Halloween!

Happy Halloween from the Rowe family!

Madeleine had a lot of wavering on her costume idea.  Back in the summer, she had asked for a mermaid costume, but upon googling various mermaid tails, she instead fell in love with the actual wearable swimming tail with monofin.  Next thing I knew, she was forking over a bunch of her savings to get that tail to wear to the pool, and no actual costume was bought.

Since we have a slew of dress-up items and leftover costumes from Julia, Madeleine figured she'd be able to put something together easily.  She semi-settled on being Ginny Weasley, but as Halloween drew near, she resurrected her dream of being a mermaid.  I didn't have to buy a new costume, however, because she had LOTS of creative ways to make this work:

-She was just going to take tiny baby steps with her legs inside the fin of her swimmable mermaid tail
-She was going to make her OWN mermaid tail out of cardboard
-She was going to wear her swimmable mermaid tail but stick her legs through the holes through which the monofin is inserted
-She was going to wear her mermaid knee socks and Julia's mermaid-patterned skirt

The lattermost option was the one she finally seemed most settled on, except that I wasn't digging it since it kind of looked like she was just wearing clothes:

MADELEINE: Well, I'll ADMIT that it doesn't really look like a costume, but...let's think of ways we can IMPROVE it.

This was Monday.  She had two days to come up with something.

Instead, she just got lazy and thankfully switched back to Ginny Weasley.  So tonight Julia the Sorceress and Ginny Weasley got ready for a neighborhood Halloween party, followed by trick-or-treating with friends!:

At the neighborhood party, Madeleine saw two boys from her class, who were dressed in costumes similar to this:

MADELEINE: (to one of the boys, as he passed by her) Are you a criminal?

Uh...in a way...

Anyway, Madeleine and one of her best friends went trick-or-treating with Ethan and I, and Julia and three of her friends got to go off on their own through the neighborhood.  Everybody gathered back at our house to trade candies and check out their loot, and at long last it is time for all the Rowes to retire for the evening.  Halloween 2018: Check!

Snapping

During the walk home from school this afternoon, Madeleine showed off her increased ability to snap her fingers.

MADELEINE: Mommy.  I'm getting really good at this now!  (snapping several times)
ME: Wow!  You really are!
MADELEINE: But Mommy?  I don't really *like* the sound, because it sounds like...
ME: Like what?
MADELEINE: (glancing around furtively at the other children and adults walking near us) Mmm...
ME: It sounds like what?
MADELEINE: (nearly inaudibly) Mmm...I can't really...
ME: Okay.

Once we had reached a part of the sidewalk that was clear of people, Madeleine resumed the conversation.

MADELEINE: Okay.  I don't really like the sound, because it sounds like popcorn popping out of BUTTCRACKS.
ME: Uh...
MADELEINE: Doesn't it?  Listen (snapping again)
ME: I can see how it sounds like popcorn popping.  But why does it have to be out of buttcracks?
MADELEINE:  Because it's DISGUSTING!
ME: If it sounds disgusting to you, then why are you working so hard on snapping?
MADELEINE: Because.  Once you get GOOD at it, it sounds like: (clapping her hands sharply.)
ME: Oh.  Okay.  I see.

It's like learning an instrument, I guess.  Like, the violin sounds pretty horrible under a beginner's bow, so the goal is to evolve from a dying cat's howl to sweetness.  And apparently, with snapping, the goal is to evolve from popcorn popping out of buttcracks to hand claps.

Morning Gory

So, we had a fun morning in the Rowe household. 

Julia asked me to take out her birthstone studs and put her hoop earrings in her ears.  20 minutes until the bus, plenty of time for a simple task, right?

Except it turned out that the backing of the of the studs had actually become lodged inside the skin of Julia's earlobe.  Like, it wasn't even visible to the eye.  The skin had enveloped it completely.  I finally managed to extract the front of the stud from its backing and pull it out of her ear, but it was a combined effort between Ethan and I to actually locate and then remove the backing, using a pair of sterilized tweezers.

Julia's response to all of this was to sob hysterically throughout the entire procedure and refuse any alternative options we offered.

ME: Let me see if I can grab onto the edge of the backing with tweezers.
JULIA: (wailing in hysteria) But that will HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURT!  It hurts!  Ow!  It hurts!
ETHAN: Do you think we should just take her to the ER?
JULIA: (wailing in more escalated hysteria) NOOOOOOOOO!  I don't wanna go to the HOOOOSPIIIIIIIITAAAAAAAALLL!  NOOOOOOO!
ETHAN: Okay, well, let me just look at it.
JULIA: But it HUUUUUUUUUUURTS when you touch iiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!

Not giving us a lotta options here, Jules. 

Ethan finally managed to get the backing out with the tweezers, and I set about cleaning Julia's ear with rubbing alcohol and applying a generous coating of triple antibiotic ointment.

ME: It's still bleeding a bit, and it will probably continue to ooze blood during the day.
JULIA: (resuming to hysteria) BUT I DON'T WANT BLOOOOD ALL OVER MY FAAAAACE AT SCHOOOOOOOOOL!!!!
ETHAN: Well, go to the nurse if it starts bleeding more.

Ugh, that poor kid; it was gruesome enough trying to perform the procedure; I can;t imagine how painful it was to feel it.

Meanwhile, my morning with Madeleine was a bit more typical:

MADELEINE: Mommy.  What did the EAR say to the MOUTH?  Wait.  I mean...what did the EAR say to the...the...the...wait, what's the kind of music?  That's really LOUD?  With the screaming?
ME: Uh, heavy metal music? 
MADELEINE: Oh.  Yeah!  What did the EAR say to the heavy-metal music?
ME: What?
MADELEINE: Stop it.  You're making me EAR-itated.  (beaming proudly.)  Get it?  EAR?  Itated?

I get it.  She's got a future in stand-up comedy.

Two Dreams

Madeleine, upon emerging from her bedroom this morning:

"I had two dreams.  One was kind of scary, and the other one was just disappointing.

So, we were on this walk, and there was this place that everyone thought was a haunted house.  This doggie pulled us through a tube, into the place, and there was this guy and he was the Addams Family dad, and everyone thought that he was evil, but he wasn't.  The only thing that scared me, though, was that he had pet cobras.  He wasn't evil, but the dog was evil, so I was UNSURE about him, because every time we went back, the dog would grab me.  And I left my coat there, and I didn't know if I should go back, but then I was like, well, I really love that coat, so I went back.  And the guy was showing us around, and then I got scared, because he was like, if you didn't like the cobras, they would try and eat you, but they didn't.  They were nice.  They didn't even go near me.  Which I was very GLAD about.  Then they showed us this thing that said, do you wanna stay, or do you wanna go, so we all just left.

Well, actually, I had THREE dreams, but one of them was kinda BORING, so I don't really feel like telling that one.  So I'll just tell you the second dream.

So, I was just here, and then Shannon brought over this package, because for my birthday, I had gotten this mermaid doll, but she had legs, she didn't have a tail.  It was actually a mermaid doll SET, so I got so excited.  It had, like, different stands, it had an actual tail, it had a place for the tails to sit, and I was just so excited.  And then: this is the SUPER weird and crazy part.  So, I went on this adventure with a little girl, and she got excited about it too, so I was gonna let her play with it too, but I woke up in the dream, but I WASN'T really awake in real life, so I was like, 'it's a dream, it's a dream,' but when I woke up in the dream, the mermaid set wasn't there.  And then I woke up for real."


Okay, well, way to start the day with a burst of imaginative creativity!  And it's only 7am!

Madeleine Musings

Madeleine musings:

MADELEINE: I wish I could raise a thousand dollars so I could buy a pool for school!
ME: A thousand dollars, huh?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  Then we could use it at PE.  And...maybe we could even use it at recess!

Okay, Madeleine, you get on that.  Anyone want to contribute to the $1000 elementary school pool fun?  I know it's a steep price to pay for a pool, but think of all the PE and recess uses it would get!


And speaking of school and PE, Madeleine is super excited for her bike rodeo tomorrow, in which all 3rd graders take a bike safety test in order to get a bike license.  This license then allows them to ride to and from school on their own.

MADELEINE: The BAD thing about tomorrow is that we don't have PE until the end of the day.
ME: Oh, so you have to wait all day?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  Maybe we can do a math lesson about bikes.  And maybe for Writing Workshop, we can WRITE about bikes.  And otherwise I'll just spend the day, like, PRETENDING to ride a bike without the bike.  Mommy.  Here's my BIKING IMPRESSION: (holding her hands on imaginary handlebars and marching her legs up and down.)  Vrrrrooooom!  Well.  Wait.  That's more like a car.
ME: Yeah, the sound is more like a car, but your motions do look like a bike!
MADELEINE: Yeah.  And here's my ONE-PEDAL biking: (moving only one foot up and down.)  Mommy.  It's like: "You've heard of a tricycle, now THIS is a...this is a...."
ME: A unicycle?
MADELEINE: A unicycle!  Wait.  Mommy.  A unicycle is just one wheel.  This is two wheels and only one pedal.
ME: Yeah, well a tricycle is not three pedals, it's three wheels.  So if you're comparing it to a tricycle-
MADELEINE: No, Mommy, this is two wheels, it's just one pedal.
ME: I understand.  I'm just saying if you're talking about a tricycle, that has three wheels, but not three pedals, so-
MADELEINE: No, but Mommy, I'm doing just one pedal.
ME: Right. 
MADELEINE: Okay.  How 'bout this. "You've heard of a bicycle, now here's a...MICYCLE!"

Okay.  Yes.  A one-pedaled bike is called a micycle.  Very clever.  Glad she understood my point that if she was comparing a one-pedaled bike to a tricycle she had the wrong analogy.  I hope someday Madeleine will earn a fortune on her new one-pedaled invention, the micycle.

Down By the Bay

As I was making my befuddled way into the bathroom this morning upon being awoken by my alarm, Madeleine came cheerfully bounding out of her bedroom to greet me.

MADELEINE: Mommy!  I made up a new verse to "Down by the Bay!"
ME: Oh, yeah?
MADELEINE: (launching into song) Down by the baaaaaay, where the watermelons grooooow, back to my hooooome, I dare not gooooo, for if I dooooo, my mother will saaaaaay: Did you ever see a warthog being a FART-DOG, down by the bay!
ME: Uh...that's great.
MADELEINE: (brightly) I'm gonna go lounge around! (flouncing off back to her bedroom.)

Now, THAT is one heck of a morning greeting.

Madeleine's Halloween Ideas

In the car today, Madeleine came up with some ideas for the bowl of candy we'll leave out for trick-or-treaters.

MADELEINE: Mommy!  I have a GREAT idea!  This year, in our Halloween candy bowl, let's put a HAND!
ME: Okay.
MADELEINE: Actually, no...a HEAD!
ME: A head, huh?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  But what if someone actually TAKES the head.  It's supposed to be just for decoration.
ME: Hmmm.
MADELEINE: Mommy?  The reason I really want a HEAD in our candy bowl is because...every year, I look around, and people have: blow-up dragons, blow-up arches you can walk under, blow-up Snoopy, giant spiders, sparkly pumpkin lights, bats you can hang to look like they're flying...well, actually, I've never seen those, but I can imagine them, and they're probably real...and we just have: ART.  Like, art we made at Plaster Fun Time.  And we have a bowl full or SO much candy, and then we're just like, "Eh, take one or two" and we leave a note and so you can't even really SEE the bowl.


Sheesh.  Harsh criticism on my Halloween decorating.  I guess our festive hand-made door hangings are not cutting it.  I've gotta step it up and get some bats I can hang to look like they're flying so we can keep up with the neighborhood here.

Observation

Cousin Owen is here for a visit, and Madeleine had an astute observation after gazing at him.

MADELEINE: Isn't it weird how babies look so small and then they grow and grow?  Also, I never knew that babies have smaller heads.  Like, I look at the kindergarteners at school and I'm like, "Woah, their heads are tiny!"


I think Madeleine is the exception to this rule though.  Her noggin was pretty gargantuan when she was a baby:

A Student's Dictionary

Madeleine continues to enjoy the Students' Dictionary that she brought home from school yesterday.  She is using it for ALL kinds of knowledge, since it contains trivia and not just word definitions.  This morning, while I was in the shower, she came into the bathroom to read me all the so-called "Big Words" listed in her dictionary, as well as their meanings.  I couldn't really hear her over the sound of the water running, but I caught the tail end as I turned the shower off and grabbed a towel.

MADELEINE: "This word is forty-five letters and its definition is a lung disease caused by breathing in certain particles."  (looking up at me in horror) That's disturbing.

(I later discovered the word to be "pneumonoltramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.")

I was about to leave the bathroom when I was assaulted by more trivia.

MADELEINE: Mommy!  "Ten.  One Hundred.  One Thousand.  One Million.  One Billion.  One Trillion.  One Quardillion.  One Quintillion.  One Sextillion.  One Septillion.  One Octillion.  One Nonillion.  One Decillion.
ME: Yeah.  That's a lot of zeros.
MADELEINE: (looking at me as if I were a dimwit blindly missing the point.)  It's the MONTHS.

Yeah.  No, it's really not though.

MADELEINE: Mommy?  I *like* the names of those numbers, even though I *don't* like saying ONE of the words that's part of one.
ME: What word?
MADELEINE: (giving me a significant look)
ME: Sex-tillion?
MADELEINE: Yeah.

Yup.  The numbers are named after months and sex, that's right.

At breakfast, Madeleine insisted that I quiz her on words from her dictionary, which she would then spell to me.

ME: What words do you want?
MADELEINE: I don't know.  Just quiz me on HARD words.
ME: Okay.  (flipping through the "A" pages) "Anthropologist."
MADELEINE: Yikes.  Well, Mommy, I didn't mean THAT hard.


The one thing Madeleine hasn't used her dictionary for?

MADELEINE: (From her bedroom, with the door shut) MOOOOOMMMMYYYY!
ME: (wondering if I'd heard something) Yeah?
MADELEINE: (silence)
ME: (Getting up from reading my book to go to her bedroom.) Did you call me?
MADELEINE: Yeah.  Um, Mommy?  Well, I *could* use my dictionary for this, but that would take more TIME, so...what's a B-U-R-E-A-U?


Yup.  It's a good thing she's got this dictionary.

Playdate Activity

This is what all third graders do during an after-school playdate, right?:





NOTE: the elements are not a part of any third grade homework.  The girls were just SUPER excited about their new school dictionaries.  And let's be honest.  Why *not* sit and recite periodic elements with a friend?  What fun!

Little Einsteins

Conversation between the girls and Auntie Shannon (aka Shanaynay) this evening:

MADELEINE: Remember when you called Julia DEAFO?
JULIA: I didn't like that!  It was mean!
AUNTIE SHANNON: Sorry honey.
JULIA: And Shanaynay, what if you said "HEY DEAFO!" and an ACTUAL DEAF PERSON heard you?  Wouldn't you feel bad???


Looks like Julia is really getting something out of that new middle school education she's receiving.

Being Julia

Sometimes I am taken completely unawares by the randomness of what comes out of Julia's mouth.  Take, for example, her impromptu song she burst out with while making herself a cup of hot chocolate in the kitchen this morning.

JULIA: Can I make myself some hot chocolate?

ME: Sure.

JULIA: (beginning her hot chocolate preparations and launching into song) Oh, Iiiiii'm a butt snuffleupagus, a butt snuffleupagus, I'm a butt snuffleupagus...

ME: Um...okay.

Sometimes Julia herself is taken unawares by the randomness of her brain.

AUNTIE SHANNON: Huh?  Who typed "dingleberry" on my list of things to do today?

GIRLS: (silence)

AUNTIE SHANNON: Madeleine?  Did you come type "dingleberry" on my computer?

MADELEINE: No.

AUNTIE SHANNON: Who typed this?

JULIA: Honestly, it was probably me, but I have NO memory of doing that.

And other times, I am completely and utterly NOT surprised by the random thing that pops out of Julia's mouth.

ME: Who keeps closing the blinds in the bathroom at night?

JULIA: Me!

ME: Why do you keep doing that?

JULIA: Because I'm scared of clowns!

Of course she is.  OMG.

A Trip to the Apple Orchard

This afternoon, after school, I took the girls apple picking:

We spent probably a grand total of 10 minutes picking apples and the rest of the time at the Children's Play Area.

As you can see, the girls made some age-appropriate choices in terms of what to play on:

Madeleine in the toddler play area.  Don't worry, Julia stuffed her tall gangly body in one of those bouncers too.

The kids on the caterpillar train, which was otherwise filled with kids in the 1-5 age range.

I tried to point out to Julia that an adult-sized kid might not fit the "kids only" description, but she wasn't buying it.

Just a 9 and 11 year old and a bunch of little kids enjoying the dinky caterpillar train.  Nothing to see here, folks.

At any rate, we have a bag of ripe apples and two happy girls, so all in all it was a success!

9th Birthday!

Well, Madeleine has been micromanaging every detail of her birthday for the past month+, and the big day is finally here!  Let's see how we did for this brand new 9-year-old.

Her hair, outfit, and accessories vision:

The real deal:

Her cake vision (which I just found out about on Sunday, leaving me scrambling to throw something together):

The real deal:

I baked and frosted the above, but Madeleine did the actual decoration.  She is SO incredibly excited about the cake that until 2 days ago I didn't even know I was supposed to make.  I figured I'd be making cupcakes for her party in a few weeks and she'd probably just get dessert at whatever restaurant we go to tonight. NOPE.  It was unicorn cake on the brain and she was gonna make it happen even if she had to bake the whole thing herself.  I am NOT a crafty person, so I was in a panic about this whole thing, but Madeleine is extremely satisfied.

ETHAN: When I saw this cake, I just started laughing.  I thought that Madeleine had probably decorated it, but it was possible that Julia did it, and I couldn't really rule out the chance that Courtney had decorated it.

Yup.  THAT'S HOW GOOD I AM, FOLKS.

Happy, happy 9th birthday to a girl who brings joy to each and every day of my existence!