Lesson 18: Take a Chance, Even on Halloween

Nothing in my life is random.  Nothing much left to chance.  When you are a teacher by trade, you learn to make plans.  Preparedness makes for a smooth day.  Life is crazy enough, but factor in two working parents, school activities, a 3-year-old who is refusing to poop in the potty, and an autistic daughter who is looking for the green wash cloth (that she lost 5 years ago); being well planned is the key to my sanity.  Even on holidays.

Halloween is kind of like that, too.  I am a girl who loves my themes and loves to see the connectedness in everything.  Therefore all my kids' costumes have to match in some sort of way each year or I feel defeated.  For example when Sam was a baby, the year of the bats, I dressed them as two bat girls and baby bat man.  The next year things were really wild, so I made Sam a monkey, Natalie a cheetah, and Ellen was the zookeeper (how fitting).  Last year we took two Penn State Cheerleaders and a Penn State football player on the rounds around Karen's Foxwood neighborhood, while riding on Jim Zielinski's hay wagon with Wonder Woman (my sister).  The hay wagon was back again this year.  Karen was a German Beer Girl and Grandma fit into my dad's Coast Guard uniform--great for Grandma!

For Halloween 2010 I struggled to find some sort of commonality that would link the three together and keep everyone happy.  Natalie is getting older, Ellen has social concerns about having the "just right costume", and Sam needs something that is fitting for a 3-year-old boy.  Ellen suggested that she could be a box of popcorn.  I thought a minute, and found some hope in this "corn" theme.  I could make Natalie candy corn, which is her favorite candy.  Try finding candy corn in the spring and summer!  Some thoughtful friends and family members actually have, and we now have a hidden stash for her in the top shelf of our cupboard.  But that left Sam.  After some thought, I considered making him a corn dog, which is one of the few things he will eat on occasion.  With every sketch I tried however, the costume just kept looking like a big, giant penis (equally fitting, may I add).  I moved on to Plan B.

Ellen then suggested that she and Natalie could be a set of dice and make the costumes out of felt and cardboard boxes.  I loved the idea and Ellen got right to work.  I named her Ellen after combining the names Elaine and Helen (my mother), but I should have named her Martha, as in Stewart.  She is very artistic and extremely crafty.  I still have the school bus she made out of an empty Kleenex box when she was 2, complete with pop out people and a working stop sign.  That still left Sam.....

I figured I could make him a card--the Joker would be appropriate, but he didn't seem to get that idea at all.  I stretched the theme thing to its max and decided to go with a "box" theme, just to say I kept to one.  We decided to dress him as Thomas the Tank Engine's engineer because he loves trains.  We had the hat, the overalls, and a neckerchief, so that would be affordable enough.  Dad always has an ample supply of beer boxes in the barn, so Martha could turn one of them into Thomas the Train.  We figured we could attach a rope to the box and he could pull Thomas along and put his candy in the box.  "There," I said as I brushed my hands together, "I pulled it off again--interconnected Halloween theme of boxes.  Mission accomplished."  Until last Tuesday, that is.

On Tuesday Sam decided that he wanted to be a coyote for Halloween.  He started practicing his howl and got it down pat after about 90 minutes of straight practice.  I kept changing the subject or leaving the room whenever he asked to see his coyote costume.  He is one persistent kid.  I was torn.  Should I stubbornly continue on the path I had intended with the box theme, or should I abandon it and roll the dice and try for something better?  For the heck of it, I took a chance and threw Sam in the van to go see what Wal-Mart had left in the Halloween costume aisle. 

Upon arrival I found a fair number of equally agitated parents, whiny kids, and some light arm wrestling over the few remaining costumes.  There were some werewolf masks left and I showed him one, knowing full well what he'd do.  Sam is not a shy kid, but is a complete chicken.  He took one look at the mask and ran down the aisle screaming "Help, Help!  There is a hairy monster!" 

We took a little break and went to the toy department to look at the trains.  He settled down a bit, so I thought I'd give the werewolf costumes one more try.  Standing in the middle of the aisle, there was some little kid who was deciding between the pirate and a somewhat tamer version of a werewolf.  I glanced at the size of the werewolf costume and it read, BOYS SMALL, Size 4-6.  It looked to be the only one left.  I boldly inserted myself into the conversation he was having with his mother, and knowing kids as well as I do, took another chance.  I said, "Boy, I sure do love that pirate costume.  Where did you find that?  Does that really come with the hook, the eye patch, and that feather?  That's a deal."  The brat, I mean the boy, didn't disappoint.  He clutched the pirate costume to his chest and said, "This is mine!".  He tossed the werewolf and I snatched it right back. 

Being the quick thinker that I am, I whipped out the picture cover from the plastic and flipped it over to the plain cardboard side.  I said, "Oh, Sam!  I found a coyote costume.  The picture fell off, but this coyote has brown fur.  Do you want to pet it?"  Sam loved petting the fur and couldn't wait to take the costume home.  So I took a chance and it worked, but I still had a couple of obstacles to climb--how was I going to get him to wear it without scaring himself to death?

I dashed up to the computer as soon as I got home and Mr. Google and his Image Department came to my rescue once again.  I found an image of Wylie Coyote from the old Warner Brothers cartoon.  A quick click, copy, and paste had Wylie on a word document, where I added a neat little title:  Boys Coyote Costume, Size Small 4-6.  I stuck it into the plastic sleeve, and showed Sam the picture I found.  "That's what you look like, Sam!  How cool!"  I told him.  Like Dracula, all I had to do was keep him away from a mirror. 

Once in awhile, a working parent has to choose between their children.  It is a painful sacrifice we all make from time to time.  Both Sam and Ellen had Halloween parades on Friday, each inviting parents to attend.  Sam's was early in the day, but I had a class and some responsibilities with my morning students.  I opted to go to Ellen's parade as it was later in the day.  Mom and Karen both volunteered to go to Milestones Early Learning Center's first ever Halloween Parade. 

I wish I was savvy enough to know how to get pictures off my cell phone and onto this blog.  If you have a sixth grader in your house who wants to come and show me how to do that, please call.  Karen sent me one photo which read, "Which one is Sam?"  In a line up of three-year-olds there was a Hello Kitty, Little Miss Muffett, GI Joe, Thomas the Tank Engine, and a werewolf--I mean a coyote.  A full head taller than everybody, he was kind of hard to miss.  The cutest, scary werewolf/coyote in Milestones history.

I took a chance this year and didn't follow what I usually do.  I wrote a new equation when I couldn't solve a problem.  So, I broke the mold and this year the kids didn't really match.  Did it really matter?  Not really.  The brave part for me was taking the chance and hoping that it would all work out. 

It was that which reminded me of another Five for Fighting song that I love called Chances.  The video is posted above.  The tune is great and it catches you as the singer has such a distinct style.  The video is a bit contrived, but it is neat to watch two people brave enough to take a chance--probably when they were 15 (read blog post 15 in case you missed that one). 

Take a chance every once in a while, dear readers.  You never know, you just might make history.  Hoooowwwwlllllll!