Mommy, I want to be…

Yes, I know what you are thinking. In most circumstances, I’d agree. There is little with less snob value than NOVELTY YARN, and in a great many cases it does produce a “please step away from the needles” end result.

But Halloween is coming.

And in an effort to teach my Santa-obsessed child that there are holidays worth getting excited over that are not Christmas, I am working on Ian’s Halloween costume. So far, about 80% of the time, he wants to be Splat the Cat.

So that’s where we’re headed- A Splat the Cat Hat. (Insert Dr. Seuss joke here.) I am holding some black eyelash yarn double with some black Impeccable, and I’m working 3 stitches to the inch on 6 mm circular needles. I cast on 54 stitches for my three year old, or 18″ around. I’ll begin the decreases after 4.5″ of stockinette.

Stay tuned for the ears, eyes, and tail.

The world’s lowest quality educational aide

Well, what was I supposed to do? The kid asked me “Where is October, Mommy?”

I thought surely some better artist than I would have thought of this, created a nice version, and have posted it on the internet SOMEWHERE, but no. So hear me, those of you with even the smallest smidgen of artistic ability: design a calendar wheel and sticker set for the Gregorian Calendar. Make it cute. Make it colorful, laminated, and sturdy, and I’ll totally buy that off you. In fact, I’ll set it up to sell on the Joy Troupe website.

Seriously, just look at me trying to draw “in like a lion, out like a lamb” for my kid. Take my $10 and spare me the embarrassment.

Learning at the Farmer’s Market

“M&Ms have letters. But they are for eating, not for playing.”

And, an update on the Christmas Tree Query.  Mommy got a 4′ artificial tree from Freecycle.org, which we are looking forward to decorating with our friends this year.  Ian was carrying part of it around this morning when I overheard this conversation:

Daddy: Ian, what are you doing?
Ian: I’m breaking ground here.
Daddy:  That’s a bad idea.
Ian: Well, I’m just trying to plant this tree.

Mommy interjected at this point to request that we please not either break ground OR plant any trees inside the actual house.

Ian’s Personal Art Gallery

Small children actually enjoy fine art, and of course there are a bevy of experts telling you that you “should” expose them to it for their “development.”  The dryness of that advice aside, we do like to give Ian the opportunity to see and experience fine art without having to practice his “museum manners” at the same time.

Daddy’s idea of how to do this is a good one- when fine art calendars go on sale (usually in January or February) he buys a couple for peanuts, then uses spray adhesive and foam core board to create an art gallery in our hallway that is just at Ian’s eye level.

This latest time Ian helped. Not only was he involved in the construction of the posters, Daddy said, “show me where to hang this,” and Ian picked the height himself.  Then the judicious application of a level and adhesive velcro tape finished it off.

Mommy’s approach to this is to laminate 5×7 art cards and put them in thrift store frames.  Here’s an example from the “dress up” area: