The costume debacle

So Ryan is an opinionated 2 year old (we have no idea where it came from). As such, we've learned some great child psychology techniques that help avoid tantrums and meltdowns, while resulting in the outcome we were originally hoping for. Trust me, they don't teach you this stuff in a book.

With this in mind, we've been treading lightly on the topic of what he'll be for Halloween this year. If we try and pick something for him, we know it won't end well and we'll be holding him down trying to force a costume on him (not a fun way to start the trick-or-treat adventure). So we decided to let him pick a costume. Luckily, he knows exactly what he wants to be the first time we ask him.

Super hero? Nope. Beloved movie character? Try again. Farm animal? You guessed it! Well, that's easy, you say. There are plenty of cow and sheep costume's out there.

No, my friend. He doesn't want to be a cow or a sheep or a pig or any other animal that is readily available at your nearest party supply store.

Ryan wants to be a goat. So I scan the vast pages of the World Wide Web wishing and hoping that somewhere out there, beneath the pale moonlight (oops - Fivel reference, my bad) there is a goat costume, size 2T, that doesn't cost me a day care payment small fortune. Let me save you the suspense. It doesn't exist.

So we try a new approach - I call it the "tweens guide to getting what they want" approach. We just keep asking him the same question until we get the desired answer. It's just a matter of willpower.

Finally, after a couple weeks of hearing nothing but "goat," the answer changes. Spiderman, he says!! Consider it done. Until we realize that, here we are, a week before Halloween, trying to get one of the top-selling costumes EVER.

Well, five stores and countless more hours online and we finally got Ryan his Spiderman costume. And he loved it. Wore it for two straight days. And might I add, he was one awesome Spiderman.