Tomorrow is Halloween, and things are not going so well.

As hinted, this year, I decided to make Joe a Halloween costume from scratch. (In past years, I did not. Did I mention that my firm has a Nov. 1 to Oct. 31 billable year? I am usually too busy to make it to the pumpkin patch.)

Joe loves sharks. His shark PJs are his favorite. So I figured I'd make Joe a shark costume.

Steve suggested that I attach some remora fish to the belly of the shark. You know, those fish that use their sucker-heads to grab onto a shark and travel around with them, eating their leftovers? They're awesome.

Good idea, Steve!

I procrastinated a little, partly because I don't have a pattern, and I was trying to work out how to cut this out in my head ...

So yeah, I started last night, making the tunic first, because that was easy and didn't require much brain power. I traced the general shape of one of Joe's hoodies to get the armhole and neckline right. The back of the tunic has a simple little slit to get the tunic over his big head (also, I sewed a cute stuffed dorsal fin onto the back).

Then I slept on it. The hardest part was working out how to cut out the hood and its curved pieces. Initially, I found this pretty intimidating.

But this morning I realized I could just cut some generously sized pieces in something grossly approximating the right shape, and I got to work on the hood. There were some adjustments, but basically, my guesses were pretty darn close! *Pats self on back.* Anyway, it turns out that in this case, pure trial and error can work instead of careful pattern drafting.

It turned out awesome, people. I mean, I'm just super stoked with how it looks. At this point, I was thinking to myself, "Why didn't I make a hammerhead shark costume! That would have been even cooler!"

This shark has blue eyes just like my little boy.

There is an inner hood (traced from Joe's hoodie) and then I stuffed the space between the inner hood and the outer hood to give the shark some poof.

Check out those gray corduroy remora fish! Steve, you are so clever! (You too, Inder. More back patting. I cannot even stand how clever I am!)

Parasites. Yum.

Joe! Let's try it on!!

He was okay with just the tunic component. He immediately started ripping fish off his belly - always fun.

At this point, he was distracted by fish.

But after I tried to introduce the hood, things went downhill. I should have known.

Uh, no thank you, Mama. (Mama says, ahem, see that dorsal fin in the back?)

Uh, did I say no? Heck no. Take it off, please!

Off! Off! (I don't care if my uncle kisses me and tells me I look great!)

I am reassessing my belief that my parents really love me.

It kind of reminds me of trying to put a "Gentle Leader" harness on my pit bull. Except I feel more of an obligation to respect my child's comfort levels than my dog's (and, for that matter, I'm pretty respectful of my dog's comfort levels).

Sigh.

Excuse me: I'm just going to go lie down and cry now. Won't take a minute.

So. Not sure how we're going to manage to trick-or-treat tomorrow. Wish me luck.