Terrified to Tears

Today we went shopping for Austin's costume.  I always take him to the Halloween Spirit store and things usually go quite well ... not today!  OMG!!!

We walked into the store and there was a huge display in front of us (we usually go to the store in the west end of the city, today we shopped for shoes, so we went to the store close by in the east end) and Austin said he did not want to go near it.  That is not unusual, so I guided him away from the display by holding his hand, he let go and held onto the back of my sweater.  I thought, okay, no problem, there are a lot of people and this store is really lit up so you can see all the detail on the decorations and the other one is the complete opposite!  Anyway, Austin decided he wanted to be a vampire instead of a mummy.  Do you think we could find one vampire costume?  NOPE!  What did Austin set his heart on?  A hot dog costume.  Now, I did try over and over to talk him out of it and then some saleswomen came up and said it was "Totally Cool"!  Uhhhh, not for a boy who kids call "Wiener Boy"!  :(  He really wanted it so I thought, I can always get him something else but I was apprehensive ...

We got Kaleigh's costume and headed for the cashier.  Uhhhh, we tried to head towards the cashier.  Austin is terrified of spiders ... real or fake it does not matter and they were everywhere in this store on the displays.  I weaved my way around three different aisles until I thought it was safe (Austin is still holding on to my sweater this whole time) ... WRONG ONE!  We came around the corner and a two foot tarantula jumped out at Austin ... the shriek that came out of him ... he was TERRIFIED!!! Tears streamed down his face ... I cuddled him close to me and told him it was okay we were leaving.  I told him to close his eyes and it would be okay.  We get to the cash and there are huge spiders everywhere until we get to the farthest cash (there were no spiders at that one).  These spiders all had red lights for eyes and were about a foot long with cobwebs everywhere.  Austin was crying his heart out.  I explained to the girl that he is really frightened of spiders (now more than ever I learned).  I did not know if I should just leave the costumes and go or what.  I paid the girl as the other cashier unplugged the glowing spiders ... trying her hardest to calm Austin ... we all were.  Paid, and thank you ... out the door we went.  I hugged Austin and told him it was okay ... we are NEVER going back to that store ... promise!  Poor guy!  I felt so badly but I really had no idea he would react like that ... I know he does not like the decoration aisle in the store but this was very unusual for Austin, at this age anyway. :(

We got the costume home, Daddy had concerns about the costume too.  I talked to Austin and said it may be better as a dress up costume for home.  He said that would be okay and we went to another store, Canadian Tire, (this one is not cluttered with decorations or anything) and picked out a vampire costume and he was calm and happy.  I did not take him to the dollar store with Kaleigh and I after though because he gets upset at the amount of decorations there, so he stayed home with Daddy while we went.

It all turned out okay at the end of the day and Austin is very excited to be a vampire this Halloween, he even picked out make-up and black hair spray at the pharmacy.  I am so sorry that he experienced what he did today ... I really did not see it coming and it really had an impact.  His Daddy and I are going to see if there is something we can do to help him with this fear of spiders.  We do not want to see him like that ever again!

All the best!  *HUGS*