to Joe - as usual, he is the calm in the middle of a storm and worked so patiently with me to get it done. I love you, hon!!) So, I wake up this morning feeling a bit better about myself, feeling a bit more like an acceptable mom, anticipating the beaming smile on Jenna's face when she sees that I have made this great costume - only to descend back into chaos. All I had to do was cut the bottom for an appropriate length. All Jenna had to do was put the costume on and hold still for just a bit while I cut the bottom. But she went right into tantrum mode and the fighting started all over again!! Here I was, yelling at my three-year old about how late I stayed up working on this and couldn't she at least give it a try. Does she really care how late I stayed up? No. Is she going to give it a try if she doesn't like it? No. She's three. So, after her storming off and me gathering myself, we had a heart-to-heart and lots of hugs and kisses. And then we only had 30 minutes to come up with a new costume for story time. (Note: the zebra costume was not an option as part of it was dismantled to become part of the ghost costume, which is now lying in a crumpled pile in the corner of our unused room.) Now, Jenna and Alex have lots of dress up clothes, so we had things to fall back on. Jenna has lots of princess dresses, which look beautiful on the hanger because that is where they always are. But the hopeful mom-of-a-little-girl in me thought, well we just got back from Disney, so maybe, just maybe she will want to dress up as a princess. NO. At first she wanted to be Darth Vader. Jenna, the cape is too long and I don't have time to hem it up. Then, she wanted to be a solider. Jenna, all there is to that is a vest and a helmet, how about something else. Finally, she decided on a pirate. She went all out, donning the sword, eye patch, and hat. And, you know what, she was a great looking pirate. She loved it and, most importantly, she had fun. To be honest, so did I. So, I guess I don't really hate Halloween. Well, not until Saturday when she has to dress up again for a party at our friends. Hmm, wonder if she will be a pirate again, or if our battles over a costume will start all over?