The Babe With the Power…. a Halloween Wrap-Up

Back in September:

W hen DC and I picked out his costumes two weeks ago for this, my favorite holiday, I was a little bit disappointed.

Until… after the chosen costumes arrived of course, we came upon something so much better. I was not thrilled about the Santa and Elf he had chosen for us to wear on Halloween night (I know… not… about… me) so I was glad and he was excited to happen upon a fabulous replacement.

No worries. I knew that Santa and the Elf would not go to waste. There always seems to be an extra event or party that comes up that I did not plan for and fortunately this year there were two extra events that came up.

Once again, we had to man a fundraising table to support DC’s summer camp and like last year this table was located at a local miniature golf course that decorates for the month of October. Plain old miniature golf becomes Haunted Golf for the month. Like me, DC has no interest in playing miniature golf, but if he is going to sit at the table surrounded by Halloween, he is surely going to wear a costume.

He was planning on wearing that “extra” Santa costume, but as it happened it had rained all day and it became so hot and humid that evening the Santa costume would have been really uncomfortable. I talked him into wearing the Elf instead. I told him that I had heard that there would be a costume dance hosted by his day/work program in a few weeks and if he wanted to attend, he could wear the Santa suit then. He agreed.

The Elf it was at Haunted Golf:

He was not shy about ‘working’ those bells…

One “extra” costume down and moving on.

Two days later, DC attended his summer Camp Halloween party. He loves to see his camp friends during the off months. For this party, he chose a Wizard. Not just any Wizard, mind you… in his mind this was Merlin from the Sword and the Stone, a very old Disney movie. Now, you knew there HAD to be at least one choice somehow related to Disney. There is no getting around that.

Later, he did mention that he was not only the Wizard from The Sword and the Stone but also Snow White’s father. I have no recollection as to just what Snow White’s father looks like, so I will have to take his word on that one.

His work dance was coming up and I asked him more than once if he was sure he wanted to go. He said he did. DC is always up for a dance. He loves to dance, but the dances given by his day/work program are usually not anywhere on his list of things he wants to do. The very first time DC used the word ‘boring’ was to describe one of these dances and the only time he has used that word since is anytime that I ask him if he wants to go to the monthly dance. If you are wondering if he is using this new word correctly…. yes, he is. They are boring – very much so. But, it is almost always an entirely different story when costumes are involved, so he agreed to go.

Well, he lasted 45 minutes. The eating of pizza took only 5 minutes so the other 40 minutes were spent wandering over to me and telling me “Mom! I’m boring!” I thought if he would just get dancing he would have some fun, but every single time he DID start dancing, the DJ cut the song off and then there was nothing but silence for a good long time. The DJ started playing Ghost Busters (one of the few danceable songs he played) at least three times and stopped it right in the middle every single time. I really don’t know if he ever made it through that song.

He wanted to wear the Santa suit and he did – albeit for a total of an hour and a half (including drive time) but that seemed just fine with him. He got to wear it and that was all that mattered.

Second ‘extra’ costume, used ….Mission accomplished.

One of his favorite parties every season is the Best Buddies Halloween party. Other than the grand finale on Halloween night, he seems to look forward to the Best Buddies party the most. For this he chose the Mad Hatter. He has been both the Disney and the Johnny ‘Deep’ (DC-speak) versions of the Mad Hatter in years past and to be quite honest with you, I do not know where this particular version of the Mad Hatter comes from. He owns so many obscure versions of Alice in Wonderland – it could be from one of those or it could be from the new movie, Through the Looking Glass. I have no idea, but the “Dark Mad Hatter”, which was the only description I could find was his pick. As long as he seems to know what movie or book it comes from, I don’t have to.

Finally we have reached the end of the road, um… the end of the Labyrinth – Halloween! Once the costume was on he spent a good amount of his evening looking at himself in every reflective surface he came across! I think this one will go down in history as one of his favorites.

Introducing……

Jareth the Goblin King!

Of course we had to have a Baby Toby (that would be me)!

Did anyone know who we were supposed to be? Maybe not. Most of the time that seems to be the case anyway, but we do not care about that. We know who we are supposed to be and we have a great time making everyone wonder (I do anyway). Last year there was only one person on the Trick-or-Treat route that knew he was Doctor Who and I was the TARDIS (yes really!). So I don’t think it’s us. I think it’s the neighborhood. We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere along the way through the Labyrinth.

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!

Jump Magic, Jump!

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

I have tried for many years to get DC to watch the movie Labyrinth. I always loved it and I just thought that he would too.

Of course he would! How could he not just love it as much as I do?

He didn’t…..

Not one bit….

This has worked a few times over the years… Shrek, not being Disney, was one that he absolutely refused to watch but now he has every sequel and every book – he chose Shrek as his costume a few years ago as well. It works sometimes, but it just was not working with Labyrinth.

He was never a big fan of the the Muppets until the movie with Amy Adams and Jason Sigel came along, but when David Bowie passed away, I decided I would give it one more try.

He watched it – the whole thing. He didn’t fall asleep – his usual escape when I try to get him to watch something that I like – he watched and seemed interested.

I did not realize right away how much he liked it until days later when he was on his iPad trying to search for “Lay-miff”. I had no idea what he was looking/asking for – usually I can get him to spell or sign what I don’t understand but he wouldn’t spell it for me and he was getting frustrated that I didn’t know. This usually leads to him giving up and saying “Nothing wrong” and then I never figure out what he was trying to tell me. So I do really try hard to figure it out before he gets to that point.

“Lay-miff”

DC, can you spell it?

“Lay-miff! Baby! It’s not fair!”

(So I should have gotten the “It’s not fair”, but thought he was telling me it wasn’t fair that I couldn’t understand him)

“Sarah! Baby, Lay-miff!”

“MAGIC JUMP!!!!”

Got it! Finally……

He’s seen it many times since and of course found quite a few YouTube clips to watch over and over and over again, boosting someone’s YouTube numbers to viral status I’m sure.

When DC and I picked out his costumes two weeks ago for this, my favorite holiday, I was a little bit disappointed. It was too easy, there were none of the regular “Only in DC’s head” costume choices that..

no one would know who he is and
do not exist, which means that I would have to try to make up and build from whatever I could find.

But as I always say, this is not about me. Not all about me, anyway.

There are the individual costumes for the parties he will attend, but there is also the “annual themed costume” for Halloween night.

His first choice was a pretty funny Tooth Fairy with me as the giant tooth – giant being the operative word as it has been a rough year and a half which led to me gaining a ridiculous amount of weight. Last year he was The Doctor and I was a giant TARDIS. The year before we were Lizard/Spock, as in “Rock, Paper, Scissors” (no, nobody got it, but I cracked myself up as giant Spock). I never thought there would come a time when I would long for the days when I was only “Slightly large – Inigo Montoya” to his Fezzik or “Not so large – Dr. Horrible” to his Captain Hammer.

Memories…sigh…..

The tooth fairy idea came of course from the movie Tooth Fairy with The Rock as the tooth fairy. Right before we placed the order, he changed his mind and decided that he wanted to be Santa. This of course meant that I would be the giant elf. I liked the tooth fairy/tooth idea more, but Santa was his final decision so that was that.

Last week while making a scheduled and promised visit to the book store, I noticed a Spirit Halloween store had opened up right next door. Our costumes had already been ordered and delivered, but we went in – because, well…. I had to. It was there.

As we were walking around looking at all of the costumes and decorations, we happened upon a costume that made both of us gasp at the same time – The Goblin King from Labyrinth! Why hadn’t I thought of that before? There was almost no discussion – he wanted it! There was only one and it just barely fit him, but I think I can do something to loosen it up a bit.

This of course means I will have to be the giant baby, Toby – so there will ultimately be a little bit (very little – it should be an easy one) of building a costume that does not exist and that is fine. I am just happy that I am no longer required to be the giant elf.

No worries, though. I am sure neither Santa or Giant Elf will go to waste…

(Coincidentally, I picked this up for DC the day before the costume store visit at a Comic-Con I attended with my brother and at the time, the costume idea, just never entered my mind)