this is halloween...

so the past few days have been off the charts. last thursday i hosted a "boorito" party...we served yummy shredded chicken booritoes, homemade guacamole (the lady's fave), fresh salsa, and a tres leches cake ghost cake with flaming eyes (no lie). to. die. for. but of course i have no pics. how did that happen? friday and sat we went to some halloween parties/activities.
and honestly, that's where the drama began.

 i've been talking to lady m. about halloween/trick-or-treating and the like, hoping that it would get her super excited and prepare her for the silliness that is that day (or in our case, weekend).
as i mention here, it was a struggle to decide what she was going to be for halloween. we ended up going with m'abraham lincoln. it was going to be perfect.
we got her a stove pipe hat. some feathery trim for the beard (both my sister's doing..she's just so dang creative and resourceful!), a little black blazer & white shirt (both used in last year's costume), a long black skinny tie and black pants (both already in our possession). we made her a little ticket for Ford's Theater and a mini copy of the Gettysburg address.  i mean, freaking crap, people, this was going to be a cheap, easy but super high impact costume design,! i was so excited.
in all of my planning, i forgot that the most important aspect of the costume design was my almost 21 month old. who has very strong opinions about many things.
remember that super cute shirt i made? she won't wear it. i somehow got it on her one day and as soon as she realized it, she started pulling at the shirt, crying, until i took it off. oh yes, she has ideas.
i mean, that should have been my indicator that halloween might not be as successful as i had planned...but it wasn't.
so going into our first halloween party involving costumes, the expectations were high. she was going to be the hit of the party...
hmmm..
can you already see where i'm going with this?
she didn't want to wear any part of the costume. any.  i mean, you'd think i'd never dressed her in pants before...she fought me on any item of clothing i put (or attempted to put) on her.
at the party, i could see the look in people's eyes-trying to figure out who she was supposed to be...
*sigh...
so, i'd like to think that i've learned a little.
last night, i planned for us just to visit a few of our neighbors-even if she was in her jammies, we were going to go.
i started sneaking on a few elements of the costume...and was somewhat successful. except for the pants and the hat.
so she truly was a mixture of honest abe...and the lady...

 you can't see really any of the details of the intended part of the costume but it's alright. she looks happy in that picture-well, if you can't tell she's holding in her right hand, her hat-she was happy when she was pushing the hat away from her head.

here's a pic of us trying one last time before heading out to put the hat on.
can't you tell how successful we were?

ahhh...i love this picture. in so many ways, it represents who m is right now. independent. confident. stylish. isn't she perfect? *swwooooonnnn. (i promise, we're not abusive parents. we've never even so much as threatened to spank her)

things i've learned:
1. wow. halloween. who would have thought that dressing up a little kid would be so challenging?
2. expectations are tricky things. i'm slowly learning how to adjust my expectations for certain things (i mean, in the grand scheme of things, wearing or not wearing a halloween costume doesn't even rank-i don't know why over the weekend it was so important to me. ridiculous!). i'm learning though. i want to have high expectations for the things that really matter but be able to give on the little things.
3. freaking crap, m, i never knew how hard and awesome this was going to be....