When Halloween Costumes Aren't So Cute Anymore...

We bought Gavin's Halloween costume last week. It's a dragon and he absolutely loves it! Originally, he was telling me he wanted to be Superman, which was really confusing me because I don't even think he knows who Superman is! Plus, I had looked all over and was having a really hard time finding a Superman costume in his size (and I really didn't want to make it, being as uncrafty as I am!), so you can imagine my relief when we found this dragon costume at Old Navy, and he fell in love with it. And fortunately, I haven't heard anything about Superman since!

Well, this morning (just like many other days since we bought the costume), Gavin saw it hanging up in his closet and wanted to wear it. So we put it on him and he was running around the house roaring like a dragon. This was the first time Ty had ever seen Gavin in his costume and he was laughing pretty hard at him, so I assumed everything was okay and I went to make Gavin's bed. Well, the next thing I know, I hear Ty screaming bloody murder from his room, so I ran in to see what was going on. The moment I walked into the room, Gavin - being the brutally honest toddler he has become - quickly blurted out, "I bit him!" I was furious, especially because Ty was still screaming hysterically, looking at his brother with complete fear. So instead of giving Gavin a spanking followed by a 1/2 hour timeout (which I probably would have done based on how mad I was!), I decided I needed to pick up Ty and comfort him first, and just try to talk to Gavin about the situation the best I could while taking care of Ty. So the first question I asked him was, "Why did you bite your little brother? You hurt him!" You can imagine my reaction when Gavin said, "Cuz I'm a dragon, Mommy! Dragons bite with mouth!" I was shocked because the most he has ever seen of dragons has been on Dragon Tales, and trust me, those dragons do not bite! If anything, they cry and give hugs and act like anything but dragons! I guess I read Puff the Magic Dragon to him once too, but once again, he's a nice dragon! So, I decided it was time to sit down and talk about pretend, and how we can pretend to be a dragon, but we can't actually do what the dragons do. I honestly have no clue if he understood what I said, but I'm hoping and praying that he did for Ty's sake! (And just a side note, Ty really didn't get any wounds from all this, I think it just terrified him.)

Up until this point, I really thought Gavin's dragon costume was a great idea just for the fact that he loved it and actually wanted to wear it, unlike his past Halloween costumes. But today, I'm thinking that the Superman one would have been a much better choice, even if I had to make it! :) Until next time! -Ash

**I'm sticking some more pictures down here. After all of this happened - Gavin was disciplined and Ty's tears were wiped away - we decided to put on Ty's costume too and take some pictures! (Sorry you will see the costumes again on our Halloween post, they were just too cute to not put on here!)