Mama Squirrel

All Creatures Maimed and Broken

A few months ago The Mister made this video of Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess talking about every doll or stuffed animal they've cared enough to name.  I'm not sharing this because I expect you to watch the entire 22 minute extravaganza, but there are a couple of reasons why I wanted to mention it here.

 

First, I think it was a novel idea for a home movie that I'll appreciate even more when the girls have outgrown these dolls and stuffed animals.  (Or in the cases of those scary baby dolls, when they leave in the middle of the night to go live with another family.)

 The second reason I wanted to share this today is because I noticed that in the movie several of the animals have  colorful tape "casts" wound around one or more of their limbs.  I'm not sure if the toys are clumsy or if they fight while we sleep, but there seems to be an increasing number of injured animals around here.

The game will start suddenly.  One of the girls will be looking at a book when she suddenly lifts up head, jumps up and states (a la Wonderpets) "There's an animal in trouble!"

The child who makes the declaration will then attempt to throw her voice to simulate the distress call of a small injured creature cowering in a remote corner of the house.  Both girls will run upstairs or into the next room and, after some rustling  emerge with their newest patient, cuddling it while crooning and stroking its fur.    Legs, paws, tails, fins and backs are healed with masking tape and index cards.  Usually this is all that was necessary, but some animals like Annie the Horse require a more complicated, involved treatment.

I'm not sure what happened to poor Annie, but apparently the only cure for what ailed her involved tissues being taped all over her body.  Medicine was then administered by applying water to the tissues with a paint brush.  

Hmm...looks like certain spots needed to be treated with colored bits of tissue paper as well.  The whole procedure was performed in hushed tones and with the kind of hyper focus I hope my actual doctors give to their work.

 Admittedly, this is one of the less environmentally-friendly games played here at Casa de Costello what with the tape and tissues.  But the compassion the girls show for each other and their patient during this type of play is so good to watch.

Little Red Four Year Old

Before we get too far away from the birth month of The Milk Belly Princess, I would like to share some pieces of her birthday party with you.  Seven little girls gathered at BAYarts on a Saturday afternoon to help us celebrate.  Per the request of The Milk Belly Princess, the theme was Little Red Riding Hood, a theme she decided on at this time last year.  In fact, last spring,  when the local JoAnn Fabrics went out of business, I bought an entire bolt of red felt at their clearance sale.  I had lofty goals of making little red riding hoods for all of the guests.  Then, as the year wore on and it was time to start making the hoods, I began to wonder whether they would look as adorable as I'd originally envisoned.  Would The Milk Belly Princess and her friends look like the sweet protagonist of her favorite fairy tale, or would they seem more like tiny druids?  

In the end, my mother, The Amazing Grammy Susan, made one beautiful red riding hood as seen here, being modeled by Miss Milk Belly herself.

I thought it would be cute to have a photo booth where each guest could dress up and pose for a picture with her basket for granny, but my little one was the only one who wanted to do this.  

We began with snacks of fruit.  I tried to make the beautiful "Marshrooms" that I found here, but they did not look as beautiful as they did in the picture that inspired me.  I wasn't sure how to keep the apple tops from sliding off the marshmallows.  Toothpicks seemed risky with such little kids, but the marshmallow fluff I used as glue was too slippery.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that I'm not the first mama to fail at something she saw on Pinterest, so I'm not going to let it get me down.  

My wonderful friend Laura painted hands and faces,

We played "Pin the Hood on Little Red" with the game board courtesy of The Mister.

Then it was time to sing our baby into another year.  I wish I knew what she was thinking here.

Once again our favorite birthday cake bakery did not disappoint and created this delicious cake to fit our theme:

After the cake, it was time for our final craft, decorating our very own basket to take to grandmother's house.  I looked long and hard to find a craft that would fit our theme, but this was silly.  Little kids like to paint, regardless of what it is.  It's more about the sensation of touching and pushing paint than creating a final product.  

Really, this could be said about children's parties in general.  Instead of obsessing over themes I should savor the pushing paint, the process, the moment, the gathering.  I spent a lot of time planning thematic crafts and games, but that was more for me than my youngest daughter.  At the end of the day, when I asked her about her favorite part of the party, she said it was "playing with balloons with my friends."  

Being Santa

Why is it that when I was young the month of December seemed to last for a hundred years, but now that I'm an adult the whole 31 day extravaganza lasts about five minutes?  

The girls are eagerly anticipated the arrival of The Jolly Old Elf.  So much so that he's worked his way into their imaginary play.  This morning, The Mister was called away from  the kitchen to obseve this little scenario:

Little Tiger used some yarn to make herself a harness and tied her reindeer self to the sleigh of The Milk Belly Princess. Here's a close up of Milk Belly Santa herself, ready to launch into the air and deliver gifts to the children of the world:

I am excited that even in their play Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess are on the giving end of Christmas, as they have been in real life as well.  Mysterious packages wrapped in tissue paper have started making their way home from school.  Last week, The Milk Belly Princess, accompanied by her teacher, walked down the hall at school and paid a visit to Little Tiger so she could present her with this:

She sewed a cuff (or "handcuff" as The Milk Belly Princess calls it) to match one she made for herself a couple of weeks ago.  I love that the girls go to a school where giving and craftiness are part of the school day.  Regardless of what happens between now and the end of grad school, I will always know that their first school experience was a good one.

I adore gifts the girls make at school, but we're busy at home as well, making final project choices for gifts to give to those we love.  If you're interested in getting crafty this week, but aren't sure where to start, allow me to make some recommendations.  Here are three really fun and inspiring posts from The Crafty Crow:

My favorite of the bunch is  this post full of adorable softie gifts for parents to make for kids.  One of the items on the list is the mermaid doll I featured in this post .  If stuffed animals aren't what you had in mind, the post called 21 Gifts Parents Can Make For Kids has instructions for making an easel and some rustic, yet lovely, wooden gnomes .  If your Christmas shopping and crafting is complete and what you really need is something your littles can make for their loved ones 20 Gifts Kids Can Make is an eclectic list containing everthing from paper mache pens to a bowl made of yarn and thread.

Regardless of what you're making or buying, remember any gift made or selected mindfully is something you can be proud of. 

Easter and Related Festivities

This year, my spring break was the week before Easter.  Although it means not having a vacation at the same time as my family, it did have perks.  I was able to pick the girls up from school and be on the receiving end of this:  Although I was on my own Monday-Thursday everyone was home on Friday for a long weekend.  On Saturday we invited some friends over for an egg-dyeing party. 
Growing up, we always put the egg dye in coffee mugs and tried to maneuver the eggs in and out of the dye with those dippers that look like bent coat hangers.  This year, my brilliant friend Miss A. had the idea of putting the dye in cereal bowls so they would be easier for the children to manipulate.  I can't believe that this thought never occurred to me. From now on, I'm always going to do it this way. 

After some egg decorating and lunch, it was time to head to the park for the annual Easter egg hunt.  At the starting line, no one had any idea of the mud pit that awaited us.  Although none of our crew found "the golden egg" it was still a lot of fun.  I used to do this hunt every year when I was a kid and have been looking forward to bringing my own children here pretty much since the day I was declared too old to hunt for myself.

On Sunday morning, we were excited to see that the Easter Bunny visited us in the night.
Notice that The Milk Belly Princess already has a chocolate mustache from eating a chocolate covered Peep as a pre-breakfast snack.  

One of the Easter traditions that I love is that every year the girls use the same Easter baskets that I made for them here when they were babies.  Both times, I picked out the design and wove them with some help from one of the expert Samuel Patterson weavers.

In the next post, I'll show you some close ups of the Easter gifts that were given and received.  It finally stopped raining long enough to go outside and take some pictures.