The Bat

Shhh!  He's sleeping now, but just wait 'til the sun goes down...

Tooth Fairy

Last night, the tooth fairy came to our house for the very first time...

In exchange for Diego's first lost tooth, he got a two dollar bill, a tiny coin from Guatemala, a congratulatory note and a honey stick.  The Tooth Fairy also left dozens of shiny footprints all over the bedside table.  They were so tiny!

Cat and Mouse Costumes

A few years ago, I made this simple mouse costume for Diego:

                                         Photo by the great Sharon Montrose (Lucky us!)

He was also wearing matching brown pants and brown sandals.  A 14" long, tapered tail that was made out of the same fabric as the ears was tucked into the back of his pants.  He was absurdly cute in this costume, especially when he got into it and acted like a mouse, which he did EVERY SINGLE DAY until Christmas.

I think some fantastic toddler costumes can be made very simply using solid colored matching pants and shirts, with just one or two other accessories.  That way, if the costume does become a favorite, it's easy to wash, easy to get on and off in a hurry, and comfortable for play time.

Here's a picture of Ruben from last year, when he needed a quick NEW costume right before a Halloween party (!):

                                                                  (photo credit unknown)

I grabbed some kitty ears that we already had in our dress up box, and made very simple sock paws with white stitches out of some of Joe's black socks.  He wore a black turtleneck, black pants, black shoes and black eyeliner whiskers.  He had another long black sock safety pinned onto the back of his pants (I think I just stuffed it with another sock).  The paws were a great success for Ruben.  I think that because they were the part of the costume that he could see and interact with all the time, they really brought it alive for him.  When he put them on, he clearly felt like he became a cat.

This year our costumes will be a little more elaborate, but I do love the simplicity of these old favorites.

Hummingbird Resting, Grooming, Gone

Nature Imitates Nature

Halloween Costumes (part 1)

We've been making a lot of these:

Involving these:

and this:

 

I think I've talked them out of this:

So, I was playing around with another XXL t-shirt, when I discovered that this could be the perfect (!!!) body for Ruben's BAT costume:

Does my drawing make sense?  The t-shirt is upside down.  I put elastic through the bottom hem, just like in these skirts.  I turned it inside out and stitched it along the dashed line.  I cut two arm holes where you see those two vertical lines.  His legs come out of what were once the t-shirt sleeves.  This is so simple that it has already taken me much longer to write this post than it did to make the costume!  This is just the beginning for our bat, but it would be a very cute body for many toddler-preschooler animal costumes.

It's really stretchy around the neck, which you need for easy on/off.  He says it is very comfortable.

He gets into character as soon as he puts it on.  I love that.  I'll show you more pictures when he has wings!

Fork Fangs!

I just remembered this old cafeteria trick:

 BWA-ha-ha-ha-ha!