Flashback Friday - Problem Solving

Now that Halloween is on the horizon, and especially now that cooler weather is here, I can't help but think back to the Halloweens we've shared with our precious children.  It has always been one of my favorite holidays...I'm not exactly sure why (and it's *especially* perplexing when people find out I was raised and still am Southern Baptist!).  For whatever reason though, I just love it.

Ben loves it too.  He starts thinking about Halloween as soon as Halloween is over...which is to say that he never stops.  Last Halloween he was Spiderman, and he wore that costume almost day and night for the entire month of October.  We're lucky it was still intact by the time October 31st rolled around.  We should have learned from the previous Halloween because he did the same thing with his Ninja Turtle costume.

The Ninja Turtle costume was awesome.  It had muscles, a shell, a mask, and the associated red belt, for which Sam crafted twin sai out of aluminum foil and electrical tape.  It couldn't be beat.  Ben agreed...and wore it 24/7.  A week after we bought it, three weeks prior to Halloween, it had syrup on the muscles, and some type of red drink had stained the yellow underbelly.  It suffered some "structural" damage too...as the seams were barely holding due to Ben constantly practicing various rigorous ninja moves while wearing it (and occasionally tackling his baby sister).

So...in an effort to preserve the costume at the very least through Halloween night, Mean Mom and Mean Dad confiscated it and put it out of reach in our closet.

After several days of searching the house up and down, Ben found it.  (It might not have taken any other 4 year old quite so long to locate the barely hidden costume, but Ben is particularly skilled at not being able to find things.)  He came out of the closet and pronounced that he knew where it was.  "Great," I replied.

About 10 minutes later, during one of my head counts, I realized Ben was unaccounted for.  Of *course* he was in the closet...trying to get the costume down.

The plan was brilliant, perhaps just not executed well.  He carried his stool (from Grammie which has been the source of countless injuries, but is also unfailingly useful) in there, and proceeded to stack the bathroom rugs and towels on it to make it taller.  That way, even if he fell, the rugs and towels would probably fall with him and provide some type of cushion.  There was just one problem.

He unfolded the towels first.

Needless to say, he wasn't tall enough to retrieve the costume.

Mean Mom and Mean Dad prevailed, and the costume lived to see Halloween night...and beyond.  That said, I couldn't help but be somewhat impressed by Ben's problem solving skills.  Somewhat being the operative word there.  Oh Ben.  Gotta love him.