bless his little happy halloween heart

This will be the fourth Halloween that Harrison will have participated in, and the child is just as clueless about the whole process this year as he when he was ten months old and learning to crawl in that adorable bear costume.  Somehow during story time tonight, the conversation turned into what he should dress up as for Halloween this year.  I reminded him earlier that he had been a cow last year and Annie had been a ladybug.  So, he naturally said that was what he would be again.  Then, I had to explain how he could choose to dress as anything that he wanted, within reason.  As an example, I said he could be a different animal than he was last year or he could be a character off a show or movie.  He seemed confused by this, so I gave the Fresh Beat Band as an example that he could dress up as one of the band members and this idea took off like a rocket ship.  He loved it!!  The problem I foresee with this costume is that (a) unless you are a preschooler or a parent of a preschool who watches too much tv, you won't know who he is, and (b) you have to find 3 other bandmates, which would likely be mommy, daddy, and annie.  So, I then tried to get he and Annie to be the minions for Jamie, as Gru, and me, and Vector, from Despicable me, but now he's stuck on Fresh Beat.  That poor child takes after me in the sense that he lacks any creative bone in his body.  Anyway, for those of you lucky enough to be unfamiliar with this cast of characters, the Fresh Beat Band is a show about four high school band members; one wears yellow, one pink, one blue, and one orange.  Harrison immediately knew that he wanted to be Shout, one of the male members, and that he wanted me one of the girl members (not Marina, who would naturally be played by Annie with her red hair).  So, I asked him which male member would daddy be.  He didn't know the other name so I asked him whether Daddy would be the black one or white one?   He thought for a second and then said, I don't think the shirts are white or black but maybe yellow and blue.  I can't articulate why I loved his answer but it really struck a chord with me in that it seems that race has not yet really entered into his consciousness yet.  Maybe he had never heard anyone being described by their race before, but he really seemed to have been thoroughly confused by the idea of one guy being black and one white.  Anyway, I'm probably reading more into than what was there but it was a nice realization that at least for these first several years, he more identifies people by the color of their shirt then by the color of their skin.  What a wonderful thought!