<p>yayayay smarty and three posts in row!! life is back to normal.
I say you are fine till mistaken as the kid’s grandma in the playground.
(it is still OK in NYC and you were in it, yes? means you are golden)</p>
<p>smarty…Geriatric pregnancy…your ob surely told you that when his scaple was safely put away. Still, the 4 year old with the bad back is very telling…how cute! </p>
<p>…but our OB who is a cousin of H did point out that he was starting on grandkids while H was just beginning the whole fatherhood routine. H always worries that he will be confused as the abuelo. </p>
<p>Smarty is right about the maturity thing and appreciation. I get more consistent appreciation from S expecially since he started college. However, even D thanks me for extraordinary stuff while taking the daily sacrifices a bit for granted. I enjoyed the “senior night” Field Hockey game where the seniors are introduced by the announcer and are accompanied on the field by their parents and siblings. The announcer reads a little thing written by each girl…they invariably thank their coaches and parents for support. One girl thanked her mom for “buying, every year, the entire picture package with the team picture, individual player pictures, and the really embarrassing player-picture button.” I had seen this mom who proudly, every game, wears the button with her daughter’s photo on it. All of the other moms were envious, not of the button, but the fact that her daughter did not die of mortification and forbid her to wear it. So all along it turns out her D was suffering embarrassment but tolerated it nonetheless because it made her mom happy. I told my D…that, is “Priceless”.</p>
<p>@ Bears “I say you are fine till mistaken as the kid’s grandma in the playground.”
That happeend to me when my D was about 10 or so. I was picking her up at the playground where the day camp dropped the kids off and we always got an ice cream after from the ice cream truck that came there everyday. One of D’s friend’s said to her “Do you think your Gramma would get me an ice cream too?”.</p>
<p>redbug
no worry since
- you had two only child(s)
- it was the kid called you grandma, not fellow moms.
- were you in Maine or Florida?
if Maine it is sort of like NY, and OK
if Florida it is sort of like Disneyworld or the land of OZ, and OK.</p>
<p>I got our lovey back. I can not believe how much of the relief it was.
I look at him (the doll) and he says want to go to college.
I write to my kid that Babo (the lovey) is back and will be on his way and if he wants any of the costume I saved for Halloween?
came reply
“I wanna be this”
-attached images- it is this very minor character of Star Wars.
" tell me you are kidding? or I will be dancing with joy and make you dorki-est costume ever " (I have not been asked to make his costume since 8th grade’s Elmo. I thought my career was over…)
reply
“YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! IT’S ALL THE TRUTH! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”</p>
<p>It really is nothing to it, no big deal.
the thing about home made costume is, you can pick any minor figure that no one knows or cares, dorky-er the better. You can have store bought neat Jedi or Darth Vader but chances are you will see your double, triple at the parade or parties.
I dug around and found old old cheesecloth with built in plaster, old Taekwondo headgear I was going to donate, and start draping.
Craft foam bits, found in dumpster essaform tubes, scrap fabric for hot grue “ground”
Only thing I had to buy was small rubber ball for the eyes, few bucks from clearance sale.
I got just about right colored long sleeve T-shirts and scrap padding etc for the top.<br>
It was around the midnight mask is dry, body and trims are done.
why not, just finish it up, yes?
so dig out acrylic paints from his MICA trip leftover (life time supply of 5oz tubes, reduced in half after moving/giveaway fest) and started to paint.
It was 3AM and done. did not stop, sit down, go pee nor had snack. totally zoned out.
haven’t done this for long long time.
oh gosh it feels so great.
OMG I am an artist (well, sorta)
my brush could dance. I can still do this.
I love it, I could still do it.
thank you art fairy. thank you world.</p>
<p>now I have to clean up the mess and go to bed (gotta do day job) but too excited to sleep!
tomorrow, seal the paint and let it dry and pack. Babo and the costume, so my kid would be a laughing stock (or source of envy!!!) of the community.
happy Halloween</p>
<p>Jumping up and down (tigger bounces, really) and waving hands wildly at Bears!!</p>
<p>Dontcha know that I loved loved loved making homemade halloween costumes for my girls when they were younger and did such things?? Last one I made was when D1 was (M)alice in Wonderland when she was a freshman in HS. My MOST famous one, besides the queen in sleeping beauty (Malificent?) was a porcupine for Aspie girl when she was about three or four years old. I hotglued foam spikes all over the homemade costume… after painstakingly cutting out each four or five inch long curved spike of foam. I will have to dig out a photo and scan it. It was a really cool costume. One year Aspie girl was a Nazgul from Lord of the Rings. Manga girl always leaned toward the princess thing. Last Christmas I bought her (store bought…gack) a ‘Bleach’ shihakusho or whatever… but it was ordered from the internet. I don’t have much time for sewing. After the kids came along I made a few toddler clothes but mostly I sewed for fun… Halloween costumes, Christmas pageant costumes… and …drum roll… American Girl Doll clothes. My nieces scored big time with beautiful AmGirl doll clothes cut from vintage fabric from old clothes at the thrift shop. My own girls got Am Girl doll clothes too, but not as beautifully elaborate as the ones I made for my older nieces… the heart was willing but the time was not there…</p>
<p>So I can just imagine how thrilled you were when baby bears wanted a halloween costume! I know I would be too! That last one I made for D1 – it was the year we had the exchange student here – I remember I stayed up ALL night making it. </p>
<p>I used to love halloween…</p>
<p>Off to buy a car… ugh…</p>
<p>Me three on the costumes.
I became quite adept at getting silvery stuff from Rosebud or was it RoseBrand (Bears will know) and fabricating faux metal gear based on drawings the manga loving kid made. My favorite was the one with the flames shooting out the side, quilting with Grandma came in handy on that one!
And speaking of Grandmas actually in NYC was never mistaken for one but the first trip out to suburban West yes, the assumption was that I was the grandma and on my part the assumption was that the teenager-looking young girls with the children were the baby-sitters or older sisters when in fact they were the mothers. Living in different worlds…</p>
<p>Ah Bear, your joy shines through! I hope the cub appreciates all of your time, energy and love. But, I know even if he does not appreciate it now, he will as he gets older! I loved making those costumes too. I wonder if somehow our kids felt free to pursue their art because so many of us were so appreciative of the creativity? Enjoy your high!</p>
<p>phillymom
high, is the word! the word!!
to seal anything acrylic, can’t beat is the Krylon crystal clear acrylic coating spray can.
fast drying non sticky, non foggy cloudy, less melt-y foam parts.
and smells faawww…bbulllooooous… hummmm mmmmm mmmm
^is the reason it is locked up in the cabinet at the NY area store so no minor could buy it unless, I don’t know, with written permission?
it won’t stop kids from getting hands dirty (thus I have leftover)
now my place smell like shop/paint booth. shoulda done it in the fire escape.</p>
<p>Bears…YOU MUST post a picture or at least a link to a picture of the minor character. All these kids put up their portfolios and you have me trying to imagine the work of art that you created. </p>
<p>I would be jealous that your S asked for a costume but it would be impossible for me to do such a thing. I know you are thrilled that he asked and that feeling needed and appreciated is the best gift a S can give…indicates a real appreciation of what you can create!! </p>
<p>I did not make costumes but my mother loved, loved doing this for my kids and then for my nieces/nephew (her creativity hit its zenith with home-made toy-story outfits! and the incredibles!–generally she does not buy patterns) and she is hard at work this week on an elaborate knight costume for a little boy that she babysits. </p>
<p>I have saved all of the costumes my mother made for kids because my grandchildren will have to live with hand-me-downs. the first for my S was a zebra with detachable tail so outfit could be used as pyjama in the off-season. My S one year did actually wear the batman outfit made by my mom in 1965 for my brother (long before you could buy them)…that was our first halloween when my dad came to do a post-doc in Buffalo. All the other grad-students’ wives commissioned her to do outfits for their kids the next year. She made a small amount of money working September-October. </p>
<p>She is a genius with the sewing machine and the more elaborate the project the better. Quite a few princess and witch outfits (my daughter is a true traditionalist). One year when D still barely spoke english and had, to my knowledge, never been to a US sporting event and we didn’t even have TV she asked to be a “cheater-leetter” (cheerleader). My mother responded with an adorable outfit that was worn for weeks with many washings at night to be ready for the next daycare day. I was such a tomboy my mother never had the chance to do dressy-dressup for me but D gave her ample opportunity to work with gauze and taffeta…</p>
<p>This weekend D and I went to Pittsburgh to see S very briefly because D had a hockey game (they won district!) on Friday and a soccer game very early on Saturday. After showers and packing and then stopping on the way to take pictures for D’s photo project we didn’t get to CMU until 5 pm on Saturday. S needed socks and sweaters (they had all disappeared he said and art supplies (stuffing, glue, etc) from craft store. So we went to this massive strip mall area that was built where the old steel mills were rusting in my time…they call that “urban renewal”…it was nice to have the big box stores that are open in the evening but it must have killed the downtown stores. The smokestacks are still there as some type of urban art/reminder of the steel past, but they looked a bit sad surrounded by Target and Best Buy.
We went to very hip organicky taco place on artsy south side–great food. Then S offered to take D to do some homework/art in the studio so I left them to do print making and D also managed to do some work. Then they texted me at 11pm they were going to party and could D stay in S’s suite?–roomate out of town. Perfect. I had gone to visit an old friend so we were all happy. Next day…brunch out, walk in the park, more photos by D, beautiful day. Return home but I almost fell asleep driving so had to drink double expresso and two dr. peppers and was wired by the time we made it to DC. Good to see S who told me repeatedly how glad he was we came, how good it was to spend time with his sister, how now he has socks! and how he appreciated the homemade soups and colada morada and bread dough all ready in freezer for Nov. 2–day of the dead.</p>
<p>Might I just add Glutenmom that you always cheer me up and make me smile when you sign in with these sorts of openings:
“Jumping up and down (tigger bounces, really) and waving hands wildly at Bears!!”</p>
<p>smarty don’t forget, you are the “wise” old Owl in the hundred acre wood. hoohooo</p>
<p>heheheh nope, no photo. I mean, do I have to wear it while if I were to take photo? we got child’s dress mannequin only. besides, it is a secret! his identity (cough cough) should kept in dark.
which nineteen year old would want to be whatever-it-is-creature who is only comes in a minute stint let alone being mommy-made dorky costume out of found objects?
I could have been neater, but stitched ever so roughly with un-matching thread (why would you change bottom thread if no one would see it with sober eyes?), hot glue (not g"r"ue) dripped sprat.</p>
<p>speaking of “found objects” do you know that what seems “easy” find is the hardest search in your actual life?
It required pair of “green” vinyl/rubber gloves (ooohhh hint! hint!!) those ones for doing dishes or toilet.
I scoured every stores around and almost everywhere I went carried yellow: duck yellow, sunflower yellow, primrose yellow. occasional purple or pink, red and orange in Chinatown.
I have not thought about gloves when I was looking for eyeball the other day, and was desperate by last night. If I can not finish and send out soon, it won’t, horrors!! arrive in time!!
how fu**ing hard is that to find green rubber groves in this megalopolis!?!?!
I swear I have seen it! where? in the store? at someone’s house? where where??
devil-y whisper could be heard by then;
why not
just forget about gloves? it doesn’t matter really, is it? heck, I don’t even have a bottom for this bit (no matching pants nor fabric around) what important is the game spirit, yes?
Then
just one more store, this generic supermarket. I know they don’t have it, it’s OK I am not going to sweat it, maybe dye the latex clear one we’ve got, it might take colors fine, or heck, forget about gloves, hum hum hum</p>
<p>THERE THEY ARE!!!
organic(?) groves, color green. Just the thing, for bit hefty 5bucks and some changes but hey hey
The best thing is, it is longish and if I cut where they cover forearms and cut the part in strips, it makes perfect fingers extension I need, with curled up edge to mimic suction cups on the finger tips (ohhhh big hint!!)
Thus I perfected my ensemble, shipped out early in the morn from our trusty post office on 8th Ave, with facade carved with the postal service creed of “neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night”
Babo got stitched “please return if found” contacts. plus dental floss bonus pack from my first Costco trip (long story) three pages of illustrated guide for “how to put your lovely costume” “what I have been eating” " the dogs on the street I saw" luv letters.
Now I sit on my paws and wait.
owwwwww the suspense…</p>
<p>What sure thing is, fammom
my mask would be get beer showered and limp plastered, discarded after the party while, your beautiful T-Rex would go live on in with famkid’s many future creations.</p>
<p>halooo anyone out?
smarty! here is your twin!!
[The</a> Brian Lehrer Show: ABC’s of Phobias - WNYC](<a href=“http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2011/oct/26/abcs-phobias/]The”>http://www.wnyc.org/shows/bl/2011/oct/26/abcs-phobias/)
is anyone sick of WNYC (or me?)
they been doing fund raising this week and I pledged hoping to win Mac book pro and/or lunch with Brian or Leonard.
guess didn’t win (again)</p>
<p>I’m here! Thanks BandD. T he clues gave me a better mental picture of your creative masterpiece but I am not familiar with characters (important or minor) in the movies. Halloween is going to be a wash here…Field hockey! if they win tonight they play again on Halloween but if they don’t win they are ball girls for the game and moms (of course) have to make the food for the “hospitality room” for the coaches/refs/etc. D says she is dressing up but has yet to put together an outfit. Hmmmm… She is certain they will lose tonight because they are playing one of the huge suburban powerhouses…their last win was history making–first time our school or any school in our little urban county ever won a regional tournament field hockey match. Even the principal came to the game…if they were to advance any further there will be heart attacks. However, I think D is right about their chances…what do they feed the kids out there? They are HUGE…even fh girls …all destined for DivI athletic scholarships…</p>
<p>my guess is chocolate flavored Muscle Milk bought bulk from suburban Costco.
(thus my fixation on Fortune #28 company started in nowhere by nobody continues…)</p>
<p>Hello everyone, sorry I’ve been such a stranger. Busy with the usual bs, plus still dealing with fleas. Ugh. I’m happy to hear of everyone’s Halloween plans and also happy to not be frantically sewing or gluing anymore. D3 has figured out her own outfit for a party and I’m relieved she can handle it herself. Clearly, I’m vacuuming too much! </p>
<p>Has anyone else had to deal with a sophomore slump? D1 (nursing) is just finding classes a bit tougher, but she’s basically fine. D2 (mica) needs a lot of reassurance, quite often, by phone, and also wants me to visit her when I can. And even when I can’t… I’m glad, for the thousandth time, that she’s relatively nearby. I know most of you have kids who you wish would call more often, but D2 calls when she needs help so I’m reassured by the silence when it comes. She is seeing a therapist but that is not enough to help with her recurrent problems with self-doubt. I want to be like Cher in Moonstruck: “snap out of it, snap OUT of it!!!” Any advice?</p>
<p>Greenie-- I’m sitting here watching D1 do yet ANOTHER jigsaw puzzle. She has gone through five or six of them in the last couple of weeks. I took pity on her when she was doing the 2000 piece puzzles a third time and bought a few more… but she’s done all those now and has cycled back to putting together ones she did over the summer. Its quite perplexing. Trying to get her to help out around here is more or less like pulling teeth. I work very very hard at not treating her like a child; but it is difficult. We had a family meeting the other day with the therapist at the program she’s doing right now and she pointed out that this was D1’s home too and that she should be just as invested in keeping things going as we are. Wishful thinking, I guess. Anyway, do you know what ‘kind’ of therapist your daughter is seeing? D1’s usual therapist does ‘Cognitive Behavioral Therapy’ and that wasn’t working out well so now D1 is learning ‘DBT’ which is supposedly a very successful modality for some types of issues. I think DBT is ‘Dialectical Behavior Therapy’; you can find out more about it if you google it. I’m not sure if it’s something that can be distilled down into a once a week session. Maybe it’s more than your daughter needs. For all I know there may be some other type of therapy – I always pictured what you see on TV sitcoms… just goes to show what I know or don’t know. </p>
<p>I somehow got roped into organizing the pony club halloween party at the barn. My reasoning was something along the lines of “well I have to be up there with Aspie girl anyway, so I might as well do it”… at first Aspie girl was just going to do her regular Sunday morning job (morning feed and stalls) but now somehow it has morphed into her going foxhunting on Sunday morning so she is going to do barn chores Saturday morning and Sunday morning, then go fox hunting, then do the halloween party (the kids dress up themselves and the horses/ponies and have a parade and we give out certificates for ‘spookiest’ or ‘funniest’ or ‘nerdiest’ or whatever. Then she figured out that she had to be at the barn after 3pm on Saturday to get the horse and tack bathed/cleaned for the hunt – so now both saturday and sunday are swamped with horse stuff (plus her regular lesson on Friday nights)… I’m kind of annoyed because when is she going to get her homework done? </p>
<p>And then manga girl has some other conflicting plans for Saturday… hopefully they will not include eating unsafe food and ending up in the ER again. It’s another friend’s birthday or something like that. I’ll be glad for the colder weather; hopefully it will curb some of these activities… I feel like it’s too much!</p>
<p>sophomore slump…I am not sure if that is what it is but my S is definitely sounding a bit ground down by the work. Until this past week he was also calling more–for reassurance? just missed us? but I found him more unsure of himself in terms of his work but I think it was taking on the math/comp sci classes after a year break from these types of classes. I can imagine that all the students will suddenly realize their studies are at a whole new level this year. My HS student has just realized this with the full IB schedule and she is says she is already burned out on school. I have planted the “gap year” seed in her mind…My S would have benefitted from this and I think he sees a semester abroad as a bit of a breather if he can swing it. It is a four year slog otherwise and then straight into the cold world of high unemployment. Apart from therapy, some type of break in their studies may be a good alternative–they could work/study abroad/intern. My daughter really liked Dartmouth because you are forced to take at least one semester off–as in off entirely (not even study abroad)–during your 4 years to do something not academic. The fact that she found this so attractive makes me think that a lot of students need to be able to look forward to some break from the study grind.</p>
<p>what about the big game?
no match to muscle milked Amazoness?
[Urban</a> Dictionary: Amazoness](<a href=“http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Amazoness]Urban”>Urban Dictionary: Amazoness)</p>
<p>received!!
rave review!!!</p>
<p>–Everyone is impressed. It is hard to see but looks nice, it is very good. Vest and shirt are a bit itchy but sturdy enough to keep me warm, belt and holster are very well done, gloves, it will get hot and sticky but it looks nice. Good use of the taekwon helmet. Everything fits. Mask is tight though and will probably make more pimples.</p>