Curious?

It’s the middle of October, gang. And you know what that means! It’s time to officially announce Elijah’s Halloween costume!

This year, he is going as CURIOUS GEORGE!

I can feel the collective blog world saying, “Least surprising surprise ever.”

Yeah, well. What did you think he was going as, Gandhi? The kid eats, sleeps and poops Curious George. He can be in the middle of having the grandest grand tantrum on the earth and he’ll stop in mid cry to say, “(sniff sniff) Watch Curious George?”

A few weeks ago Diana called me at work and said she needed a huge favor from me. I immediately thought she was going to ask me if she could spend money on new curtains. Because I am a stereotypical dad in a 1950’s TV show.

“Um…do you think you could go to Eli’s Halloween party at school on the 28th?”

“Sure. Why is that a huge favor?”

“I was wondering if you’d dress up as The Man In The Yellow Hat.”

Now, for those of you who don’t know or forgot or lost your sense of childhood working late on advertising stuff, The Man With The Yellow Hat is Curious George’s caretaker. From what I gather from the books and TV show, he doesn’t have much of a job other than rescuing George when he almost kills himself every twenty-two minutes.

So when Di asked me if I’d dress up as the guy who keeps George from getting killed I immediately said yes.

“Well…no other parents will be dressing up.”

See, here is the thing. Roughly two and a half years ago, I decided I was never going to refuse anything to my son based on my ego. If I can make him happy by dancing naked in our living room in full view of our neighbors across the street, great. If I can make him happy by singing the ABC song as loud as I can in Jewel and getting tailed by security, fantastic.

So if I can make him happy by wearing a felt yellow hat and getting laughed at by a bunch of Evanston parents, you bet your butt I’m going to do it.