Newlywed and Renovating: "Hell"oween

How is it possible that October is over and nearly Novemeber too? And how is it possible I birthed a child that hates to dress up. Ooooh sorry, I was trying to ease into that. When I say dress up I really mean wear clothes….ever. He hates to be bothered by uncomfortable things like cotton t-shirts, and pants. Everyday it's a battle of "too tight" and "itchy". I know what some of you are saying right now. My kid will never do that. My kid will wear what I tell them to wear. I invite you to come on over to our house and try to dress my child!

Ok soooo......I was really talking up Halloween this year. Months ago I pulled up pictures of costumes online and the two year old decided our family costume. He came up with it all himself. Monkeys jumping on the bed. I would be the Mama naturally, Mrs. R the doctor, we would pull our two adorable monkeys in a wagon stuffed with pillows and blankets. I was really excited about it! Love an original costume idea. Props to Ol' Raleigh boy for coming up with it. Costumes ordered weeks ago. WEEKS! I felt so on top of things. Costumes arrived, they were your standard cheapy costumes....

I cringed a little. My mom made all of our costumes every year, I actually felt a little guilty not making the boys costumes. For like a hot minute, and then I remembered I haven’t slept through the night in 2 years and I got over that real quick!

So the costumes arrived. Raleigh was visibly excited when he saw the monkey picture on the packaging. We started singing the Monkeys jumping on the bed song. I put Ridge’s hat on first…truly adorable, those cheeks were made for baby Halloween costumes. And then to Raleigh.......Raleigh? That child flipped his sh*t. He actually took off all of his clothes and stood on the coffee table screaming.

What a weird-o!

I thought with time he would come around. I thought wrong. The costume aversion only grew stronger. And that’s when I really started to question if this was my child at all. I LOVE Halloween. Like love love! How could a child of mine not want to put on a ridiculous costume and prance around town??!?

And so three days before Halloween when Raleigh was still running from the monkey costume I knew I needed a new plan. His favorite show is Chuggington. The only show he will even consider. If you are not familiar, Chuggington is a train town with train characters and lots a train gadgets. I found a “Wilson from Chuggington” costume online but if he wouldn’t put on a monkey costume (basically footed pajamas) he wasn’t going to wear a huge stuffed body suit and tights. And that wasn’t an option anyways because we had three day people!

I asked myself….What would Kay Myers do?

The family “Monkey” theme was dead, and not being revived. Mr. R was just fine not dressing up as anything. Ridge was tolerating the monkey suit and Raleigh was excited about being “Chuggington” SOOOOOO…. I did what any hell bent on Halloween mother would do, I painted a wagon façade and let him sit in his costume. It took me two nights and cost $0. Raleigh rode along happily in his sweat pants and shirt (as Wilson) with his monkey brother. I wore yoga pants, a hat, and a camera around my neck…..there was no costume, it was raining and I just broke my phone and had to carry around a big ass camera to document all the fun we were all having. Can you see the excitement?