In Mourning....

After Amelia's first Halloween (when she was the cutest pea pod ever!), I very clearly remember counting the number of Halloweens in her life she would have where she would be able to dress up and trick-or-treat.  I figured she would have about 12 different Halloweens, give or take a few.  With one Halloween down at the time, I made a rough list in my head of all of the things I would like her to be at some point during those 11 more dates:  Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, Little Red Riding Hood, Minnie Mouse, the Statue of Liberty, maybe Raggedy Ann?

Then came her second Halloween and I ran some of my ideas past Jason.  He had a good point that she didn't even know any of the characters on my list and we should try to follow her lead. Since she loved animals at the time and was constantly learning about new ones, we thought we would find an appropriate animal costume for her to wear.  As many of you may remember, this brought on the "costume crisis".  More specifically, I guess, the "crisis" was more Amelia's than mine.  Actually, looking back, it was probably not much of a crisis after all :) But, since I cannot link back to the old website, let's recap:

Last year, I found three equally adorable animal costumes for Amelia and was having trouble deciding which one she should wear for Halloween.  So, I bought all three and asked my fellow website readers to vote on their favorite choice. 

Of the three costumes, the skunk was the overwhelming winner.  So, the other two costumes went back to the store and our Little Stinker was born.

So, this brings us to Amelia's third Halloween.  I had high hopes this year of sneaking in one of MY choices (because its all about me anyway, right?).  But much to my surprise, Amelia had her costume picked out way back in June when she was first introduced to "Beauty and the Beast".  First, the book, then the movie, and now the soundtrack.  Somewhere along the line, I must have jokingly said, "You can be Belle for Halloween" and apparently it stuck.  Now, if you ask her what she wants to be for Halloween, she replies, "Me, Belle.  Daddy, Beast.   Mommy, Chip.  Truman, wolf.  Dave, Gaston". So, not only have I introduced Amelia to a character NOT on my list, but I also suggested she be that character for Halloween.  She, in turn, has assigned everyone else a role for Halloween which could make for an interesting evening! (I am pretty sure that her Uncle Dave has no idea who Gaston is or that he is supposed to dress up as him for Halloween).

Its not that I have anything against Belle, I don't!  I think she's lovely, she likes to read, she's smart, and she speaks her mind.  I particularly like her anti-discriminatory attitude as well as her unwavering love for her father.  But, I really thought I had a couple of years before the Disney princess thing kicked in.  I guess it could be worse, Amelia originally wanted to be the Beast.....

Ashamedly, though, I must admit that I went to the library and found a neat Halloween book with lots of kids dressed up as different things and I gave Amelia one more chance to change her mind. She did not waver--Belle it is!  So, I sucked it up and found a pattern for a toddler Belle costume on ebay and GG and I went out on Monday to buy some fabric. She will be so happy, which is really what its all about!

But, just for good measure, next year around this time, I may just show her the "Wizard of Oz" and hope for the best!