43/52 – Give

Planning for the annual Halloween costume began sometime in late September. Initially Bella offered up her costume design skills and sketched out five options to give the Doodle some choice.  For the first week, she was going to be a story bot, but then she changed her mind.

The Doodle had fallen madly and obsessively in love with the idea of being a firefighter. A notion she had picked up while reading Heather has Two Mommies.  From one page in one book she drew sufficient inspiration for an outfit which she talked about over and over again for weeks.

Now, we don’t actually believe in buying costumes at our house. We believe in making them. But we also believe in giving our kids a say in what they dress up as (and I believe in not killing myself to make that happen). Paint a cardboard box to be a story bot, that I can do. Sew a jacket to be a firefighter, that’s a skill outside of my current scope.

Otto came home with this lovely costume that the Doodle picked out for herself – further feeding in to the “who buy that?” line of questioning.

Now if the Doodle had of asked to be a princess or a cheerleader, I wouldn’t have bought into buying her a costume. I would have re-directed her interest. I would have inspired her to use some imagination and creativity. I would have said no if I had to. But a firefighter!  And a firefighter that comes from a book about a kid with two moms!!!  This time we could happily concede to give the Doodle exactly what she wanted.