Halloween

I'm catching up on my blogging today, so here at last is the Halloween report.  Halloween was an annoying holiday this year.  I waited till the last minute to make Henry's costume to avoid heartache, but I was unsuccessful.  I went to the store and bought the fabric to make the Superman costume on the day of Halloween ("are you sure you want to be Superman?" "yes!"), cut out the cape, and then... tantrum.  I want to be Superman, but I just want to wear the cape.  No, I don't want to wear any costume, I just want to get the candy.  Well, I'm just going to be a pirate.  
So here's Henry, dressed like a pirate, which is pretty much how he dresses every day.  He really resists doing whatever people seem to want him to do, and the more you want it, the more he resists it.  This means that on occasions where grown-ups have a lot of stake in a certain fantasia of childlike wonder coming to life, he's bound to throw a large wrench into the whole apparatus.  I have learned this, but I still get disappointed.  I know it's basically a good thing that he is so ready to question received opinion ("dressing up is fun!") and critique established conventions ("why do I have to dress up?")-- I'm an academic, after all!  But when you are a parent, you have to do all the hard stuff anyway, so it's nice to be able to do a little glamour-parenting once in a while-- holding hands with your little Superman in his homemade costume, walking down a sidewalk littered with fall leaves, waving to the neighbors and hearing his cheery voice, "trick or treat!"  Henry gives us lots of wonderful moments as parents, but they're not the Hallmark-card ones.