I thought a small part of me was going to inwardly crumple last night. And then, my heart swelled with joy and I gulped in excitement and beamed with pride for our 4 year old daughter. And then that joy was chased by an “Oh, crap” moment.
You see, next week, the handful of little girls that make up our daughter’s dance class are invited to wear their Halloween costumes. Awesome. I like blurring the rigidity of ballet – a bunch of form, precision, and French words I don’t understand with pure, costumed craziness.
At the invitation to wear their costumes, the room was filled with the excited shrieks of little girls all speaking at once. “I’m going to be Elsa! (Frozen reference), “I’m going to be Anna! (Frozen reference).” A couple of other girls chimed in too. Apparently, there is going to be a handful of Elsas and Annas. I quickly pictured myself having to explain to a 4 year old whose very hopes had been dashed why we would not go out and buy a Frozen costume for Halloween.
It’s not that I don’t want to see our kid happy. I just can’t stomach paying a slug of perfectly good grocery money to dress up our kid to get free candy! I am more of a homemade costume girl. Last year our offspring was a friendly ghost via a white pillow case and black sharpie marker. But truthfully, that only happened because my mom, who lives out of state, happened to be visiting the weekend before Halloween.
I know what you are thinking: I just need to zoom on over to Pinterest and make it happen. Except there is one major problem. Any and all creativity that I possess is channeled solely through the play of words. I ain’t got it anywhere else. I made a charitable “C” through every art class I have ever taken. And I think that was more because I “was a nice kid,” as opposed to truly displaying any kind of average artistic ability.
So, as the mom, what am I working on? As the other girls went into elaborate details as to just how princess–ey they would be next week, our daughter proudly declared that she will be a shower this season. A shower.
Why in the world does our kid want to be a shower?
I have no idea. But I think her creativity and desire to be unique rocks. Thank you God, that this time, I am spared the time to explain why we don’t need to be like everyone else, and why we won’t go out and buy a Disney themed costume.
And about this shower costume. I’m pretty sure this will only happen with Daddy’s help. In fact, we’ve penciled in a trip for him to both the Dollar Store and Lowe’s.
Through it all, I appreciate my daughter’s confidence in me. At the surprised reply that she was going to be a shower, she boldly confirmed, “Oh, yea, I’m going to be a shower, my Mom’s working on it.”
And by “working on it,” she means Mommy will be cheering on Daddy in this endeavor.
Write To The Full 