10/20/07 Katrina's costume

I have to thank my friend Jodie profusely for pointing me to this costume.

A purchased costume. I didn't make this one. I didn't stand on line for half an hour at Jo-Ann Fabrics buying $30 worth of fabric and materials. I didn't drive back and forth to Michael's ten times. I didn't stay up past midnight. I didn't turn my thumbs into mini-swiss cheese sewing velcro. I didn't make something only to discover I'd made a huge mistake and had to re-do it. I didn't struggle with figuring out how to spread netting across wire to make wings.

No, I'm saving all that for Gabriel's costume.

Katrina's, I clicked a few buttons and spent $6.99, courtesy Jodie. Then I bought a reusable black turtleneck and tights, courtesy Old Navy and Gymboree.

And how CUTE is this!! It worked perfectly. I had low expectations that she'd wear the antenna headband, but to my surprise, she tolerated it just long enough for a few photos. I wouldn't have made the little mesh wings, since ladybugs don't have wings like that, but it's so cute that I can live with a little anatomical incorrectness. I'm loving this costume-purchase thing.


We went to the Las Madres 2006 group's Halloween party today, a sweet low-key event for which the highlight was a short "parade" and an attempt at a group photo. Katrina was ultra-grumpy on the way there, despite having just woken up from a nap, had just had a snack, and a clean diaper -- check, check, check. But the distraction of the other kids and a table with crayons and coloring-book pages helped her forget the grumpiness. (She loves holding crayons and trying to "draw," she does it a lot at home too, way way more than I remember her brothers doing.)

Back at home, I got a few outdoor photos too.


We were late to the party because Katrina was napping, her one nap of today, which started about 1:30pm. The two-to-one nap transition is well underway!

Gabriel and Julian are having so much fun singing "Yankee Doodle" (Julian learned it at preschool) that Gabriel had to write out the entire first verse. He asked me how to spell many of the words ("riding," "feather," "called,") but filled in many of the shorter connecting words himself. I was impressed, he did a neat and thorough job. Then Katrina got a hold of the paper, and he had to do it all over again. But he didn't complain at all. Julian would have caught hell if he'd wrecked Gabriel's paper!

That reminds me, today Julian showed me a paper he'd done at preschool, in which there were rows of objects. The task was to circle the object that is the same as the first object in the row. Trouble is, at first, I didn't believe Julian that it was his work -- because that's exactly the sort of thing Gabriel does for his homework. Gabriel has an awful lot of stupid schoolwork. I can't even tell it apart from Julian's!

I had a horrible night last night, with scary dreams, restlessness, pain pooling in my temple, pressure in my head waking me up numerous times. The "scary" dreams don't sound so bad when I'm awake: we'd sold our house and bought another, and as we drove up to it, I suddenly realized there were no trees at all in the whole neighborhood, and the houses were all white and all exactly the same, and I was devastated that we'd sold our house. Sounds goofy, but I was shaken and very relieved when I woke up! I've had some staggering "icepick migraine" moments today with sudden white-hot searing stabs of pain in my eyes, one of which just about knocked me down.

And now, I'm watching the beginning of the movie Psycho on AMC. The shower scene is just starting. WHAT TIMING! Zse! Zse! Zse! AGGGGH!!!!

Wait, a rescue...I'll take a look at this again....

Ahh, now all is well and good with the world. Headaches? Nightmares? Horror movies? Not a chance against this cuteness and innocence!

10/20/07