Geek. Pirate. Mom

I know. You’re thinking (especially if you watched yesterday’s Vlog) that I’ve lost my mind.

Shortly after Halloween, the Little Kidlet and the Oldest Kidlet announced that this year they wanted to go as Boba Fett (LK) and a Stormtrooper (OK). Considering it’s my year to make costumes, I was already looking forward to the challenge of using craft foam to sculpt some armor for them. But I prepared myself for them to inevitably pick something else.

On Wednesday, I was in the middle of putting makeup on when the Little Kidlet burst into my room. “Iron Man, Mommy! For Halloween, I want to be Iron Man!”

Well, I told myself, we could buy the mask and then I could try to make the armor. Still ridiculously early to commit to a costume, but something I could still plan.

When I picked him up from school that day, he was bouncing up and down. “Mommy! I’m going to be Captain America for Halloween.”

I smiled, nodded and told him that whatever he decided, it’d be fine.

As we pulled up to the house, the Little Kidlet shouted, “I think I want to be Thor for Halloween.”

As I unbuckled him from the carseat, I smiled. “Do you really want to be any of those for Halloween or do you just want me to get you the Avengers costumes?”

“No,” he said, a little too loudly. “NO. no. Nooooo.” While he’s the only one of the kids who will lie, at least it’s obvious when he does.

I’m wondering if he’ll ask to be Hawkeye, too. Meanwhile, I think it’s time that we get him some of the toy props so that he can pretend to be whoever he wants.

Meanwhile, not a peep from the Oldest Kidlet. I think he’s just waiting for his little brother to pick something, so he can get a costume related to it.

To those who watched my vlog… I will answer one question: YES, that is what I’m really like.

Also: It it a parenting fact that if you buy popsicles for your kids because it’s suddenly as hot as the sun, that they will take two bites and decide they don’t want them.

Today is Dia de los Muertos, the day where some Hispanic people honor those who have passed. I have been wanting to start celebrating this with my children- I think it’s an extraordinarily healthy way that one of the many cultures that are part of my background treats death. The dead are never really gone, and you can spend the day with them.

We live near a cemetery. Every day when I drive by I either see a funeral, or I see a family sitting at a graveside. Today, the cemetery was a little brighter than usual- you could spot the graves decorated with marigolds and other items (food, drink).

We’re going to build an altar next year. I meant to build one for this year, but I lost track of time. So… next year. We did have a long talk about what the holiday means, and I bought some marigolds. So that’s something, I suppose.

I am wearing my sugar skull pirate shirt. It sums up who I am, don’t you think?

Also, TheBoy showed up this morning with a soy chai latte for me- while I admit that I’m not quite ready to jump into Christmas planning, the holiday cups do make me happy. Hence the webcam picture.

Halloween was lovely, we had a great time (the Little Kidlet seems to prefer giving out candy to trick-or-treating). Someone that the Oldest Kidlet knows came to our house, though I have no idea who. “Trick or treat! Oh, hi [OK]‘s mom!” And he vanished before I could ask who it was dressed as Luigi! It was a little surreal to say the least.

The only downside was the nerds seemed to be the “cool” costume (aside from the plethora of Marios). As a nerd who was picked on and had friends who got it worse from bullies… I hate nerd costumes. It isn’t a fantasy you’re living out- it’s a costume you wear because it’s “funny.” Only you’re making fun of people that are already pegged in school as being unpopular. So if you’re a parent, I urge you to rethink letting the your kids dress as a nerd. It isn’t just a harmless joke for a night. It’s reinforcing stereotypes that perpetuate bullying. (Find other ways to celebrate nerds!)

If you missed it, this week I blogged about the Kohl’s ads for the Narciso Rodriguez collection. It features two extremely thin models and actually makes the clothes look bad. Take a peek at the post if you haven’t, and please… let Kohl’s know that you think it’s irresponsible to air an ad that promotes unhealthy ideals of beauty- because there’s no way that either of those women are healthy.

Happy Halloween! In case you don’t follow me on Twitter, Tumblr or “the book” – here’s a picture of my kidlets.

This was how our day started. The skies were chilly, and the fog was thick. Sort of the perfect weather to start off Halloween with!

So far we’ve had a busy day. TheBoy took the Oldest Kidlet’s costume parade, and I took the Little Kidlet’s (since I was also helping out with his class’ Halloween party- to help his teachers feel more comfortable with the allergies). So I was at one school all morning, and then picked up the Oldest Kidlet from school and went right back for Parent-Teacher Conferences. Phew!

I’m getting a breather while the kidlets visit their local great-grandparents.

As I was writing this, I got an email from LOFT (Of the Ann Taylor family of stores, Ann Inc, actually) called “We Hope You’re Safe & Sound”. As I’ve seen a lot of companies try to capitalize on the aftermath of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy… I braced myself. And this is what I saw (click to see it full time).

They sent out an email with that message from their CEO- which not only offered their sympathy to those affected, it advised their customers that they’re based in NY and Connecticut and are also affected, and reassured us that their focus isn’t just on getting their business back up and running, but to ensure the safety and well-being of their associates.

Now that is how you handle PR.

Not like the Gap, which had this to say (I have to use my tweet, because they deleted the original tweet):

CLASSY. #headdesk RT @gap All impacted by #Sandy, stay safe! We’ll be doing lots of Gap.comshopping today. How about you?

— Whitney Drake (@whitneyd) October 29, 2012

Yeesh.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone- and be safe!

After last week’s admission that I put off sewing Halloween costumes until the last minute, I should explain how I handled my deadline of 4pm on Saturday.

Thursday I cheated on my diet and made myself feel horribly sick. Sometimes I can gluten myself and get away with it. That was not one of those days. So I curled up in a ball that night and went to sleep early.

Friday morning, I took the kids to school. I washed the fabric, finished altering patterns, and started cutting out the pieces, pinning them as I went. This took a bit of time, but things were going well. I’d been running on Red Bull that day, and around 7:30, I hit a wall. The Red Bull wall is definitely worse than a normal sort of caffeine wall. It was only after I drank 2 full glasses of water that I started to recover and was able to get the boys up to bed.

After bedtime, I came down, popped in Sleepy Hollow and resumed cutting and pinning. I’d finished cutting out their breeches, waistcoats (vests to you non-pirates) and one shirt. And ran out of pins. Since it was late at night, I couldn’t go buy any. So I knew I had to start sewing so that I could get pins.

I started to sew the first pair of breeches. Not just what I’d pinned, but the outer seams and crotch so that it’d be ready for a kidlet to try on. Then I sewed parts of a waistcoat, and went to start on the next breeches, but realized I was seeing double. It was already 10:30 pm.

I caught some Z’s, and bright and early Saturday, I picked up where I left off. Wisely, I tried the breeches on the Oldest Kidlet, and put in the elastic. One thing down. From there, it was a flurry of sewing. Until I realized I still hadn’t cut out that last shirt.

By the time I finished the last elastic cuff on that last shirt, it was 3 pm. About an hour after my original estimate (that morning I’d said I’d be done by two), but I hadn’t accounted for things like bathroom breaks and eating.

If you look closely at this one, you can see threads that I hadn’t trimmed yet, but those are the costumes! The Oldest Kidlet is holding a book about pirates because his school did a literary costume parade- you had to tie your costume to something published. It was so hard to find a book about pirates. (I’m kidding. We have a lot of them)

We later replaced the green sashes with red scarves, and the hats and swords were something that the boys already had (dollar section hats and the swords were from Disneyland). No fancy boot covers, but the boys didn’t care- they had a fantastic time at the Halloween party on Saturday night, and a great time on Halloween (both at school and trick-or-treating).

I bought pretty decent fabric for these costumes- I wanted them to be wearable (and washable) as play clothes. I’m not 100% happy with the pattern for the shirt, and probably should have made the breeches a bit longer- but really, I’m proud of these costumes.

If you’re just starting out in sewing, I promise that you can make a costume like this. It just takes a little planning. But my tip? No matter what skill level, if you’re working on a project, get a big trashbag for your scraps and don’t empty it. Inevitably, you’ll throw out some elastic, a cut piece or part of your pattern- and if you keep the trashbag next to your work station instead of emptying it regularly, it’ll be much easier to track down anything you accidentally threw away. (I didn’t throw anything away this time. But I did learn this lesson when I sewed my own pirate costume years ago)

Next year, I WILL start earlier. But I was able to down down and pull this off (it’s in my genes- I have mentioned my mom is an amazing costumer, right? I can’t tell you the number of times I saw her get a last minute costume order from a dance company and come up with something amazing). Of course, in the process I got myself re-addicted to caffeine. The price you pay for procrastinating, I guess.

I didn’t go costume-less. I have a bunch of things that I can throw together for costumes- bits and pieces from past Comic Con costumes, weapons I collected for costumes that never came together, and corsets and hats that I liked and said I’d wear someday. Here’s my costume.

Lion tamer! Though I was lion-less. I bought the corset last year (it’s a little long for my torso, I admit), and the bullwhip was a gift years and years ago.

That’s right- just keep around a few handy items and you can always pull together a costume.

Day 1 of NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month – where I write a blog post every single day)

My name is Whitney, and I’m a procrastinator. (Hi, Whitney)

Time and time again, I start an ambitious project with a deadline and then keep convincing myself I still have time to finish it. This time, it’s two Halloween costumes that I have to have finished by Saturday afternoon. So far I’ve copied the pattern for the shirt (I spent $12 on that pattern, and it looks like one I’ll be able to use as they get older. So I’m not going to chop it up when they’re tiny). Tonight I’ll make the pattern for their vests and pants. (Want to make your own patterns? For $5 you can buy a roll of art paper at Michael’s in their kids’ section. It’s meant for easels, and only 18″ wide, but it’s a snap to tape parts together and it’s sturdy enough that it won’t accidentally tear like the regular pattern.

Thankfully, I’m not new to sewing. Once I get everything cut, assembling it will be a snap.

The downside of putting off buying everything for sewing costumes is that in the end, you’re stuck with buying what will work- at a price that’s usually higher. Had I started to assemble these during the summer like I’d originally planned, I could have looked for fabric in Downtown LA where it’s unbelievably cheap. Heck, I would have had time to distress them so they didn’t look brand new.

Oh well, lesson learned. (While I put off my original costume concept- which was going to be Sheik from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I do have enough bits and pieces to actually pull together an awesome Halloween costume. I think you’ll like it.)

Though I do have a bit of good news to report. I’m on day 6 of my first week of the 250 word challenge, in which I write 250 words, six days a week. If you look at the bar to the right, you’ll see that I’ve already exceeded it- and I still have one more day in the week. It resets on Friday. So at least there’s something I’m not behind on.

Another bit of good news? The Oldest Kidlet actually slept through the entire night. You’d think this is crazy for a 6 year old, but for the last year he’s woken up at least once a night for almost the entire year. Heck, I might use the humidifier every damn night if it helps him hit a deeper sleep.

Here’s to hoping that everyone out there has a productive and happy Wednesday.

Any procrastinators out there? Anyone recovered from this maddening curse? Feel free to commiserate or share your tips.

This is a tale of half-hearted Halloweens and cat pee.

My kids are at that stage where they’re just starting to get Halloween. The little one is a little scare of decorations, but the older one is embracing all of that. We’d had big plans for the weekend. We were going to a family Halloween party on Saturday night (which is pretty big- they get one of the cousins to DJ and there are decorations and games), but TheBoy was exhausted from a long work week. It seemed pretty silly to drag two already cranky boys out, as well as a sleepy husband just so that I could have a little fun, and suicidal for me to attempt it by myself. So we stayed in.

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…or at least the Halloween Costume Parade. Remember those? I loved walking through all the classrooms, and showing off my outfit.

Well, yesterday was the oldest kidlet’s turn. The Preschool had a big day planned. The costume parade followed by a Halloween party of epic proportions. The parents were all assigned things to bring. Because I noticed the sign up sheet late, I brought strawberries. Ooooo.

Now, when the boys were out with the in-laws, they spotted the Halloween costumes as Costco and quickly convinced my in-laws to buy them costumes. The in-laws did so, and smartly hid them away from where the boys would see them. My mother-in-law and I had even hatched a great plan to make the day easy for me to handle. She stayed home for the first part of the day, and kept the little one home with her. I’d get to take the oldest one to school, take video of the parade and get some pictures.

As I was sneaking the costume out of the closet, the little one saw it. I was worried he’d want to go with me, and that’d involve packing snacks and all the other paraphenalia you need for a 3 year old with serious allergies. Not to mention, get him dressed, finish getting the Oldest Kidlet dressed- all with 5 minutes before we had to leave.

Instead, I gave him the sword from his costume, and he went back to the movie he was watching. Crisis averted.

Dressed the oldest kidlet in his costume, and I took the obligatory pictures. At first, he didn’t want to wear the helmet- but once we told him it looked good, he wouldn’t take it off. Honestly. We got to school, and his teacher asked if he wanted to take it off. “No, Miss K—, it looks pretty.”

I went to a nearby Starbucks to get some caffeine. Unfortunately, this one was in a grocery store. I don’t know what it is, but I never seem to have luck with those Starbucks. My drink orders are usually wrong, or I have to explain something. My drink order- “a grande chai latte with an extra pump of chai.” What can I say? When I make them at home, I make them strong. (For those wondering- when you get them at a Starbucks, there’s usually a little water in the cup in addition to the chai mix and milk) They looked at me like they couldn’t understand me. “Did she say foam,” one of them asked the other. “No, she said an extra pump.” Then to me, he said. “I’m not sure what that means.”

So I smiled, and patiently replied, “You know how you put in a certain amount of pumps of the chai mix? You just put in one extra.” So they made me my drink and I left. I went back to the school, grabbed my tripod and went to the preschool yard to stake out a spot where I could film the whole thing. I wound up with a spot a little in a sun, and then dealt with a bunch of rude parents who tried to get in front of my camera. Finally, I brokered a deal. I wasn’t going to film all the classes, so as long as they let me have a clear shot for my son’s, we were fine.

Out he walked… and no smile at all. He was serious and all about walking around the courtyard and doing everything he was asked. (Of course, we just got back his school picture, and it’s serious as well) Highlights of the costume parade- it’s a Lutheran run school, so having them play the Time Warp to get the crowd warmed up was pretty funny. There was a kid dressed as a pokéball, one of the few completely homemade costumes. And it was nice to see that my son’s class was the only class where all the kids marched, and nobody cried. (Also, they got to march to the Ghostbusters theme, which was another bonus)

Afterwards, the kids all did a preschool-wide dance and everyone went back to their classrooms for snack. I had to work to get the kidlet out of his costume and into regular clothes. In the end, it was the idea that he might get it dirty while playing outside that got him to change.

It was a great day, and ultimately, he had a great time. But boy, I was exhausted by the end of it!

This was meant to post yesterday, but didn’t. Oops.

I admit it- I am horrible when it comes to planning parties for the little guy. He has some major food allergies, but isn’t anaphylactic. So I tend to just make him one thing and another for everyone else. Since I’m going to start experimenting more with allergen free baking, that will likely change in the future.

We’ve had two nights with the boys in their new beds (pictures forthcoming) and things have gone well. I didn’t expect the oldest to have a problem- since he was going from a toddler bed to a twin sized bed. The little one? He was still in a crib. So every night I’ve put him to bed, I’ve had to lay in bed with him and let him get used to the space around him.

The first morning, he stayed in bed as though he were still in his crib. (Yes, he was almost 3 and in a crib, and still didn’t climb out of it. His big brother was barely a year old and climbed out all the time.) Now, this morning, he didn’t leave the room but did get out of bed to grab some books- and climbed right back up into bed to look at them.

I have been having some serious cases of the forgets. I did a load of towels yesterday and completely forgot to take them upstairs. I’d see them and think, I’ll take them upstairs the next time I go up, and then… I’d forget.

Preschool isn’t helping matters. Yesterday I realized that I had one day to get some orders for the school’s fundraiser (to get new bark for the play yard, as well as some new curriculum materials). So I badgered the family to each pick out a few things, and got the order in on time.

Today was the preschool’s pumpkin patch day- where the kids all get to pick a pumpkin from the school’s “patch.” I didn’t get to watch the festivities, but they had Halloween cookies for snack and had apple cider. The oldest kidlet was so proud of the pumpkin he picked. Though I sort of cringed when I saw it- no stem, and there’s a crack in the top. But he’s in love with it. Which is what matters. This weekend we’re going to carve it so that it looks like Jack Skellington. His request.