2004: He was one of the guys from Starsky and Hutch, I was an Asian Girl
2005: He was a magician, I was a bunny
2007: He was a farmer, I was a pig and Corbin was a cow
2008: He was Eeyore, I was Winnie the Pooh and Corbin was Tigger
This year we let Corbin help decide the costume theme for our family. I came up with some ideas and he got to pick one. He chose Peter Pan characters. Caleb immediately called dibs on NOT being Peter Pan. He is a pretty good sport about dressing up with me, but apparently he draws the line at wearing tights.
I did a little looking around on eBay for some cheap, cute costumes, but I am far too picky to have found anything I liked, so I decided to develop a new talent and sew some costumes. Thus, about 6-7 weeks ago I started making weekly trips to our fabric store with my 40% off coupon and slowly purchasing supplies.
Makelle's Tinkerbell dress had a pattern, I changed a few things, but mostly stuck to the pattern. I had to look up 3 separate eHow videos during step one of the pattern alone. (Who knew 'basting' wasn't just for turkeys?) It took FOREVER to make, but I finished it.
Then I moved onto Corbin's Peter Pan costume. Maybe 50% of it is from a pattern, the rest I improvised. I finished it about a month ago and I honestly think he has probably worn it, for varying lengths of time, just about every single day since.
Caleb is going as Captain Hook. By the time we priced all the individual accessories he was going to need, we decided to buy a costume off eBay after all. Corbin also probably wears it, for varying lengths of time, just about every single day since.
Finally I needed a character. Wendy seemed like an easy choice. I had no pattern though... picky girl couldn't find one she liked on the $1 rack. So I figured I was basically an expert seamstress by now, (what with two whole costumes under my belt) and could make something up. I underestimated how much fabric it would take to make myself a dress compared to my 8 month old daughter's and had to make a return trip to the fabric store... they were out of the original fabric and wouldn't get any in before Halloween. The sleeves are now slightly different than the bodice. I did a throw-together job and it is completely unflattering, but has the same basic color scheme and style as Wendy.
We are good to go. For all the effort these costumes took and as much as Corbin seems to like dressing up (he literally has asked me at least once a day, "Is it Halloween, yet?" for at least the past month). I decide to make it a full week long celebration and plan 9 different outings for this week, in which Corbin can dress up and participate in various Halloween festivities. Probably a bit much, but a lot of it was little things like Halloween Storytime at the library that we usually go to every week anyway. Plus let's face it, Halloween is all about the candy for most kids, and Corbin can't even eat most of it. So I wanted it to be more about playing pretend and get togethers with family and friends.
I am excited, Corbin is excited, Makelle is clueless and Caleb is hunkering down, ready to endure it. Then Monday comes, I take Corbin in to the doctors' for his annual check up and he catches a minor bug. He doesn't really get too sick, but his asthma has already been flaring up a lot lately and now he is needing more help breathing than I can offer him with all my herbs, tricks, rubs, medicines, treatments at home. After a day in the clinic, they send him home with his own portable nebulizer and he has spent all week struggling to breathe.
The next day, Makelle also gets sick. Like her brother, she isn't showing too many symptoms, the doctor even checks and says it isn't the flu or anything serious, but due to her enlarged turbinates, she can't breathe either. Or suck continuously for long enough to get milk when nursing. Luckily we have a lot of bottles in the freezer and she is doing well with solids now, but oh man is it SOOO frustrating that every little thing... so mild most parents would probably see a runny nose for one day and attribute it to the cold weather that hit this week, and carry on with life as normal. But not my kids.
Anyhow, we tried to make the best of things and still have some fun. So, we watched Halloween movies, read Halloween books, made masks, played little games, ate themed foods, etc. Caleb gave him a father's blessing in which he was offered comfort and assistance sleeping and he only woke up twice last night and hasn't needed his nebulizer once today. Yea! We are going to keep watching him and hopefully he doesn't relapse and he can at least participate in some of the fun things we had planned for the last half of the week.
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