in which i defend my use of a store-bought costume 2009/11/11

{Just another way in which my “ideals” of parenting have changed since actually becoming a parent}

Not only did I expect to make my child’s costume from scratch before becoming a parent, I even looked down upon those who didn’t.  How lazy, I thought, of those parents.  But I also saw it as a creativity problem; what are we teaching our children by allowing them to “order” their costume online?  Isn’t the point of Halloween (other than the massive amounts of candy and something about the devil)  to be creative??

Then, I became a parent.

Also, I’m a big fan of “theme” costumes.

Last year, after deciding on the theme of Little Bo Peep who’s lost her Sheep, complete with scary Wolf-Daddy, I knew that I could not even begin to make a costume as cute as the little lamb I found online.

only costume worthy of henri's cuteness factor

I mean, come on.  This costume is so cute that when I tried to resell it online, all I got was emails from random strangers about how cute my kid was.  And, yes, he’s cute by himself–but with The Lamb Costume on…this is “shit your pants” cute.

So then, my ideal had been broken and it was perfectly okay, nay, desirable, for me to order a Curious George costume that costs $20 this year.  I didn’t realize how quickly my scruples would drop, nor how low…

Luckily, my mother-in-law saved my poor Henri from this {potential} debacle by finding a Very Expensively Made tiger costume at the Weston Dump  (Read: Untapped Resource).  The only problem with this is that as the cuteness factor continues to rise without any creative input from mom-mom, the ideal–or the possibility of Ever making a costume for h-man–sinks lower and lower and lower.  Oops…there it went.  Lost it!

Tigers Do Not Smile

feeding vs. scrapbooking…which is really more important? 2008/01/11

i was doing some research on feeding schedules (which was NOT helpful AT ALL…) and came across a “tip” that told me never to prop my baby up with the bottle.  instead, i should always hold him while feeding.

um…oops.  i knew i was lazy…but i kind of figured that any savvy parent would eventually come up with a fallproof feeding method that doesn’t include their arm, hand or lap falling asleep.  but i guess not.  i guess i’m just *really* lazy.

however, i’m going to continue propping my baby up, because i think he really likes it.  it’s like “alone time” for both of us…unlike the rest of the day/night, which is NOT alone time at all…ever…even when we’re both sleeping…or not really sleeping but resting our eyes until the next bottle-feed…

to make up for this naughty parenting, i’m going to spend some time finishing up his memory book from the “Greatest Baby Shower of All” day o’ fun.  my plan is to glue each of the cards he got to some nice black scrapbook paper and then store them in the same binder as his “Henri: Past, Present & Future” surveys.  it’s going to be so fun looking through this book when he gets old enough to understand who all of these people that love him are.  (and it’s totally going to make up for any lack in parenting on my part.)  i can’t wait!