My son is two.  Halloween is rapidly approaching and we need a costume.  I am a desperate mother who has to do better by my kids than my mom did by me.  I am determined to make this the greatest Halloween ever!  I plan a party, invite our friends, my son’s friends and my parents.  This will be fun and BP, my son, is going to have blast even if I die in the process.

I have decided that BP will be a skunk for Halloween because he is my “little stinker” and this is probably the last year I will get to choose his costume.  You would think that at only two years old I would have a few more years of living vicariously through my son and choosing silly things like Halloween costumes.  But this is the most articulate, opinionated, fashion conscious two year you ever did meet.  So we go with the skunk costume.

The costume turns into quite a production for my mom the seamstress.  We were hoping to have the costume a bit early so we could coax BP into it and make sure he was going to wear it.  Nothing is worse than a crying skunk on Halloween, disappointed in his costume.

Halloween dawns and we are in luck.  BP is in great mood and eager to wear the costume.  So far so good.  Then there is the issue of the shoes.  I don’t know how much experience you have with kids and their shoes but this is an issue to which entire volumes of psychological study have been dedicated.  For some reason children’s feet are a sacred thing and certain rituals have to be preformed in order to get the Feet to cooperate.  Have you ever been to the kid’s shoe department and witnessed the mayhem and tantrums that occur? A strange phenomenon to be sure.

So we have a skunk but we need shoes.  The black boots I got to complete the outfit are not pleasing to the Feet and will not be worn on this day.  My son keeps pointing to his favorite tennis shoes.  “I want the red ones!” he says repeatedly.  A skunk with red tennis shoes?  No this is not in my plan, this just won’t do (I am having a tantrum in my head).  But the Feet have spoken and on go the red tennis shoes.

BP trick-or-treated like a champ.  He was smiling all the way.  What a wondrous day, complete strangers giving him all his favorite candy!  And the red tennis shoes were a big hit with everyone.  He even met a little girl skunk and the two of them examined each other as if staring in a mirror. Two little stinkers out for Halloween. The day was a success and we headed home with a bucket full of candy and a smile on all the faces. The red tennis shoes completed the look better than I ever could have. Thank you Feet for your wisdom and fashion sense.

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