Like Daedalus and Icarus (almost)

Driving home yesterday, E wanted to discuss her Halloween costumes. This year she is going as the Tooth Fairy. Her idea - obviously - because it's so out-of-the-mainstream, especially for a kid who won't lose her first tooth for a couple more years, and I do love to indulge her unusual whims. She can be, without question, an out-of-the-box thinker, and I see it as a privilege of parenting her to help her pursue her trains of thought to their remotest wilderness termini. So, I found her a tooth and toothbrush shirt. I got her teeth barrettes for her hair. She's going to wear a brightly colored tutu and wild tights and butterfly wings out of her dress-up box and I got this little tooth pillow to affix to one of the flower wands that also live in her dress-up box. I just want to find one of those gossamer bags with the ribbon drawstring that make you think of 1980s weddings and Jordan almonds (yum). I'd like to hang it from her waist - for collecting all the teeth, of course. E loves the costume I put together for her and is very, very excited for Halloween. I have to say, I've been feeling pretty proud of this assemblage, and of course for raising such a free spirit.

Except, you know:

Pride goeth before a fall

(and all that.)

So driving home yesterday, E wanted to discuss her Halloween costumes. As in: she is outlining A Grand Plan. Mama: are you listening? This year I'm going to be the Tooth Fairy and next year I'm going to be a regular fairy and then I'm going to be a princess and then I'm going to be a ballerina and then I'm going to be an acrobat and then I'm going to be a police lady and then I'm going to be a superhero and then I'm going to be a monster! Rawrrr!! And then I'm going to be a dinosaur and then I'm going to be a butterfly and then I'm going to be a robot and then I'm going to be a....Mama, what else is there to be?

"Well, love, you can be anything. You don't need to be a kind of person or a kind of animal. You can be anything you want."

Anything?

"Sure. One year when I was a kid I was a tube of toothpaste."

[True story. My dad had an off-white winter hat whose ribbed knit reminded me of a toothpaste cap. So my mom helped me copy the Crest logo onto an old pillowcase and voila! I was toothpaste. Kids these days and their whole Halloween pop-up stores filled with costumes probably made in China...I tell you...]

Toothpaste!! That's so silly!! I can be anything? I can be anything!! Okay, Mama. So next year I don't want to be a regular fairy. I want to be...a ceiling!!

I gave a vague response and changed the subject. She brought it up again while we were driving home tonight. Mama, next year I'm going to be a ceiling for Halloween!

I verified: "a ceiling?" Yes!

I double-checked: "a ceiling? Like the top of a room?"

I had dared to infer that she might not know the word. I awoke her wrath. Yes! A ceiling! I know what a ceiling is! I want to be able to look down on everybody! That's my next-year costume!

She will remember coming up with this idea, because the child does not forget anything. This is clearly my fault. I should have said "you can be anything you want that can be represented vertically." Lesson learned.

So you and me, we have about 12.5 months to figure out:

how am I satisfactorily going to make her a ceiling costume?