Here I am at exactly Avery's age. This was the Halloween just before I turned two, and apparently my mom had no problem convincing me that I should be a bumblebee.
When I chose Avery's costume this year, I was well aware that this would be the last year I would get to pull the wool over her eyes (literally). I wanted her to be something cute, unique and cozy, so I ordered this adorable pink octopus costume. I was adamant about getting something other than the typical girly princess getup, as we will have many years ahead where she can insist on being a princess.
Boy did I underestimate her. (That seems to be happening a lot these days).
When the octopus arrived, I excitedly took it out of the package to try it on her. Avery completely rejected that idea. She protested and became tearful so I figured she was just tired and put it away for another day.
Then last weekend my mom printed out a whole sheet of pictures of kids dressed up in octopus costumes. I tried to get the costume on Avery again after she had spent time looking at the pictures, which again ended with her shouting "NO!" and "Put back!" while pointing to the closet from which it came.
On Wednesday, my mom ("Gammy") and Uncle Aaron came over for their weekly visit. With their added encouragement, I was successful in getting Avery to put on the hat portion of the octopus.
Aaron then set up the laptop in front of her highchair, and tried to brainwash her with this octopus video on repeat while she ate her pizza.
However, our mission to get the rest of the costume on her in the days following turned out to be a failure. We hung it on the edge of her changing table for several days in order to allow her to touch it and conquer her fear of it. We tried putting a tutu on the octopus and convincing her that it was a "Princess Octopus." Josh and I tried to distract her and put on her "pants" (i.e. the costume) in a true sneak-attack fashion. This resulting audio from that scene probably had our neighbors on the verge of calling CPS. ("No, no officer, we weren't trying to shred our daughter's skin off with potato peelers and pour salt into all the wounds. Really. We were just trying to put one of her legs into this darling pink octopus suit...")
So here we are now a week away from Halloween. At the end of my rope, I finally surrendered to the fact that we need a backup plan. I grudgingly trekked to Target this afternoon for a princess costume, even though I still didn't feel ready to cave in and abandon my dream of a furry pink octopus baby.
No captions needed. The overabundance of glee oozing from these pictures is pretty obvious.
And I get it. I spent every year (after my bumblebee year) dead set on being something "pretty" for Halloween. I was a unicorn ballerina, a bride, a cancan dancer, Scarlett O'Hara (all pictured below), a ladybug, Miss America, Ginger from Gilligan's Island, a Swiss miss, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony, a butterfly, and Daisy Duke, among others.
I didn't like to be ugly or scary, even when my choices made me the proverbial black sheep of the family.
I just didn't think Avery had gotten there yet.
...Oh, but this octopus! So warm and soft. Such a sweet little round face.
And look at the little suckers!
Turns out I'm the sucker.
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