Last-minute costumes for moms

If you're like me, you've spent most of your prep time for this year's Halloween focused on making the holiday fun for your kid.  Choosing an adorable costume, figuring out trick-or-treat routes, and watching the Halloween episode of "Yo Gabba Gabba" to help him get prepared.  (Also, shut up; I love me some "Yo Gabba Gabba".)

However, at least for me, such was not always the case.  Halloween used to be my thang.  Working on costumes weeks in advance, debating on whether or not to brave the crowds on Franklin Street, deciding Hillsborough Street was too lame and involved too much walking in uncomfortable shoes, and inevitably finding myself at Legends.  (There is no party like a gay club on Halloween.)

I can also admit that, prior to the birth of my son, I was one of those girls who went just a liiiiittle on the slutty side with my costumes each year.  Schoolgirl, vampire (corsette + fangs), cigarette girl (won a costume contest with that one, but the dress was so short I specifically bought matching undies for the occassion).

Of course, I don't want to dress slutty for Halloween anymore.  I've outgrown it, and I'm a mom now.  I don't want to present any image that I would be embarrassed for my son to see pictures of years down the road.

However, I still love Halloween.  And now that I've got my son all prepared, I'm realizing that I still really want to dress up for tonight.  Of course, it's the last-minute, so a costume is going to require all my creative MacGyver skills.

Now, a lot of people are throwing on a black turtleneck and some wire-rimmed glasses, carrying around an iPhone and saying they're Steve Jobs.  I think that's a bit insensitive, personally, and I own no Apple products.

So, I started thinking about what's in my closet, and got some ideas.  Then I realized that it's probably very similar to what most moms have in their closets, and I have a chance to do some good here.  So, in case you waited until the last second (like me!) here are some easy Halloween costumes you can throw together for tonight.

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The Other "First"s

As parents, we are really big on our baby's "first"s.  First tooth, first step, first Christmas, etc.  And while these things are important, they're also kind of boring.  Most "first"s are things all kids have in common.

I started thinking about it the other morning, when my son was being a bit fussy getting ready for school, and I grabbed the first thing at hand:  a sheet of bubblewrap from a recent postage delivery.  As I showed him how to pop it, and watched his face light up with giggles, it occurred to me that he had never played with bubblewrap.  This was a first.  Sure, it's probably not as big a deal as a first haircut, or anything like that, but it made his morning.  After all, what kid doesn't like bubblewrap?  (Of course, true to his habit of renaming everything, he calls it "squeezy-pop".)

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We do Christmas right...

Everyone may be picking out costumes and getting their candy ready for trick-or-treaters, but in my house, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

To explain, there are two things you should know about me: 1.) I love the holidays. 2.) I hate crowds.

From October 1st until New Year's Day, I am a happy woman.  As much as I hate shopping for myself, I love buying gifts for other people, and I spend hours at the mall, stores, and on shopping websites, getting ideas, making lists, and comparing prices.  I want to find the perfect gift to put a big, genuine smile on the recipient's face when they open their present.

But I despise crowds, particularly when I'm in my gift-shopping happy place, so it's imperative that I get all of my gifts bought weeks before Black Friday.

I also just love the time with my family, whether it's taking my son trick-or-treating with his cousins, or having everyone stuff our faces together on Thanksgiving.  I love the complete pandemonium that is a Christmas Day with a ton of people and kids underfoot.  I love Christmas Eve services with my church family.  I love the food, and the hot chocolate, and stockings, cheesy holiday movies and the way Christmas trees smell, and just everything about the entire Holiday season.

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Having a lot of people you care about is expensive.

I love my large, crazy family.  I love that my son has cousins and aunts and grandparents that he gets to see all the time.  I love that he will grow up with a huge network of people who love and support him.

I love the ease of finding a babysitter on short-notice.

And I love family events.  Especially when I have the opportunity to give presents.

For starters, I hate to shop for myself.  I hate shopping for groceries.  I find these things boring and tedious.  (And, as I've mentioned before, if my clothes from 8th grade still fit and don't have too many holes in them, I see no need to buy new ones.)

But I love gift shopping.  Shopping for other people gives me a huge charge, and I spend months before Christmas comparing gifts, prices, picking out stocking-stuffers, etc.  It's not uncommon for me to have all my shopping done and everything wrapped by at least Thanksgiving, if not Halloween.

This effort has been recognized as I am viewed, by my family, as one of the better gift-givers.  It's not something I'm arrogant about.  It's just something I enjoy that I've become very good at.

However, through the years, as my family has grown and multiplied, I'm not able to be as generous as I once was.  When we were younger, in our high school and college years, I bought presents for my sisters like they were my own kids.  When the oldest cousin, my niece, was born, I spoiled her like she was my own.

But now we have four babies in the family.  And with every new addition comes not only an extra set of presents to buy at Christmas, but another birthday as well.  All those birthdays and holidays start to really add up, until my whole calendar is filled with special occasions that require a present.  I'll break it down for you by month:

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On "Fall Festivals" and "Trunk or Treat"s

"Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean." ~ Romans 14:13-14

A few months back, hubby and I were in the full swing of getting things ready for Halloween, since it would be our little man's first time trick-or-treating. (The year before he was only 3 months old at Halloween, so we dressed him up like a cow and pulled him around the neighborhood in a wagon with his older cousin.)

I love Halloween, or, as they call it at our local drag club, "Gay Christmas". I love costumes, I love the decorating, I love pretending non-scary things are scary. I looove candy, especially on the one day of the year when grown adults are condoned to tear into it like diabetic 3rd-graders on hiatus. So I was more than pumped now that my little boy was old enough to join in the excitement.

My dad found an amazingly adorable full-body shark costume with little feet, so he looked like a miniature Chevy Chase dressed up as the "land shark". We went to two church fall festival/trunk-or-treats before the 31st, one at his daycare, and one with our church, so we got a lot of wear out of the costume. The morning before we went out for Halloween, we carved a pumpkin into an anime-cat Jack-o-Lantern, and I found out my son loves eating raw pumpkin as much as I do. (BTW, healthy snack for kids = raw pumpkin.)

Being that I am a member of the social media generation, throughout all this I was posting pics on Facebook; pics of the cat-o-lantern, pics of my son in his costume, etc. That was when I started noticing a few weird comments from some of my fb friends. The most alarming ones I saw:

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