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Halloween in the Heat

Although it seems all wrong and completely unseasonal -- like singing Christmas carols in July -- I've already started looking for a Halloween costume for Sam.

This is not as easy as you might think, so I have to start my search early.

The problem is that all of the boy costumes are designed for children who live up north, where the landscape already resembles the frozen tundra by late October. The boy costumes are all full-length, long-sleeved, and made out of fake fur. In Florida, it will still be hot -- very hot -- on Halloween. If I send my child off to school dressed in head to toe fake fur, he'll end up suffering a heat stroke by lunch time.

I think it's easier for girls. With all of the various princess costumes, you can totally get away with outfitting your daughter in little more than a bikini and a few yards of tulle netting.

Anyway. I finally settled on this dinosaur costume:


dinosaur.jpg

A boy who is not Sam models the dino costume


It's cute, Sam likes it, and he can wear a t-shirt and shorts under it. And I think he'll enjoy roaring periodically.

I have to admit: I'm having some Bad Mom guilt over purchasing his costume, instead of whipping one up on the sewing machine. First, there's the not-so-small problem that although I do own a sewing machine, I don't know how to use it. I'm not even sure where it is. And I'm not a particularly crafty person. Every time I use a glue gun, I just end up burning my fingers. And then there's the time issue (i.e., I don't have any).

All of which means that if I did try to make Sam's costume, it would be a complete and total failure, and in a pathetic, last ditch effort, I'd have to throw a sheet with two eye-holes cut in it over Sam, and inform him that he's now a ghost. And then I'd just have to go buy new sheets to replace the set I'd cut up.

So it seems much more sensible to purchase Sam a costume he'll like, and then live with the working-mom-slash-materialistic-parenting guilt.

Posted 05 August 2007 at 09:36 AM