Where the Wild Things Are

Please note the distance between Thing One's ankles and the bottom of the costume.

Children in the United Kingdom celebrated World Book Day last week, and Thing One and Thing Two did so in style.

Thing One went as Max from "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak because that was the book his class was reading that week. But Thing One was not just any old Max, oh no. His Max costume was 37 years old-- first worn by his Uncle Mike in Kindergarten, lovingingly made by MarathonMum's Mom (Thing One's grandma).

Luckily for him, Thing One is a very tall and skinny eight-year-old, so he was Just Able (see above) to fit into a costume made for a five-year-old originally. Thing One/Max was so excited about World Book Day that he awoke an hour early, got dressed immediately and then came downstairs to wake me up. "Why are you already dressed?" I asked him. "Because I didn't want to waste any time getting to school!" That's got to be a first.

The Max costume is a serious part of MarathonMum's family history; MarathonMumMum spent a long time laboring over it, and years later the love and handiwork that went into it is evident. Following Uncle Mike's legendary performance as Max-- he brought the house down at Rockaway Valley School-- the costume went on to have several incarnations, including, if memory serves, as a muskrat when MarathonMum performed "Muskrat Love" by Captain and Tenille at a talent show when she was eight or so.

So Max lives on. The original Max, Uncle Mike, wanted to know if this Max could "Stare into their yellow eyes without blinking once," and I believe he could. Just as so long as the Wild Thing wasn't his brother, Thing Two, who knows all of this Max's weaknesses and truly is a Wild Thing.

Thing Two dressed as a Spider, because his class was singing, "The Incy Wincy Spider" in assembly.