by Karen Buckner

Created on: October 12, 2009

The "Firsts" are the best aren't they?

First kiss, first love, first time you torture your child by dressing them up in some ridiculous outfit that you think is adorable and that he will think is cruel and unusual punishment when I drag out the pictures from his first Halloween the very first time he brings a girlfriend home.

Yes, the "firsts" are all moments to savor but the first Halloween of your child's life has to be one of the very best memories for. I spent a lot of time and dedication searching for my son's first Halloween costume. With so many selections, narrowing it down to the perfect costume was a huge challenge and I took the responsibility very seriously.

Now, many parents tend to lean toward the cutest outfit they can find and while a pea pod or caterpillar is certainly adorable, I wanted to make sure that my son could easily be identified as a boy so that I didn't have to hear "She is so cute!" all night and also something that couldn't also pass for my dog's Halloween costume. There is a fine line between pet costume and infant costume, they could really go either way.

After narrowing it down to three selections I finally went with baby pirate. There was something so funny to me about dressing him up as a swash buckler that I couldn't resist. Babies looking like grown ups always amuses me, like when you see a baby in a business suit wearing sunglasses...that stuff cracks me up!

There are a few elements to being a pirate and I wanted to make sure he looked authentic. He had the costume, the hat, I also had the brilliant idea to put a patch over his eye which he clawed at the entire evening and to top if off, I drew a mustache and patch of pointy beard on his chin that would have made even Captain Jack Sparrow himself proud.

So off we went to the local zoo Spooktacular. The event was setup to take you by the animals on your stroll. It was a winding path we walked in the blazing heat (we live in Florida) and half way through the trail I realized the decision to leave the stroller in the car was another bad idea on top of the evenings growing list of bad ideas. The black eyeliner on my infant child's face in 90 degree weather... not so smart either.

By the end of the Haunted trail I was dripping with sweat, covered in eyeliner and completely exhausted. My back felt like the person behind me had been walking on top of me the entire trip. And while my son seemed content the reality set in that he wouldn't be able to enjoy any of the candy nor would he ever remember the experience. Feeling defeated and morose, I headed back to the parking lot.

As I piled my little pirate into his car seat to take the drive back home, my hair wet and falling out of it's pony tail, my face covered in black eyeliner and my breath smelling of the mini snicker I stole from his candy filled bag, I looked at him and that cute little messy faced pirate looked back at me a smiled the biggest smile I had ever seen from him. I snapped a picture of him while he was still smiling.

In that moment, it had all been worth it.

Learn more about this author, Karen Buckner.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.