October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween... Baaaa!

costume - sheep 4

The sheep costume was a big hit! How cute is she?

costume - sheep 5

I went mostly with the Martha Stewart instructions, but didn't use a "leotard" and instead went with a white tee a few sizes too big with the sleeves and collar chopped off. Also I just made the hat from two semi-circles of black jersey instead of searching for a "pilot's cap," whatever that might be. Total cost of costume? $8 - for each for the black knit pants and tee from Target. Watching her prance around saying "Baaa"? Priceless. Of course she refused to actually say it to anyone in the office building where we just went trick-or-treating, choosing instead to hide behind my leg with a big smile. Which is very apropos this family, considering I had totally paralyzing shyness until I was twelve.

costume - sheep 3

Look, I made a flock!

costume - sheep 2

The staff of this office goes all out - seriously, every single person there was wearing a costume - and Lara was totally into all the decorations. She was dancing around with this skeleton for quite some time, holding its hands with hers.

costume - sheep 1

And this dangling spider was a big hit with all the kids... until they finally ripped it down. Lara kept yelling, "I want to go back to the spider!" the whole time we were going around the trick-or-treat line, but of course by the time we got back it was lying in a mangled mess on the floor, with a few guilty-looking kids peering at it.

October 29, 2008

I Caved...

... and am going with a sheep for Lara's costume. In my defense, at least she'll be really warm, which is a must since it's suddenly forty degrees outside. Here is the wool part, as modeled by a ginormous stuffed monkey:



Yesterday we went to the aquarium, which has decided on rather a morbid set of displays to commemorate Halloween. I'm glad Lara cared not a whit about what might have killed and dessicated this guy and instead mostly wanted to play with the rubber snakes swarming over his corpse.



I mean, I'm not wrong, am I? With the head turned in a my-neck-was-snapped fashion? And the mouth open in a howl and everything? Maybe it's a bit much for the under 5 crowd? Ah, well.

October 26, 2008

Morning at the Museum

We explored the newly relocated and renovated Please Touch Museum yesterday, and it is really like nothing I have ever seen before. Now housed in a breathtaking - and totally restored - Beaux Arts mansion, it is a beautifully designed expansion of everything the old tiny one in the middle of Center City had to offer.



And when I say expansion? I mean expansion. They have an enormous indoor carousel there! If you are anywhere near this area, you should really come to check it out. It's totally amazing.

Lara loved the parts of it that we explored yesterday (it's so huge that we didn't even get to see everything!), mostly the car area. She really couldn't keep her eyes off the ceiling, though:



We're going to go back today, I hope!

October 23, 2008

Fall Flowers and the Pipeline

Flowers from Linda

Thank you so much for these beautiful asters, Linda! They look perfect in the afternoon sunlight and are making smile as I look at them. (Oh, and everyone feel free to mock me if I just betrayed my deep, and at this point probably irreversible, botanical ignorance. I feel like my reaction to flora has a touch of Frankenstein's monster about it. "Flowers! Good. Smell.")

New Prototype

Also, I'm designing a new cardboard-y thing, something full-scale again, like the kitchen. This is a half-assembled prototype, but I think I'm going to leave it a mystery for now. Oooh, can you stand the suspense?

In Halloween news, I'm now a little torn between the Star Trek uniform (really tempting because really, how many years are left before Lara demands the pink princess getup and thinks her parents owning the DVDs for all seven seasons of Next Generation a fact far too deeply mortifying to ever be exposed to the light of day?), and this really cute sheep costume from Martha Stewart. I'm not sure I'm feeling up to doing that much work with batting....

October 21, 2008

Extremely Cautious Optimism

First of all, thank you so much to everyone who's left comments wondering how/where we are. You are all lovely, and I am moved to find that you are concerned. I won't say this is a return for good, because clearly promising that in the various last posts has been for naught - so instead I'll just say that today was a good day. Lots of smiles,



some curiosity,



and much happy giggling all around.



Each of which is quite a soothing balm for the soul.

Today was also Lara's first trip to the dentist, which discomfort she bore with minimal crying and general stoicism - and, as an extra bonus, no cavities! Yay us with the (some would say spotty) brushing!

And while filling out all sorts of forms at the dentist's office, I kept having to write out today's date, so that it finally dawned on me - Halloween is ten days away! We have no costume in sight! So, dear Internet friends, before I am reduced to scouring the mall for some pink getup, I welcome any and all of your suggestions! The main limitation is that the costume have no head piece - she's become quite hat/headband averse. What are your kids wearing? Is it lame to dress Lara up in a Star Trek uniform if she has no clue what that is (that's my latest and greatest idea)? Or is it cool to display our interests through our child?