costumes from mom

This year I made Eloise's costume for Halloween again.  She is dressing up as Laura Ingalls and has been planning it for months.  Every year as Halloween rolls around, I feel like I am paying a little tribute to my own mom.

Every single year my mom created our costumes for us.  We would come up with the ideas together and she would sew different components or the whole damn thing.   She would paint or tape or pin or stretch or manipulate any variety of materials to get just the right look.  She also must have run about 50 errands to find that extra little touch that our costume needed.  My mom is extremely creative and talented.  She is a terrific sewer also.  There were times I remember going to bed (at whatever time The Carol Burnett Show was over) with nothing to wear and waking up the next morning with a complete outfit and accessories newly sewn and hanging from my bedroom door--all sewn in a few hours time.

 Looking back on it now, I realize how special it made me feel to have a homemade costume.   Also, I remember what I was for Halloween just about every year of my childhood:  angel, clown, ladybug, bumblebee, Rubik's cube, valley girl, bag of jelly beans, Dorothy.  I know they may not have been the most unique and most creative costumes of all time but to me they were brilliant and they were just one more reason I was in awe of my mother.  I mean, there were four of us!

As I do the costumes for the girls each year now, I know that the joy of putting them together is not just for the costume wearer.  I know why my mom did it.  It is so much fun.  Whoever thought I would be so in love with 5 trips to Michael's to find the perfect flowers for Mary Poppins' hat?  Why didn't I expect the thrill of piecing together a pirate vest and cutting a little skull and crossbones out of felt?  Who could have anticipated the excessive giggling brought on every time I thought of one of my black DKNY knee-highs stuffed with batting for a tail on the black kitty costume?    When I see the excitement on Eloise's face and I see how much fun she has dressing up in the costumes I made, and I see just how darn appreciative she is, I take a moment and thank my mom.
I get it now.

maggie simpson,  2006

black kitty, 2007

friendly pirate,  2008

mary poppins and bert,  2009

laura ingalls, 2010 

(still working on this one...)

little house

Around January this year Mike thought it would be fun to start reading the Little House on the Prairie series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder to Eloise.  I guess he thought that she would like them because she loves books, loves stories, and loves animals and farms.

 I think every single morning, for the last 2 years or so, she comes in our room while Mike is getting ready for work and asks if he "wants to play farm".  I think every single morning he has said "sure!".  They have a whole little scenario in which he plays the farmer and she is some visiting guest (her characters vary)  that is coming to help with the animals on the farm and do chores.  It is hilarious.  Usually, I am told that I am the farmer's wife and I just sit inside and drink tea all day.  Fine by me.

Well, Mike was right about the books.  She has loved every minute of them.  I think what she especially loved was the fact that is was something special for her and her dad to do.  They made a special trip to the library each time to get the next book and talked about what they thought might happen in the coming chapters.  He has read just about every word in all 8 books of the series, with only a couple chapters to go.  Sure, we have had a few guest readers at bedtime every now and then---Aunt Vicki, Grandpa, even I was allowed to read a couple, but for the most part, all was read by 'Pa'.

We did worry a little that the material would be too mature for her at times.  I mean these are stories about a real family trying to settle land of their own and facing everything from droughts to long winters, sickness, and sadness.  They had to make do with the very little that they had.  I remember one time Mike came down after putting her to bed and reading to her and he looked sick with worry.  I asked him what was wrong and he said the Ingalls had lost their bulldog, Jack, and hadn't been able to find him for two days.  He was so worried that something was going to happen to him, he put Eloise to bed and snuck the book out of her room so he could read ahead to make sure Jack didn't die.  I think he was prepared to rewrite history if needed.  We know how Eloise feels about dogs.

Because I wasn't the one reading to her it made for some interesting interactions where I had no idea what she was talking about at first.  Like the time she asked if I knew where we could get a calf's stomach so we could make some cheese.  Or the time she asked if we had any thimbles so she could write her name with her finger in the frost on the window.  Or the time I was supposed to be  "blind Mary" and  Laura was bringing me some books written in "pail" that I could read with my fingers.

It seems as though the timing of finishing up the series this week is working out perfectly.  You see, this week is Halloween and I'm sure you can guess what Eloise has planned for us.  Our Halloween 2010 has been decided, by Eloise, for about 6 months now.  She will be Laura, of course.  Mike will be Pa and I will be Ma and she even has Harriet in the act as Baby Carrie.  A friend of mine asked her who would dress up as older sister, Mary.  Anticipating this potential kink in the plan, and not wanting to be inauthentic, she answered swiftly and confidently, "She's at blind college."

half-pint

pinkalicious

We had a fun outing yesterday.  I took two very excited girls,  Eloise and her friend Isa, to see the musical Pinkalicious at the Emerald City Theater.  This show is based on the very popular, and much loved in our house, book of the same name.  Its about a girl who eats too many pink cupcakes, turns pink and then has to eat all kinds of healthy green foods to return to the right shade.  You might be wondering how they made an hour long musical out of that and I was dubious as well, but it was darling.  Great songs, funny characters and a nice little sideline plot about Pinkalicious's younger brother loving the color pink but having to hide it because people will make fun of him.  Eloise told me later that it is okay for boys to like the color pink and that people like different things and that doesn't make them weird.  Well done, Emerald City!

If you have kiddies ages 3-12, check out the Emerald City Theater.  They do great productions of some of the classics and some interpretations of popular kids books and they do them in a very age appropriate
way.  This is fantastic for us because Eloise is super sensitive to things that are mildly scary or even suspenseful or loud.  They also make it fun for this age group by inviting the kids to do a great craft beforehand in the lobby for each show.  The kids can go up on the stage before and after the production and look at the props and scenery, and after the show, the actors are in the lobby signing autographs, posing for pictures, and making the kids laugh.

 starting off the day of fun with a little craft at our house

they made pink paper cupcakes

"my colors are blush and bashful..."

being silly at lunch before the show

of course, there must be ice cream

craft in the theater lobby

up on stage before the show

 (I'm not sure why Eloise pretended to be frozen)

with Peter and Pinkalicious after

*

holy harriet

Did you know that I have another child?
Poor little second child.  Always the forgotten one.
We never call her by the right name.  We forget to teach her stuff like "sooo big!".  We don't check on her milestones that were so important with the first one.  We wake her up from precious slumber often because the older one needs to be taken somewhere.  She wears mostly hand me downs and has only a handful of toys and books that are just for her.  She eats all her baby food from jars even though the first child's was all homemade.  She doesn't get bathed nearly enough.   There is no Wiggleworms or Gymboree or special playdates thus far.   We finally got around to getting her baptized, only about 6 months late.

In spite of all this, our Harriet is the happiest, sweetest, friendliest, little girl with the biggest personality around.  She has brought so much joy to this household there is no way she could ever understand how much we love her.

In the blur of all the things that are always going on around here, Harriet managed to teach herself a few tricks.  When the whole family was over this weekend for her Baptism, she put on a show of all her newly acquired material.  It went a little something like this:
Sit up.  Smile and show all 7 of my teeth.  Wait for laughter.  Crawl to something.  Sit up again.  Look cute.  Clap hands.  Hold for applause.  Shake head from side to side.  More applause.  Try and try to stand up. When that doesn't quite work, go back to the clapping and the head shaking.  Big smile.  Wave.  Repeat.
She repeated this sequence, or something very similar, about 30 times.  I could have watched it 30 more.

Time is going by so quickly with Harriet.  All of a sudden she is into everything and all over the house.  I had barely gotten the baby gates back up.  She tries to open the oven and climb onto the dishwasher.  She is the Roomba I have always wanted and cleans up all the food on the floor (and probably some leaves and dust bunnies and, who am I kidding?, a coin or two).  She is like a magnet to any electrical outlet and chews on cords of any kind.  She can't be left alone for 1 second.  Was the first one like this? I blocked it out if she was.

I try and try and try to slow her down, her movement and her growth, both are impossible to do.
 I always think of the line in one of Eloise's books,  Clifford the Small Red Puppy.  When Clifford, the soon to be Big Red Dog, is a puppy and he keeps growing into his future huge self,  Emily Elizabeth says to him, "Clifford, stop growing!  You're perfect just the way you are!"
My sentiments exactly.

sitting

crawling

clapping

being cute

standing

O.M.Glee

I know, I know, enough about Glee already.  Well, I can't help myself.  It is a big part of what consumes us these days.  We have been listening to the soundtracks in the car all summer long and it doesn't seem to be losing its interest anytime soon.  

Eloise has never seen the show but she knows most of the songs and asks a ton of questions about the characters.  She wants to know who sings every song, what the name of the song is, what they are talking about and if it is a "Broadway song" or "just a pop song".  What?

We started watching some of the songs on YouTube and she was completely enthralled.  I also showed her the original songs of some of them if they are showtunes like Patti LuPone doing Rose's Turn and Barbra doing Don't Rain on My Parade.  

She performs the songs all the time, wants the "glee kids" to come to her birthday party, and talks about the cast of this Fox television show as if they are her closest friends.  One day, when she was disappointed that I didn't have their phone numbers to call them to invite them over, I suggested we make some glee puppet type figurines and have them play on a stage and sing songs and stuff.  As you can imagine, she loved the idea, and next thing I knew we were cutting up the cd booklet and pasting heads on popsicle sticks and dancing them around an empty box.  Hours of entertainment.

supplies

rachel, finn, and mercedes

quinn, kurt, and artie (by eloise)

For some reason, she identifies most with Kurt, the homosexual male character.  Not that there's anything wrong with that...

She is crazy about Kurt and Rose's Turn is one of her favorites to sing.  I actually love his version of it as well.  I wanted to share Kurt's, played by Chris Colfer, performance with you and then check out Eloise's version.  She made a "Kurt" sign and hung it in the background and set up a stage comprised of two very wobbly Ikea chairs.  Hope you enjoy, Gleeks!

different perspective

This post was going to be all about my latest rant.  The vision laws.  Just to give you a little background... contact lens prescriptions expire after one year, which basically forces you to have an eye exam every year, whether you need it or not.  My prescription hasn't changed in 3 years.  BUT... No one will dispense contact lenses unless you have a non expired prescription AND you can only buy one year's worth of contact lenses at a time.
No one will let you go around this law.  Believe me, I tried.

As I was preparing to write this post and use a couple zingers like, "Keep your laws off my eyes!" and "If I want to see any better than this I will go to the eye doctor!",  I came across a post on another blog.  It completely changed my perspective, so to speak.

My aunt Terry is working for the Peace Corps in Togo Africa for two years.  She is chronicling her adventures in a blog and it is just fascinating to read.  When I logged on to write my, 'Damn the FTC'  post I was getting caught up with her blog and the first post I read was this one.

Basically she tells how she has been handing out her own personal reading glasses to the people of her village, Tchekpo.  They were so thankful and overjoyed at being able to see things a little better they truly couldn't believe their eyes.  She says they have seen glasses in the village but they are definitely not a part of their lives, as she puts it.
There are many children in the village in school that have trouble seeing and others in the village that are trying to make a difference in the community but are unable to read all the resources.  In Tchekpo there are about 10,000 to 15,000 people and Terry's 12 pairs of reading glasses are going to run out soon.
She is trying to collect glasses to distribute to the people of this village she now calls home.  They will have a plan for matching the used, donated glasses to the needs of the people and hopefully will start to see the benefits as the villagers start to see a little more clearly.

As someone who has worn glasses since I was 8 years old, and as someone who is legally blind without corrective lenses, I know what a difference this can make in someone's life.  Here I was fuming about having too much vision care and a message was sent to me loud and clear to do something to make things better for people that don't have nearly enough vision care.

If you have any glasses that you or someone you know is no longer wearing, please consider donating them to this cause.  I will be collecting glasses over the next couple of weeks and sending them out at the end of the month.  If you are local, you can drop them off at my house, I will have a box on the front porch.  If you are out of town, please email me and I will send you my address or figure out a way to get them.  Please consider asking at your workplace or schools as well.  I will post again from Terry's blog when the glasses are received and hopefully success is achieved.  Thank you!