The "IT" Toy

Ok, I fully admit before I had kids I remember thinking the people trampling each other for Tickle Me Elmo were certifiable. I also remember a Christmas or two as a kid where I either didn't get my heart's desire or it didn't work. Somewhere between a childless person's lack of understanding and a child's disappointment when the magic of Christmas lets them down is the true reality of a parent on the trail of their child's desired toy at Christmas.

Last year it was the Mickey Mouse that danced. People were getting twice what he retailed for on Ebay. Greedy soulless people who went to toy stores in September/October and bought toys so they could exploit desperate parents in the holiday season. I looked for him earlier in the year, but there were never any on the shelf. I was going to skip it, but I ended up buying one on Ebay. What can I say? I love Christmas and it was such a cool toy. We'd had a rough end to the year that year the kids deserved a big Christmas.

The year before that Isaac wanted this stupid wrist watch thingy that figures snapped onto and lit up. To find it and the figures that went with it took months and was so stressful. We're talking multiple WalMart trips in December (shudder). We didn't have resort to Ebay in this case. By the time we found it I would've paid more to have been able to skip all the work.

This year Riley wanted a certain doll. I bought her early because I'm trying to spread out Christmas expenses and keep them in check. Plus I was there and she was on sale, yay! When I bought her she was one of only two on the shelf, in October. Maybe they'll get five more shipments before December, but somehow I doubt it. When I got home I looked up a different toy and found people selling the doll I'd just purchased for two and even three times what I had just paid. Where do they get off?

Do the toy companies do this on purpose? Are they controlling supply to drive up prices like with diamonds? I bet they do. It's endlessly frustrating and a little cruel.

The kicker is that the stupid Omnitrix thing we tracked down for Isaac was broken a month later.

Post Halloween

In the post sugar and excitement light of morning Riley woke up and exclaimed "More goblins coming tonight!" She was a little put out that Halloween has ended. She decided the consolation price to more Trick-Or-Treating would be candy for breakfast. She was sad when I did not agree with that plan. Instead I agreed to let her wear her costume and submitted to her request for Mac and Cheese and chocolate milk for breakfast. So, she sat happily munching her cheesy noodles in Rainbow Brite attire while watching Tangled. Don't you wish you were two?

I cleaned out her clothes and toys yesterday in preparation for the garage sale (and surgery). I re-organized her room and more importantly her play kitchen in the living room. Now there's a whole toy bin for play food in the corner and no huge tub of miscellaneous toys in the living room, yay! I also stacked all her dishes in the cabinet and put all her pots and pans in the oven. She and Isaac were in full hamster mode checking out all the changes. It was cute. Even though there's nothing new it was like Christmas watching them re-discover toys that had been buried in bins previously or on closet shelves.

House-wise, I've gotten most of what I wanted accomplished done. The kids' rooms are clean and orderly. Mike's closet is functional and I even cleaned out my car. I'd still like to re-organize the kitchen and I must re-organize the bedroom shelves. Tick, tock. Wasn't I just saying I had two weeks? Now I have 6 days. They called and pre-registered me for surgery yesterday.

The only way I know to cope is to stay to busy and not think about it too much. I'm focused on the garage sale this coming weekend and Isaac's party the weekend after surgery is just an appointment I have in between. Sigh...

Happy Halloween 2011

You've been hearing about the kids' costumes since August so without further delay here they are:

Miss Roo was a perfect Rainbow Brite!

Big Brother's wish granted, praying mantis.

I have come to the conclusion the better the kids costumes, the crappier my own. I may have to (sniff) give it up soon. I bought Riley's dress on Ebay over the summer. She's seen my Rainbow Brite movie and has a few toys I passed down so she was excited. After I had the dress I got her some rainbow leg warmers on Amazon and scrunched them over her pink books. So much cuter than the boot covers that some Rainbow Brite costumes come with. After that I threaded (rather Aunt Lara did with floss as a threader) a red star shaped button on thin purple ribbon. I put Riley's hair in the required side ponytail, tied thicker darker purple ribbon around it and then tied the thin ribbon with the star around the middle of the bow. The last touch was a small star sticker on her cheek and a tiny bit of roll on glitter. She looked amazing.

Isaac's praying mantis request was much more challenging and required every resource we possessed. I started by hunting for lime green clothes. Shock of shocks the eighties have ended and people aren't so into lime green attire. Eventually, I found leggings in the little girl's section and a workout shirt in the ladies department of Target that did the trick. Some Google-Fu produced the amazing Mantis mask. It has compound eye or regular vision. A mix of green, yellow and white face paint gave us the right shade for his face. The most time consuming part were the "claws". Mike bought a yard of lime green fabric, lime green thread and lime green ric rac. He sewed and stuffed them. Then tapped the ends to his sleeves with my lime green duct tape. Isaac was so proud of those.

One more year of Riley Trick-or-Treating from my lap in the wheelchair. Although she did get up and walk to the door with her brother a few times. What a doll!


And that's a wrap. Thank You and goodnight.

The Last of the Halloween Crafts

I did add the bats to the spooky banner:

I did a Google image search for “silhouette of a bat” with it narrowed to large images. I dragged this fella into my Silhouette Studio software. Then I cut two out on my machine. I sprayed them with adhesive and covered them in black glitter.

I also did another banner. This time I bought one from Joann's Fabric for less than $1 and decorated it myself.

Before I started.

Isaac helping me punch out bats.

Halfway done.

Close-up. It's Marths Stewart glitter in Orange Sorbet. The black glitter is called Onyx. I bought a set of them for a craft class.

All done. It took hours. The down side to decorating a pre-assembled banner is you can only work on a section at a time without messing the other letters up. I had to do a letter or two and then do something else until they dried. Shake off excess glitter, brush off anything that didn't shake off with a small dry paint brush and start again.

HAPPY

HALLOWEEN

Ashes, Ashes We All Fall Down

The other day I took Miss Roo to the library. When we got out of the car my literary little bit said "we have the only Gak in town" (a line from One Fish, Two Fish). It was nice and cool that morning so after our book business we went over to the playground. I always forget about the playground in front of the library, but it seemed like a day to finally try it out. It was 10am so there was only one other family there. It was an adorable little boy Riley's age, his 10mo old brother and Mommy.

We had a great time with our new friends. Everything was damp so the corkscrew slide was not slippery at all and the straight down slide was like a rocket. It was pretty comical watching them scoot down one slide and shoot down the other in turn. After some sliding and general merriment the kiddos decided to swing.

I was pushing Riley on the swing and chatting with her new friend's mom when as it often does my balance deserted me. She swung back and BAM! So embarrassing! I laughed and made a big deal about her swinging so high she knocked me over. My new Mommy friend was really cool about it. Much cooler than most people would have been. She didn't sound shocked or overly concerned when she asked if I was ok. When I assured her I was fine she didn't insist on helping me up or get super handsy. That's the worst when a stranger grabs you and forces you to your feet.

When it was time to go Riley exclaimed "That was a fun party!" It was adorable. I don't even think she noticed my fall. I explained it wasn't a party we just visited the playground. She persisted, "Fun party at the playground." What can you say?

After nap it was time to go get Isaac from school. Riley had spent the morning wearing her Dora backpack and holding Mommy's hand. Apparently, she hadn't had enough because she didn't want to ride in my lap in the wheelchair like we usually do, she wanted her backpack. It seemed like a good idea since it was still cool.

On the way back we cut through the neighbors yard. Still no progress on the sidewalk situation, by the way. So, we cut through their yard to get out of the street since I was on foot. In the last few steps before the front door my foot caught in some weeds. Just at that moment Riley ran around me, circling the lead from the backpack around my crutch and legs. I yelled for her to stop and come back, but it was too late. My upper body twisted while my feet stayed firmly planted and BAM!

It was such a bad one the neighbor boy ran inside to get help. Now I was embarrassed and dreading the moment the adrenaline would wear off. I assured my very concerned neighbor I'd be ok and got to my feet. I also thanked her son for looking out for me. They're really nice people. I did get a few more hours before I really felt it and then Oh, man did I feel it. Ouch.

Stupid Gravity

We Have to Go Back...

To The Future!

Who doesn't love that trilogy? As you can see Isaac was Marty for Halloween last year, but because we were on a cruise and I had hip surgery as soon as we got back he never got his Back to The Future birthday party. Until Now...

This is the rough draft of his invitation. I'm pleased. I need to check on whether gigga watts is one word and whether this color font is readable on black card stock, but I think we're pretty close.

Photo Thursday!

Last week Jack-Jack came to play! I couldn't choose just one:

Wagon-ing it up with little J (Jack's brother).

They ran in circles taking turns on the slide, so cute!

Want to know what's more fun than a playground? Wheelchairs! (Or medical equiptment in general...)

It's ok he can play in the wheelchair, I found a plane!

Bye,Bye Hugs!! (note: niether of them let go of their toy).