Halloween 2019

Happy Halloween from two kids who know how to pick obscure costume ideas!:

Madeleine, true to her Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance obsession, is Deet the Gelfling.  Seeing as a Deet costume doesn't actually exist, I think I managed to hodgepodge something together well enough to pull off a costume of a character that pretty much no one has ever heard of! 

(The actual Deet puppet:)

Julia is a Plague Doctor because...well, Julia has some strange obsession with the Black Plague.  Apparently she's not alone in this, because here she is with two of her best friends:

                                                  Plague Doctors.  I guess it's a thing.


Julia went trick-or-treating with five other friends, while I took Madeleine and her friend out around the neighborhood.  The highlight of the evening was this:

MADELEINE: Trick-or-treat!
TEENAGER GIVING OUT CANDY: Wait, are you a Gelfling?
MADELEINE: (explosive with joy) YES!
TEENAGER: Which one?  Brea or Deet?
MADELEINE: (jumping in delight) Deet!

OMG, someone actually RECOGNIZED her and actually knows her character.  SO exciting!

The plague doctors and crew have returned from their trek, while Deet and her friend are out for Round Two in another part of the neighborhood with Ethan.

Happy Halloween, all!

Posters

Madeleine has spent her morning doing what anyone with a little free time wants to do: making inspirational posters on her computer and printing them out to hang around the house.

Among these many motivational messages are: "Imagination? How about IMAGICNATION?" and "The world will only stop revealing when you stop believing."  That's it.  I am FULLY ready to go to work now and give it my A game.  Color me inspired! 

In case you'd like to shop Motivational Phrases Printed On Sheets Of Printer Paper, take a look at your many options:

I think I'm too dumb to understand the significance of the final "d" being printed on its own, individual line.  But I'm sure it means something really important!

Hope this post gives YOU that extra spring you need in your step to make it through the day!

Disabled Vehicle

Driving on the highway with the kids:

GOOGLE VOICE ASSISTANT: There's a disabled vehicle ahead.
ME: Great.
MADELEINE: What's a disabled vehicle?
ME: Like a broken down car or something.
JULIA: Or maybe it's like a...(inaudible mumbling) Never mind.
ME: I'm listening.
JULIA: No, I said "never mind" because what I was saying doesn't make any sense.
ME: Oh.
JULIA: I was saying, "It might mean, like, a blind person is driving or something." (Cracking up at herself.)

Genius.

A Gift for Me

This afternoon, I spotted Madeleine hard at work on something at the dining room table.

ME: Are you doing your writing homework, Madeleine?

MADELEINE: Um, not yet; I'll do it after this, but DON'T LOOK.

ME: Okay.

MADELEINE: (dramatically shielding her paper from me) DON'T LOOK, Mommy.

ME: I won't.

A moment later, I too sat down at the dining room table to do something on my computer.

MADELEINE: NO LOOKING.

ME: Okay, I'm not.

A few minutes later, while I was in the bathroom, Madeleine started shouting questions at me.

MADELEINE: Mommy?  What color hair, if you could have ANY COLOR IN THE WORLD, would you want?

ME: Um...

MADELEINE: ANY color.

ME: Blue.

MADELEINE: You can't pick blue.

ME: Oh.  Then...maybe...red.  Like, strawberry blonde.

MADELEINE: Okay.

(Pause)

MADELEINE: Mommy?  What color nail polish would be your favorite AND YOU CAN'T CHOOSE BLUE.

ME: Okay...well, if I can't choose blue, then...purple.

MADELEINE: I don't have purple.

ME: Oh.  Then...I guess...pink.

MADELEINE: Okay.

(Pause)

MADELEINE: Mommy?  Would you rather have blue skin or green skin?

ME: Blue skin.

MADELEINE: Would you rather be KIND or be an outcast?

ME: I'd rather be kind.

MADELEINE: Would you rather be an OUTCAST with blue skin, or KIND with green skin?

ME: Kind with green skin.

MADELEINE: Yes!  I got you to pick GREEN!

I guess that green versus blue skin part was a red herring, or else was just simply a topic of Madeleine's curiosity, because a few minutes later I was presented with this delightful piece of art:

                                                       Courtney the Magical Elephant!!

I got my blue skin after all!  And I have to say, throughout all of Madeleine's questions and her commands not to look, I would NEVER have guessed I would get a picture of myself as a winged, unicorn-horned blue elephant with pink toenails.  Madeleine managed to pull off quite the surprise!

Swim Invitational

Shout-out to Julia, who did something extremely brave this past weekend.  Having never attended a USA swim meet, she spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoons swimming as an "Unattached" swimmer at a USA invitational.

An unattached swimmer is one who attends the meet on her own, without a coach or other teammates.  No one is allowed on the pool deck besides swimmers, coaches, and officials, so I could not accompany her past the locker room area.  This caused a bit of a panic freak-out for her as we stood outside the glass door to the pool deck.

ME: Okay, I can't go on the pool deck, so go ahead out there and look for the meet official to check in.
JULIA: Wait.  Can you just come with me?
ME: I'm not allowed.
JULIA: Can you just say "Oh, sorry, I didn't know" if they say something?
ME: Look.  I think that's the meet organizer.  Go over and tell him you're here as an unattached swimmer.
JULIA: But this is SCARY.
ME: Just go over to the guy.
JULIA: This is too SCARY!

This led to Julia and I awkwardly shuffling around bumping into each other as I tried to push her along over to the meet organizer and she tried to hide behind me.

Luckily, the meet organizer noticed our complete rookie buffoonery and came over to us. 

Once I had Julia on her way, I headed up to the bleachers to watch the meet.  There was no coach to tell Julia when it was time to line up for her events.  There were no teammates to guide her.  But she managed to handle it all on her own.

Julia pulled off a personal best time in her first event, the 100 freestyle.  Her next event, the 50 fly, was not her best, but she was able to laugh it off.  (Text message: The 50 fly was funny because it was so bad.)  Her final event of the day, 100 breast, was a second off her best time, which isn't too shabby.

Sunday she only had one event, but because she had been at the pool all afternoon Saturday, she was able to walk onto the pool deck with confidence.  And she brought that confidence to her race.  She dropped over 3 seconds in her 100 fly and placed fourth overall!

Way to be brave in the face of something new, Julia!  Congrats on a successful first weekend of swimming solo!

Madeleine Quote

Madeleine, on the subject of her current favorite song, "Speak For the Dead" from "The Dark Crystal: Age if Resistance": "Mommy?  The first time I ever heard 'Speak For the Dead,' it was the most MAGICAL, but it was also the most STRESSFUL, because I had to keep worrying that a SKEKSIE was gonna come and get them."

Bed Making

When I asked Madeleine to make her bed, this is not what I had in mind:

That is an A+ job right there, Madeleine.  Atta girl!

Homework Blues

Julia was really frustrated over her math homework this evening, as evidenced by multiple outbursts that came from her bedroom.

JULIA: (from behind her bedroom door) MRAAAAAAAGGGHHH!
ME: What's wrong?
JULIA: (stomping out from her bedroom, getting a piece of printer paper, and stomping back into her room, slamming the door.)

A few minutes later, I had dinner on the table.

ME: (calling through Julia's door) Julia?  I have dinner for you.
JULIA: I *can't* eat dinner right now!
ME: Um.  Okay.

A few minutes later...

JULIA: (from behind her bedroom door) MRAAAAAGGGHHH!
ME: Julia.  Come here!
JULIA: (stomping out of her bedroom, grabbing her dinner plate, and stomping back to her bedroom)
ME: What's wrong??
JULIA: I'm QUITTING MATH FOREVER!

A few minutes later...

JULIA: (stomping out from her bedroom to put her empty plate in the sink and slice a piece of bread)
MRAAAAGGGHHH!
ME: What?
JULIA: I can't cut my bread.  I'm TOO DUMB TO DO ANYTHING!

I sliced her bread and brought it to her.

ME: Can I help you with your math?
JULIA: You DON'T KNOW HOW.

I decided to give it a valiant try, however.

ME: Okay, what's wrong?
JULIA: I have to do this WHOLE PAGE OVER because you're supposed to figure out the answer to the question and my answer made NO SENSE. I got "SPORD MULG."

I helped her work through each math problem.  Each time she solved a problem, she had to locate the correct answer on the side column of the page, and cross out the letter next to that answer.  At the end, the remaining letters would answer the question: "What is the saddest candy in the world?"

We weren't even finished when I was able to look at the remaining letters and deduce that the answer would be "GLUM DROPS."

ME: Julia, take a look at the letters left and see if you know what the answer is.
JULIA: (looking from top to bottom, rather than turning the page so the letters faced the correct way, left to right) S, P, O, R, D-
ME: No, honey, look at them in the order that you read letters.  Turn the paper sideways.
JULIA: G-O-L-U-M D-R-O-P-S...oh.  So wait, that was a total waste to do this whole page over, because I had the right letters already.

Yes, that's right.  Julia was ONE question away (the question that would eliminate the letter "O" from the answer) when she realized she'd actually gotten all the correct answers and then erased them, because she wrote them in backwards order.

Good thing she had a massive melt-down over all that.

Morning Humming

Madeleine used to draw invisible circles in the air while she drank her sippy cup of milk.  I don't know what added level of comfort it brought her to do this, but it was an incredibly endearing thing to behold. 

Now that she drinks milk from regular cups, Madeleine no longer draws her air circles.  However, she has developed a new comforting custom while consuming breakfast.  She hums while she eats.  It started off as just a sort of meandering hum that had no real tune, but nowadays it's full-out Dark Crystal humming.  EVERY.  MORNING.  while Madeleine eats her breafkast, she hums the tune "Speak for the Dead" from the Netflix "Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" series. 

Not only does this make it take forever for Madeleine to consume her breakfast, but it makes for some interesting sound effects that are NOT DISTRACTING AT ALL.

MADELEINE: (putting a handful of dried cereal into her mouth) Hmmmm, hmmm hmmmm hmmm (smacking sounds) hmmm hmmmm, Hmmmm (chomping sounds) hmmmm hmmmmm (smack chomp smack chomp)

Ethan especially loves this new phase of Madeleine's.

This morning, Madeleine is putting me to a Dark Crystal "would you rather" sort of game.

MADELEINE: Mommy.  Who do you like better.  Kira or Brea?
ME: Um...I guess Brea.
MADELEINE: Kira or Deet?
ME: Deet.
MADELEINE: Kira or Tavra?
ME: Um.  Tie.
MADELEINE: Kira or Celedon?
ME: Kira.
MADELEINE: Kira or Skek-so?
ME: Kira.


This continued for many more minutes.  I was asked to rate Kira against every single Skekse character, as well as against every Gelfling in the movie. 

There is nothing I'd rather do while drinking my morning coffee than compare a Gelfling from the original "Dark Crystal" movie against EVERY OTHER CHARACTER from the Netflix series.  I didn't want to read anything while I enjoyed my coffee.  I totally just wanted to rank Dark Crystal characters.

Now Madeleine is overcome with inspiration to make a poster so that's what we're doing before we head out for school.  Who even knows what this poster is going to be for.

Reading Help

Last night, Madeleine came into our bedroom to ask a really urgent question.

MADELEINE: Mommy or Daddy?  Whoever knows MORE about Alaska, can you help me understand something in my book?
ME: What it is you don't understand?
MADELEINE: Like, what happens in this chapter.

She handed me her book, "Diamond Willow," and I read through the chapter.  Good thing I know about Alaska, because I was able to discern that the chapter was told from the point of view of a twin in the womb. This twin was born second, only to have her elder twin sister die within a few days of birth. 

I explained this to Madeleine after reading.

MADELEINE: Huh?  But the twin sister turns into a DOG.

Uh-oh.  I guess I don't know as much about Alaska as I thought. 

I did read a book years back that referenced Inuit religious beliefs about the soul after death, but I do not remember anything about dead people turning into dogs or other animals.  However, I suggested to Madeleine that perhaps the spirit of the dead twin was transferred into the body of a dog.  That satisfied Madeleine enough to go back to her bedroom for the night.

Madeleine has since announced to me that she'd like me to read the entire book, because she thinks I'll like it, so we'll see if I had the right theory or not.  Either way, I'm bound to increase my knowledge about Alaska after reading this book, which is, after all, set in the aforementioned state. 

Helpful Helpers

When I can really rely on my kids to come through for me:

MADELEINE: (calling from behind the closed bathroom door) Mommy!  I need you!

ME: What is it?

MADELEINE: (from behind the door) Just come here!

ME: Okay.  Why?

MADELEINE: (from behind the door) Just come here!  I need you!  Come in the bathroom!

I went into the bathroom to discover that Madeleine had dropped a brand new, full roll of toilet paper into the (very recently used) toilet.  Which meant that I was the lucky duck who got to reach into the toilet and remove the soiled roll of paper, then throw it into the garbage.  Meanwhile, Madeleine discovered that had been the last fresh roll from the upstairs bathroom, so I had to shout down to Julia to bring us up a new pack of toilet paper.

ME: (shouting down to the play room) Julia, can you quickly bring us up some toilet paper from the basement?

JULIA: Okay!

ME: (returning to the bathroom) Just hang tight, Madeleine. Julia's getting you a new role of toilet paper you can use.

MADELEINE: Uh, Mommy?  The toilet paper is in the BASEMENT.

ME: I know.

MADELEINE: Uh, Julia is TERRIFIED of the basement

ME: She is?!?  Why??

After another minute or so with no toilet paper, I decided to check on Julia.

ME: (calling downstairs) Hey Jules?

JULIA: (from the basement) Hang on!  I can't get the box open and I'm being VERY BRAVE DOWN HERE!

Yes, so very brave of her to enter our very scary basement which has NOTHING SCARY IN IT.

I wound up going downstairs to retrieve the toilet paper myself, because, let's face it, I do pretty much everything around here. But...A for effort for Julia, for facing her fears and entering our completely normal totally not scary basement.

No School Day

I am thinking of all my Jewish friends today on Yom Kippur.

For those of us who are not Jewish, it was a rainy no school day with nothing major to do, meaning my kids both spent a bunch of time on electronics.  Specifically, Madeleine has been busy making animations and I-movie trailers, sometimes forcing Julia to be in a scene.

As I was trying to get out the door for a run before the rain began (the rain which is forecast to last for 3+ DAYS...ugh...), both girls had the sudden urge to show me EVERY collage, animation, and gif they had created on their electronic devices. 

Among the things I had the privilege of viewing: an animation of a handful of Fruit Loops being eaten one by one (with the final Fruit Loop disappearing bite by bite,) an animation of a Barbie doll saving a beached Barbie Mermaid, a gif of Julia doing "dance moves," an animation of an American girl doll doing some unexplained thing, a collage of Julia's friends, a collage of Julia's family, a collage of Julia and cousin Owen, a collage of Julia at swim, a collage of Needham Sharks, an animation of Madeleine doing "dance moves," and an animation of a Beanie Boo bunny doing "dance moves." 

Oh, yeah, and then there was the more recent I-movie trailer that featured a few seconds of rapid fire shots of Madeleine's hair, and then a completely blank template that for some reason I was still obliged to watch through to the end.  Madeleine had briefly gone outside to take some action shots for her trailer, and was bursting with desire to show them to me.

MADELEINE: And then there's just a lot of blank stuff. (continuing to hold her laptop in front of my face for me to watch.

I anticipated that there might be some actual footage at some point, but nope, after that brief beginning I just got to watch templates saying things like "GROUP SHOT" and "ACTION SHOT" flash before me, as pre-programmed music played.  Let me tell you.  It.  Was.  Riveting.

I might not even have to watch any tv tonight to unwind, because I got so much stimulation from all these amazing action shots all day long!

A Very Harry Birthday

Madeleine had her birthday party on Friday, and all her Harry Potter dreams came true!

Madeleine has been planning this party since the summer, and I have been stressing out about how I would manage to pull off all her lofty ideas.  Madeleine also lent her own crafty skills to the party preparations, creating a hand-made gift for every goody bag.  Some gifts are probably more useful than others, but she made everything from a Hermione bookmark to a plastic wand to painted rocks and a gold-foiled covered plastic egg.  Not to mention a gold-foiled covered rock with paper wings taped to the sides to be a Golden Snitch.

Madeleine made her guest list over the summer, too, and only added to it once the school year began.  Reader, I had EIGHTEEN CHILDREN coming to my house for this party.  I had so much to prepare, and thankfully, I had the help of Minerva McGonagall's American, half-muggle sister to help out:

When the guests arrived, they painted pencils to make their own wands, but alas, the globs of paint that the kids layered upon their pencils failed to dry by the time the party ended.  No matter, because we had all sorts of fun things Madeleine had planned out.  Next up was a game in which we taped the name of a Harry Potter character to the back of each party guest, and the guests had to go around asking yes or no questions about their character until they guessed who they were.  Since the wand painting lasted all of 6 minutes and the party game was similarly short, I was beginning to panic.  But luckily, our Sorting Ceremony generated a lot of excitement.

We used a Sorting Hat to sort all the kids into Hogwart's houses, then commenced a Harry Potter trivia game.  I was pleased with the amount of time this game was eating up, but Madeleine began to worry about all her other plans.

YIAYIA: Okay, the next trivia question-
MADELEINE: Uh, Yiayia?  How many more questions, because we're on a VERY TIGHT schedule.

The trivia game ended suitably early for Madeleine's liking, and she then took all her friends outside to play her made up Quidditch and tag games.  I am so so so very relieved this all worked out, because when Madeleine was explaining her tag game to me I couldn't help but wonder how she was going to get eighteen girls to agree to her rules.

MADELEINE: So, like, you choose SOME people to be the Death-Eaters, and then the rest of the people are Hogwarts students and professors.  And, if you're a PROFESSOR, and you DON'T want to get tagged by a Death-Eater, you have to TOUCH YOUR ANKLE, and then you have a power that can stop the Death-Eaters from getting you.  So, like, if you're running, you have to lean down and touch your ankle quickly.

I stayed inside for this, getting dinner ready, so I only watched out the window, but the kids all seemed delighted and happy.  Go figure.

Last up was pizza, cupcakes, Hoodsies, and an abbreviated viewing of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban."  And then, happily, the parents came and the children left with their goody bags and happy memories. 

Happy Hogwart's Birthday Party to this girl!:

Madeleine Turns 10

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY to this kid!!

Madeleine has been SO excited for this day that she had even googled "Ways to make the day pass faster." At long last, the day is here.

We started off the morning with homemade pancakes and presents.  Madeleine was delighted by all her loot, but soon had to leave it behind to head off to school.  No big deal, though; at school, her classmates all signed a birthday poster for her to celebrate the day!

While the girls were at school, I got busy baking for the upcoming Friday night birthday party.  Three dozen pumpkin cupcakes later, I headed out to pick Madeleine up from school.  She had been adamant about wanting to help me frost the cupcakes, so I waited until after school to mix up some vanilla frosting.  Madeleine is having a Harry Potter-themed party, so she wanted to color the frosting Hogwarts House colors.

We each got started with a bowl of frosting.  Madeleine dropped in yellow food coloring to frost some Hufflepuff cupcakes.  I went with blue for Ravenclaw cupcakes.  When I moved onto Green Slytherin frosting, I added some yellow to my already-blue frosting in the bowl.  All that was left was red for Gryffindor.

MADELEINE: Mommy, can I frost the Gryffindor ones??
ME: Sure.  You can just put the red food coloring into the main big bowl of frosting, since it's the only color we have left to do.
MADELEINE: Okay. (tipping a small bottle upside down and dropping some drops into the bowl) It's not working!
ME: Let me see. (Peering into a bowl of still-white frosting) Did you stir it around yet?
MADELEINE: Uh, not- (peering at the label of the bottle she was holding) This is PEPPERMINT EXTRACT!

So we had peppermint-flavored frosting and pumpkin cupcakes.  A match made in Heaven, amirite?

ME: Okay, well, we can't use the frosting then...
MADELEINE: Uh, should you make some more?
ME: Well, I just used up ALL of our confectioner's sugar.
MADELEINE: Uh, should we go to the store?

No.  We should not.

I managed to save the day by adding red to my green frosting, making a perfectly Gryffindorian maroon.  Not too shabby, right?:

To cap off the birthday, we had a family dinner out to the restaurant of Madeleine's choice.  Here's what she wore to dinner:

Celebrating 10 years of uniqueness!  Here's to many, many, many more!  Keep on being your wonderful self, Madeleine!!