You can even ask in the store if they do the boning in the back room and would they happen to have any chicken bones.....
These little twists and turns never go quite how you want them to, do they?
The witch costume is going great. I'm actually almost finished, which is an absolute record for me. She had a deep blue velvet (cheap hand-me-down) dress with a rhinestone star on the front, I sewed voluminous silk sari skirts on right under that (two layers, longer and shorter.) Made a heel-length silk sari cloak that floats most gratifyingly when she moves. She tried it on last night, loves it. All that's left is some touch-up on the skirt and doing something about the hat, which can be worn as-is if need be (it's black, I'm thinking of overlaying it with the same silk sari fabric but may be too complicated).
Anyway, point is, so far so good.
But THEN... In keeping with this amazing preparedness and organization, rather rare for me in this arena (work, yes, this kind of thing, usually last-minute), I'm almost all ready for her birthday party, which will be in about a month. Last year she had a dress-up tea party which went really well. (In fact, about 6 months later we went to another birthday party that was basically the same thing but put on professionally and cost a pretty penny.) Since I also still had so much stuff that could be re-used -- the real china tea cups I got at Goodwill last year, silk flowers, plus the zillion dress-up outfits sozlet has that are made available to party-goers -- I planned to do it again. I've been buying this and that, especially goody-bag stuff, and am pretty much all set.
Well.
Now she wants a "witch party." What's that? Well, she dresses up as a witch, and we hang cobwebs around, and put out lots of black and scary stuff. I said, sweetie, there's a word for that... Halloween!!! As of now, she's steadfast and undaunted. Witch party. I'm hoping she'll calm down a bit after she's had a good dose of actual Halloween.
(By the way I said right away that of course she could wear her witch costume to the party -- "dress up" is loose -- but no, she wants the whole thing to be witchy.)
Creative children are such fun!
Suppose a really talented witch had transformed every guest into some sort of Halloween costumed creature....?
Do a witch's tea!!!
Serve spider cookies and such, do magic tricks or make concoctions.
It sounds like fun to me.
I love sozlet. Really I do.
And just where in the heck have you been Ms. Noddy!?
I missed you. Is everything okay?
Boomer--
Off gadding in the Big City.
Now I'm back in the real world.
Three cheers for A2K!
You know, I do like the idea of a witch's tea... tons of cool possibilities...
<mentally going down list of attendees for possible Christian types who may be offended -- nope, nope, ha, oooh maybe, nope...>
Last night it developed that she thought her birthday was ON Halloween. (I guess my expressions of "soon" were comparable for the two.) I made a calendar for her and showed her how much later her birthday is. She said "Oh!" and the Witch Party hasn't come up since... but we'll see. She's often tenacious with these things.
My three year old is going to be a clown. This costume has been in existence for over 30 years. My mom made it for my brother. He wore it, my youngest brother wore it, my now 6 year old wore it, my niece wore it and now my youngest. I think the only other costume we got even as close to as much compliments on was a (shudder) store bought Dorothy costume. I think my daughter resembled Dorothy and we found some glittery red shoes.
Sozobe - we went into the Disney store several weeks ago and just played dress-up with the costumes. I explained we would not buy any, but they could try on as many as they liked. They had two costumes that were over $80!!!! - this is without any accessories. I did once dress my girl in a Disney Princess outfit - I bought it during the summer for $4.
Noddy - I can't sew so for me making a costume is out of the question. However, I do try to be more creative by buying non-costume items and putting them together to make a costume.
Linkat--
Not being gifted in needlework myself, I'm a great contriver of costumes. I'll bet doughnuts to dog biscuits that you allow the kids to brainstorm with you?
Noddy - I do love to come up with fun costumes. However, my time is limited now so sometimes convenience wins out. When I was single and a young adult, I would love to pull a costume together. We do get creative by pulling together outfits or dress-up clothes we have around the house - and they go out and buy accessories to dress it up. This year I am not so creative - my daughter has wanted a cheerleading outfit forever. While school shopping she spied this Patriots cheerleading outfit - as it was in WalMart (cheap) and she was a good girl with school shopping I let her have it on the condition she use it for Halloween (I was thinking of saving me the work and/or money on a costume - selfish mom). But my daughter loves it and she can also use it for support your sports team day at school!
Linkat--
The older children get, the more creative they get. If they can't practice role modeling on Halloween, when can they practice? In Junior High? In High School?
Sometimes the Very Best Mothers step back three paces and sigh.
OHNO!
It seems that Mo has chickenpox or something similar so we might not get to go trick or treating at all.
The bumps don't look like chickenpox bumps I saw on the chicenpox websites but I talked to the doctor and she's sounds pretty sure.
Mo didn't have a chicken pox shot? I thought all children had to have them or they couldn't get into daycares/schools/camps, etc.
Well, maybe the shot isn't 100% either.
Oh nooo!!!
I hope for Mo's sake, it's not chickenpox, and he can
get some trick or treatin'.
Poor baby.
If it isn't chickenpox, get him a vaccination asap for it.
I did that when LJane was 4 years old, plus I got one too,
since I never had chickenpox myself.
Yes he has been vaccinated for chickenpox.
My neighbor suggested chickenpox yesterday so I checked his vaccination record.
It got worse today so I called the doctor and they said it sounds just like chickenpox (I'm not completely convinced though).
Here's the story:
Monday we were riding his bike to the park, about halfway there he put his head down on the handlebars and said he just wanted to go home.
Done!
The next day he didn't feel great but not terrible either. No fever. Not a very good appitite. Not his usual solid poop.
Okay.... not yet worried.
The next night (Wednesday) he woke me up. I went to lay down with him and he was scratching and scratching so I got up, turned on the light and found all of these tiny little bumps on his belly.
I put some Benedryl lotion on it, the itching stopped. The next morning he looked fine and felt fine.
Today we'd been up for a while when he comes in the kitchen clawing at himself -- he has these huge welts all over his shoulders, underarms and neck. Not tiny little bumps but these big, flesh colored raised spots - inches across.
I called and left a message for the doctor.
By the time she called me back (about an hour later) the welts had receeded, leaving smaller, irregular bumps with red skin in patchy areas where the welts had been.
I suppose it could be some kind of allergic reaction to...... I don't know what.
Anyway, the treatment is the same - keep the bumps from itching and keep Mo from scratching.
The fact that he has a cough and a throat-clearing uhhhuhhuhhhuhh thing going on makes me think that yeah, it's chickenpox.
If it's chickenpox though he has to stay away from kids and older people.
I'm supposed to call the doctor back if it is still there on Monday so I'm just going to keep a close eye on things.
Apparently 1% of vaccinated kids can still get the virus but it shows up in a much less severe form.
Okay, I'm back on the phone trying to get the doctor -- the welts are back and this doesn't look like chickenpox. I'm starting to freak out.
I hope this isn't unseemly but I took a photo of Mo's back:
I am freaking.
Waiting for the doctor to call again....
Ah, that looks like an allergic reaction to food.
I had something similar once when I ate too many mandarines.
The acidity caused the allergic reaction.
Same thing happened to a friend who is allergic to strawberries.
I think that looks more like hives than chicken pox.
Do the little pox marks have white centers?
