How to Help Your Kid Win a Costume Contest

This past weekend, we attended two Halloween events and Leo won his first costume contests. Yep, you read that right- contests. Plural.

Now, because Leo is only 2 1/2, I'm going to take some of the credit. Because, really, he can barely dress himself for everyday, so obviously the costume aspect is at least partly mama, right?

So... here were his costumes:

At the West Jeff Family Festival on Saturday, he was dressed as a little monkey in a costume from the Audubon Zoo which included a face mask and shirt designed to look like a monkey body (with a tail on the back). His pants were just standard brown toddler pants. I attached a stuffed banana we had caught at a parade last year onto his side with a pin. He imitated a monkey with "whoo whoo" sounds and scratching under his arms and pretending to eat his toy banana when he was called up to the stage area. He won the prize for "silliest costume" in the 0-3 age group.

On Sunday, the competition was even more intense- it was at the Boo Carre fest at the French Market in downtown New Orleans. There were more eager participants than they had spaces, so they had to cut off the entry list at 15 kids. All ages were grouped together. Leo was dressed as a pirate on Sunday (because Sunday is *always* pirate day...it just is...) He wore a pair of black pants cut at the bottoms into jagged edges, a green-and-white striped button down shirt, a pirate hat and a red-and-white sash around his waist. He had a stuffed parrot pinned on his shoulder (another Mardi Gras throw) and we attached it to his hat with velcro to make it stay standing up. He also had a foam cutlass hanging from his belt. As a finishing touch, I painted a curly mustache on his upper lip with my black eyeliner (initially used a face paint crayon, but he wiped that off really quickly.) When he went on stage, he was a little shy, but he managed to "Arrr" once or twice and smiled a lot. He won "Best Homemade Costume"

As you might have begun to notice- the trick to winning is in the details. Neither outfit would have stood up to the competition had it not been for the accessories- the banana and parrot were particularly effective, not just for the contest itself, but also when walking around with him. And people *loved* the mustache! If you can find something to attach to your child that everyone he or she walks past says "oh look- he/she even has a little blah blah!"- you've got a winner.

Stage personality also comes into play. A lot of kids get up there and just say their name and stand there. Not an effective strategy. Encourage your kid to play up the costume. Act the part, don't just rely on the outfit itself. If she's a princess, encourage her to wave her wand at the audience. If he's a rock star, tell him to play air guitar up there. The kid who acts like their character will win out over the one who just stands there every time- even if the two have identical costumes.

Pick the right categories to enter- little girls always win the "cutest costume" award... boys are more likely to get "silliest/funniest" or "scariest/spookiest"- so keep those in mind. Things like "most original" and "best handmade/homemade" can be won by either gender, but store bought costumes don't stand a chance for these categories.

If your child is dead-set on a store-bought costume, improvise to make it more unique. Add face paint, accessories, etc. Even in the categories that don't involve originality, it still counts for something.

No matter what- encourage your child to have fun. It isn't really about winning, it's about dressing up and getting people to give you candy. Um...well...

If your child doesn't win- or worse, you get there too late to sign your little one up and he or she has to watch from the sidelines... see if you can let your child up on stage after the contest is over and give him or her a chance to be the center of attention for a few minutes.

Preschool Anxiety

Leo started preschool in September. It is a 2-day-per-week program, 5 hours each school day, so he isn't there often.
The first few days he did fine- and then suddenly school dropoff became crazy time. "I don't wanna go to school" is the morning refrain:
"Here, eat some breakfast- look, mommy made eggs!"
"I don't wanna go to school."
"Let's go take a bath. You can play with your bath toys..."
"I don't wanna go to school."
"Honey...can you grab his clothes while I'm drying him off..."
"I don't wanna go to school."
I'm not sure how other parents get over this. I guess it just gets better with time. Justin suggested- jokingly, of course, that we need to be meaner to him at home. We're obviously so fun to be with that he doesn't want to leave.
We've tried being enthusiastic about the toy fire trucks at school, the little playground out back, all of his friends who will be there...
We've tried promising we'll play trains when he gets done, go play in the backyard, go take a ride on the ferry (the terminal is a few blocks from home and the ferry is super-exciting when you're two.)...
Still...it's "I don't wanna go to school."

At some point, I just wanna say "Suck it up. You're going to school." But that's obviously going to be counterproductive.
So we promise and cajole and insist...
And after a teary-eyed walk to school, we hand him over to the preschool teacher and pass by the window on the other side of the classroom. By the time we make it around to that side- he's happily playing firetrucks with the other kids.
Man...I wanna go to school!

Conversations with Daddy

Tonight, after Leo had done something particularly odd, Justin turned to me to tell me "Your son is really weird." I turned to him and responded, "Nope. YOUR son is really weird."

Roads and Bridges

We are currently in the midst of an obsession with construction equipment. Cranes are cool, and trucks are terrific. How did I ever end up with such a little boy?!? I've never been into construction equipment myself- I spent my own formative years mostly as a girly girl. I had my tomboy side, but it went more toward climbing trees and science fiction geekery than toward diggers and steamrollers. Now, suddenly, I have to figure out exactly what diggers and steamrollers ARE, and I really need to start calling them by the correct names. Bob the Builder helps. He can be quite educational if you pay attention. A woman can only watch "Roads and Bridges" so many times, though, before hysteria sets in. We've also got some construction toys- the Melissa & Doug low loader, with two little construction vehicles, is a particular favorite. Meanwhile, I'm building up my knowledge base about cranes, bulldozers, and dump trucks. I figure by the time I get all the names straight, he'll have moved on to something else.

Welcome to My Life...

I didn't wake up this morning intending to start yet another project- blog or otherwise. It kinda just happened. This is a fairly common occurrence in my life, this "oops I started something else"... like "oops, I started another novel" or "oops, I started learning how to sew again after not having touched a sewing machine since high school"... or, once, even "oops, I started a person"... which is where this blog begins, I guess. My little person is two now. And amazingly, he really *is* a little person now, not just a baby. He was born in China, when we were all expats living in a crazy land. We're back on US soil now, and it's sometimes a challenge to re-adjust to the whole thing. Hopefully, we'll head off on further adventures in distant lands later, but we're still getting back on our feet right now. Welcome to my life. Glad you've stopped in to share the adventure.