Age 1: Hank will not wear a hat, thwarting all adorable handmade costume options. Mai helps me safety-pin some strategically arranged faux fur to a brown hoodie to improvise a baby Big Bad Wolf costume. He tolerates the hood for 30-second stretches before bucking.
Age 2: Hank will not wear costumes. Dress-up boxes make him keen. Despondent, I purchase this toddler Elephant costume at a thrift store for $5, knowing that if I make something by hand, I will not be sane about his refusal to wear it. His father bribes him with chocolate.
Age 3: When prompted, Hank asks to be Nemo. My glee borders on mania. My gluegun runneth over. (FYI: Nemo/Fish Costume tutorial that can be adapted for adult sizes if you’re feeling it.)
Age 4: Hank asks to be a Monkey Robot. Say it again, I whisper. A monkey robot. This! This is my child. I spend hours fashioning the monkiest robotiest costume possible. Halloween! We are a Halloween family.
Age 5:
A year later, there are still tears of pride standing in my eyes as I ask,
-What do you want to be for Halloween this year, Hank? An astronaut race car driver? A mad scientist superhero?
-A ghost!
-A ghost?
-Yes.
Mighty Girl 
This is adorably hysterical! Our boy has had a myriad of costumes-from expensive store-bought, to cobbled-together-at-the-last-minute, and homemade with love. This year I am out of town for the festivities and his Halloween adverse father must take him out for candy. There was one stipulation-the costume be easy for our five year old to put on. Thus-a one-piece “Amazing Spiderman” suit from Costco. Web-shooter imagination induced.
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I love this! When I was like 8-years-old my best friend and I demanded we go as B1 and B2 from Bananas in Pajamas. How her stepmom pulled off making those costumes eludes me today. 😀
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Same here! Baby Devo, Baby Baby, Dead Bird…GHOST. With a new baby in the house to worry about, I’m thanking my lucky stars.
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Why don’t you ask him, “Whose ghost?”
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YES! Vee has nailed it with that question. You’re giving him what he wants but maybe making him get a bit more creative without beating him over the head with it.
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i LOVE how honest you are about being emotionally overly-invested in Hank’s Halloween costume. You own your irrationality and i respect that.
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My six year old wants to be Perseus. Wanna trade costumes?
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My five-year-old wants to be a squirrel…maybe with rabies.
Five-year-olds are awesome.
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@findingmagnolia – I’ve ALWAYS wanted to be a squirrel for Halloween. It’s a costume that will be nice and warm.
I’m not 5 years old, but I usually dress like one would for Halloween.
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Oh! Halloween costumes fill me with joy and dread. This year the 5 year old wants to be a nine-eyed purple monster? And the two year old wants to be a duck.
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The picture of Hank in his elephant costume just may be the cutest thing in all the land.
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Oh, Hank.
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Oh I wish Australian kids would get into Halloween. Luckily our neighborhood has a guaranteed bunch of kids going around and as my son was 3 last year he didn’t quite understand. But he LOVED sitting on our front porch waiting for the kids to arrive and he gave them all sweets. Once there was a lull in the crowds and he stood on our front fence with a full pumpkin head bucket of lollies yelling out “Kids? Where are all the kids?”… it was soo sweet.
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Awww, I must confess to a small touch of jealousy. I had nine years of fairy wings… fairy, fairy princess, fairy butterfly buttercup… Mow that I can take a pair of pantyhose, Rit dye and a wire hanger and create wings in my sleep, she says she’s too old to let me participate in the fun of Halloween costuming! Enjoy every moment. I LOVE the costumes!
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Dude, be happy he’s not asking to be a superhero like every other boy in America. My 5 year old is going to be Wolverine. I tried talking him into a knight, which is hero-ish without being a licensed character, but he would have none of it. Sigh.
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After my son’s request for a ghost costume was vetoed one year, I was asked if he could instead go as “a log”…as in a piece of a tree. Sigh…
This year, I’m making costumes for our whole family to go as the Avengers…with 4 year old Hazel as the Hulk.
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Love them all, especially the monkey robot. We have done alot of insects (lady bug, bee) an angel, a “unicorn” (which ended up looking like something a raver would wear back in 2002) and this year, my 8 year old daughter is going as a ninja!!
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Ha! Ours goes, 0. tiny yet ferocious kitty 1. Viking 2. Bear with giant claws 3. Green-faced witch 4. (and here’s where I lose my firm grip on scary costumes) princess. This year, we’ve gone from skeleton ballerina (I pressured her in to the skeleton part) to superhero to a cat. Any of those totally beat a princess, but still GHOST?!! Totally jealous.
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