Saturday, October 28, 2006

Monkey Business - Halloween 1998, 1999 & 2000

As I mentioned in my post about Sam's first Halloween, his dad and I separated in September of 1998 when Sam was 14 months old, a couple of months before his second Halloween (this one).

I was upset, depressed and had too much time on my hands. I decided that a good way to occupy myself, be constructive and feel better would be to make a Halloween costume for Sam. My sewing ability, however, is next to none.

Luckily, my friend, Melanie, an apparel design major in college, agreed to help me. One day, we went to the fabric store together and I picked out the pattern for this monkey costume. She helped me get the right amounts of the material I would need. Another Saturday, Sam & I went to her family's house outside of Rowan, Iowa. There, Mel & I spent all day putting the costume together. I couldn't have been happier with the results.

Sam, however, had mixed reactions. As you see in these pictures, he sometimes was quite happy in the costume but on Halloween night, he was tired and cranky or hot or something. Whatever it was, he didn't like having the costume on at all. I spent about eight hours making it that day and he spent about 30 minutes wearing it that night.

The next year, (1999) the costume still fit and Sam didn't mind wearing it so Sam was a monkey again. It looks like his dad took him trick-or-treating without me that year. I'm sure we also trick-or-treated around my folk's neighborhood but I can't find any pictures.

The following year (2000), Sam and I had moved to St. Louis in early September. The company that recruited me and relocated us had put us up in temporary housing for our first month. We must have had our own place by early October but I don't remember what we did that Halloween.

I'm sure they had a party and we celebrated at daycare. I do have this picture of Sam in a mask he made at the Downtown Children's Center shortly after we arrived. Maybe we decided to be low-key that year. He looks as happy in this mask as he did in the monkey suit.

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