Halloween
This holiday turned into a bit of a problem for us in Austria. Traditionally Halloween didn't even exist, but has gained enormous popularity as an US import. Then again, since carnival (the time before lent every late winter) is the usual time here for kids to get dressed up, Halloween is now the holiday where everyone dresses up as ghosts, witches and such. Trick or treating does exist occasionally I'm told, but it seems more popular with the teenage crowd who uses it as an excuse to party and leave tons of trash everywhere. So... trick or treating for us is kind of out and we are left every year to find a Halloween-related event to take the kids to. They of course are excited to dress up and mostly not as scary creatures. It's strange to come here as a kind of Halloween experts only to look out of place with costumes that are just costumes and not particularly spooky or scary. But we keep our heads up and don't care because, like my husband likes to say - "We" came up with this thing in the first place. (I'm told it was the Irish, but I will leave this detail out for argument's sake.)
This year Ivan wanted to be a skeleton, and he picked a glow-in-the-dark costume kindly mailed to us by Grandma. That costume is SCARY, which is exactly what appealed to Ivan. He is 5 1/2 after all and all he wants to be is seriously cool. None of that sweet baby stuff anymore. Ahem. I think once the costume arrived and it was up close and personal, Ivan discovered he was quite terrified of it himself, but he did not say a word and put it on bravely every day, but only for a short amount of time, not that you would've noticed unless you are his mother and can detect the slightest nervousness in that kid's eyes. Oh, it is the funniest thing. Last night we left the costume under a light and then tried out the glow-in-the-dark feature in the - windowless - bathroom and again... SCARY, VERY SCARY. Ivan showed it off proudly, but also rather quietly and then promptly took it off, put it away in his room and then this morning told me: "Uh, mama, I could see the costume glowing in my room last night. (pause) I was a tiny bit scared." A tiny bit! Only! Gah, this boy is delicious.
Nikola wanted to be Thomas the Train. It was a perfect choice for him, as he is constantly on the run and this costume sort of just drapes over whatever he's wearing and can take a severe beating. He was a hit at the Halloween fest. The best part about Nikola is always his swagger and his absolute bullet-proof confidence. He is awesome and he knows it. It's just another day in Nikola-world.
Veronika requested to be Rapunzel, from the Disney movie Tangled. This was my fault, because I had bought a sewing pattern for the Rapunzel dress and then left it somewhere out for her to see and be able to say she wanted it. I don't know why I had bought the pattern, probably in one of those frequent irrational motherhood moments where you pretend that simply believing everything can fit in your schedule will gloss over the fact that you've been behind that schedule for years now. I groaned and said, OK, I'll make it for you. And the I procrastinated another week. I'm not usually up for complicated projects. The chances of being interrupted and therefore messing everything up several times are so high and real that I am positively scared of putting myself in that emotional state. ("This will never be done! Another mistake! I have to do it over! This will never work! I'm such a screw-up!" etc.) It didn't help that when I actually looked at the pattern, I realized I didn't like it at all, it barely looked like the actual Rapunzel dress. But this story has a happy Hollywood ending, where I actually make the dress! I ended up altering the pattern completely - which I never do - and I made it in time. I don't know what happened. Maybe my kids are older and I have a few more hours every day. It was a fun project. Veronika looked adorable.
As I was making the dress with the trims and the lace and tulle I kept thinking that this might be the last princess dress-up dress she'll request and the thought just took my breath away. Then again I reminded myself that the desire for dresses of other kind will not go away - since I still have mine alive and healthy at 35. It's just with kids... they mark the time relentlessly with their constant growing and leaving stages behind, one after another. I can't keep up.
Posted at 04:57 AM on October 31, 2011