I like having a kid at Halloween time because it means I can enjoy somebody being cute and in costume and it doesn't have to be me. I never much liked Halloween as I got older, mostly because while I wanted to be someone who was clever and handy at coming up with her own costumes, they were all failures. My parents have a picture of me at home dressed up as a "punk" as a kid, and the costume consisted of a paper jacket (it was supposed to be used for all your friends to autograph) with some of my mom's old pins stuck to it and my hair sprayed green (but since my hair is dark you couldn't even tell.) Once, at a wedding-themed Halloween party, I tried to go as a drunk bridesmaid but without my empty champagne bottle and busted-up bouquet (don't ever do a costume that involves more than one prop), I just looked like I was wearing a nice Vera Wang dress. And once, I tried to go as "pretension" to a conceptual Halloween party, and basically I just looked the way I normally do in the wintertime (IE wearing a black turtleneck.) Paul, on the other hand, is a turtle. A plain old turtle. Pretty simple.

See if you can pinpoint here where I started to take over when it came to choosing/making my own Halloween costumes and where it become evident that I should not be in charge when it comes to creativity, costumery and makeup.