the necessary lie

When is it ok to lie to your children? Well, I did. I am. I will continue to do it. At least until after Halloween.

Because you see my friends, Justin wants to be a "bad guy" for Halloween. He has a small obsession with a costume magazine that arrived in the mail last week. He's been carrying the dang magazine around with him for several days now. He asks if he can take it to Ellan's every single morning. He has slept with it twice. It's the first thing he asks for each morning. We had a mini catastrophe when Leo ripped off the cover tonight but thankfully the bad guy pages were preserved and Justin was in a forgiving mood.

So he wants to be all sorts of different monsters and characters. The past day or so it has been Wolverine...or as he sometimes calls him "the guy on my toothbrush." Before that it was a Power Ranger and before that I think it was some other scary looking superhero guy. And I'm just not ready for it yet. I know I will have to get used to it. With 2 boys I am bound to end up with some horrible/violent character at least a few times in the next 10 years. Ten years right? It doesn't go on much after that does it? The wanting to dress up like bad guys? Maybe 12 years.

I think that most of the time I am really good at letting the boys make their own decisions as much as a 1 and 3 year old can make decisions. But not this time. I've got a good plan for Halloween this year. Batman and Robin. They are perfect for it. Tall, thin, dark haired Justin with short, stocky, blond haired Leo. They are meant to be Batman and Robin. I refuse to give up on it for this year.

So, I lied. Kind of. I told him the Wolverine costume doesn't come in his size, which is doesn't but it's not as if I couldn't have tried to find one in his size. I told him that he has to be FOUR to wear that and alas the young lad is only three. He took the news pretty well. He's hyped up for his fourth birthday. I might just have to get him the Wolverine costume for his birthday next year!

I have promised myself that they can be anything they want to be next year for Halloween. Well except for anything gory. Or with guns. Or violent. Or aliens.