Well, we came really close to a bust. Wade woke up from his nap at 3:15pm in a FINE mood. This is not totally out of character for him – he got his mama’s “wake-up grumpies”. An hour later he still hadn’t chosen to improve his attitude. Now its time to get in costume for the festival.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. He’s been totally excited about his costume for the past 2 weeks as we’ve been working on it. Raise your hand if your kid suddenly hates his costume when its time to put it on. Andrew managed to wrangle the special Thomas the Train overalls I had “made” (read: hot glued a Thomas patch onto $1.48 overalls from America’s Thrift Store). The overalls lasted approximately 3 minutes. Wade took them off and asked for jeans. Ok. Pick your battles. The overalls are not worth the battle. Jeans: check. Although he’s been wearing the conductor hat around the house for the past few weeks he again refused to wear it.
With both the overalls and the hat (and the shoes and the conductor bandana) he calmly and politely said “Mommy, I know we talked about wearing this before but I really just don’t feel like it tonight. I would prefer not to wear this item. Would that be ok?” So after having several “polite conversations” we manage to make it out to the car.
Arriving at church, Andrew and I make a quick bet as to how long he’s going to be willing to keep the actual James train on his body. I think one of us said 15 seconds, the other 20.
Good thing it was “Harvest Night” with costumes optional cause Wade ran around in a white henley and jeans the whole night. Oh well, we did manage to get a few good pics. (Thank you Calvary for providing candy for us to bribe our kid with)
Wade and James the Shiny Red Engine. Isn’t that the most amazing James you’ve ever seen? It was lovingly and creatively made by my AMAZING husband. Yah, in some ways it was a good thing that Wade only wore it for 35 seconds because he probably would have destroyed it if he wore it longer.
Cheeseball smile
That’s James’ freight car (AKA candy box). Andrew said, on the way home, that he didn’t mind that Wade didn’t wear the costume. The important thing was that he witnessed his daddy working hard to make something special for his boy as he remembers seeing his dad (the original Wade) do many times.
Chloe Bear wore her costume without contest…as long as it didn’t inhibit her thumb sucking she didn’t care what we put on her.
Wade and Chloe’s 4 (soon to be 5) cousins joined us so we captured some cousin love.
Wade and Callie
Wade, Callie, Ian, Sydney
Luke, 5 days younger than Chloe
Chloe: “Luke, get your grubby little hands off me”.
Luke: “Girl, you are really crampin’ my style here”.
2 comments:
I can not begin to tell you how much I enjoyed seeing your blog this morning! I have smiled, laughed and even cried.
The smiles and laughter are easily explained. Are those not the cutest GRANDchildren you ever did see? And the costumes were amazing. And the stories behind it all...especially the reality of life...getting them to wear it after hours of work! Gotta love those precious little ones.
The tears are two fold. Some are shed because I was not there to witness it all first hand as I have been the past few years. The others were because of Andrew's comment about following in his father's footsteps. I see so much of Papa Wade in my sons and making the costume is just a prime example of it. What a gift to my grandchildren and to me to see how much love you all have for your little gifts from God.
I am so thankful, Robin, you found a moment in your busy life to share these memories. I love you all oodles and bunches. Nana
Thanks for inviting us! We had fun. Callie told David that next year for Halloween she wants to be Sydney. When Sydney heard that news, she asked, "does she have a costume of me?" haha, David will probably need Andrew's assistance making that one!
Love the stroller conversation!
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