October Creation

Original inspiration for Scarlett's costume here. 

I consider this a success! It's not nearly as fancy as the its "original," but who cares?

She looked adorable for our ward party.

Ender is making a great Batman face (not that he truly knows who Batman is...). The lovely little hands sticking out behind my head are a wreath on the door made by Ender, not a hairpiece. 

Scarlett the Jellyfish! Ender the crazy Batman!

I was a flapper.

Michael was an aviator/pilot guy. The picture doesn't do his outfit justice
(I'm so sorry...I am not so great at taking pictures).
Michael looked fantastic, you'll have to take my word for it.

This kind of sums up Ender's evening! He was hyper. I'll be honest, it was a bit of a difficult night.
But inbetween his bouts of hypercranky, he was hyperhappy.
And what else would you expect on a night that you can fill a bucket with candy and dress up cool?

Here are two pictures of the jellyfish costume. Why? Um, because one picture shows how the fabric is kind of gauzy/shimmery....and between the two, you get the true color...
Oh whatever, I think I'm the only one who cares about that!
But I'm proud of it! I think this is my first time sewing with elastic! 

Bald Babies

I have to admit that bald babies catch me off-guard a little. Kind of makes me go "Wait, where's their hair? What happened to them?" I'm just so used to Scarlett! She has a lot of hair, and it's crazy hair.
But for all those mothers of bald babies out there, here's some encouragement. A reason to be grateful for your baby's peach fuzz:

This morning, Scarlett cried for a while before I got her up. I didn't mean to take so long to get out of bed, it's just that when I'm sick like this, it's even harder to wake up and separate dreams from reality. I dreamed I got up and put my contacts in and everything, but then I'd hazily wake up a minute later and realize I was still in bed.
So while I was having these reality show dreams ("my life but not really") mixed in with annoying dreams of some guy's dog trying to bite off my neck while I pried away its sharp jaws (yeah, what?!), Scarlett was crying. And she has a cold. That equals lots and lots of snot. Do you see where this is going?
On occasion, we come get her in the morning to find that she has a strand of hair stuck up her nose in the sticky boogers. It's unfortunate and gross, but oh well. We clean her up and that's it. And I do put her hair up for bed most of the time, but that's no guarantee it will still be out of her face in the morning.
When I finally hobbled out of bed, feeling utterly sick (it happens to be "that time of the month" on top of all this), I found her with a web of gooey hair all over her face. Dried and fresh snot and boogers all over the place. Snot down the front of her nightgown, snot making her hair coil up in spiral curlies with boogers anchoring them to her nose and eyes and mouth. It was so disgusting, and I definitely felt bad for having let her cry for so long (I'm so sorry-- I didn't mean to).
What's maybe worse is that all I could do was brush everything out of her hair, clean things up with a wipe, and put her in fresh clothes. I am so exhausted, I don't think I can monitor a bath for her. My stupid cold is hitting me bad today, and my period is actually really painful this time. It hurts. I'm so tired and achy that I'm not even taking advantage of the gorgeous rain to read a book-- and that's a huge deal.
Not to turn this all into a pity party for myself! Really, it's sad for Scarlett. :(

Well, there you go. Bald babies (or boy babies who don't need the hair) have an advantage. And their mommies do too.

....goodnight. I think Scarlett and I will both take a nap. Hopefully her current hair design keeps the boogies out (it's sort of a mohawk of pony-buns...my creativity factory is broken) (or on the fritz, which is more likely).

Furnace Guy

As a rule, when I'm home "alone" (the kids don't count for this), I don't let strangers into my house. Maybe that's extreme to some people, but it's the way we do things around here. 
A while back, some guy knocked on the door and asked if he could come in to check the furnace filter. 
He looked legitimate, but it was almost funny to me that he expected me to just let him in unannounced like that. I shook my head. "Not today." 
He gave me a confused look and said "You're not going to let me in?!" 
I smiled (couldn't help it) and said "Nnnnope!" 
He stomped off, annoyed. 
But seriously--no appointment, no warning, and he wants to come in? Is it weird that I was bothered by that? Wait, who cares if it's weird, because I am bothered by it, period. 

Today, our manager came by with a little note. It says: 

Attention Tenants:

Tomorrow, Dan will be replacing the furnace filter in your apartment. In order to do this in the most efficient manner possible, he will come into your apartment whether you are home or not. In addition to replacing the filter, bla bla bla bla. 
Thank You, 
Your Manager

I grinned. Yes! That is what I needed the first time! Some notice, some verification of Dan's purpose! Although I honestly don't like the fact that he's "authorized" to barge into my home whether I'm here or not (you can bet I will be here). I mean, that's kind of disgusting, isn't it? Why do they think they can do that? 
Still. I'm glad to have the note.