Five Ways I'm NOT Ready For School To Start Tomorrow

Every Summer, I think that we will fold right back into school when the times comes back around.  June 1st, I think the Summer is going to be as organized as the school year and as simple as a weekend. That makes sense, right? We can still be our regular, put-together selves for a 3-month long weekend, right?

Wrong. Wonderfully wrong.

Summer is joyful chaos in our house. Summer is messy, and funny, and full of spur-of-the-moment play dates and trips to the pool.  Summer is waking up late, skipping naps in lieu of playing outside, and going to bed late after eating ice cream at 8:30. Summer is Family Video Game Nights and building forts out of sheets that cover an entire room.

So why am I even a little surprised that today, the day before school starts for my big Second Grader, I am still in my pajamas at 9:30 am, blogging and drinking coffee as if it were still the middle of June? I'm procrastinating like the first day of school is more of a chore than a milestone. I am waiting to the very last minute to give up this summer, because it has been a good one. I am just not ready for school to start.


1. I'm not ready to get up early.  Let's all face it, getting to occasionally sleep past 7:30 is one of the best perks of being a stay-at-home mom. The day my kids figured out how to go downstairs and watch an episode of Pokemon by themselves in the morning was a great day for me. I feel guilty about getting to sleep in for three whole months of the year when my husband still wakes up at 6:30 every day, but it's a perk I take full advantage of in the summer. So my kids roll out of bed when they feel like it, watch 23 minutes of Netflix and then I get up and make them breakfast while we figure out what the day will hold. Starting tomorrow, I will wake them up at 6:40, herd their drowsy bums down the stairs to eat breakfast like zombies and then load them in the car. I drink coffee and sometimes a shake on the way to the school, almost always still in my pajamas. Nope. Not ready for that either.

2. I'm not ready for homework.  Homework is great. It grows minds, teaches responsibility and time management. It lets me see what cool things my kid is learning at school. But let's face it, homework for a Second Grader is almost more homework for Mom. His homework folder comes home and it is my job to make sure he sits down and completes it all. I have to check his answers.Not doing well on a spelling test? Your mom must not being studying with you.Handwriting needs improving? Work on it more at home. I feel like at this age, it's not homework for the kid, it's homework for the parent. And don't even get me started on the guilt of not knowing when it's his day to take snack!

3. I'm not read to make lunches.  It sounds dumb, but picky eaters are hard to pack lunches for. At home, I can do a number of warm things that will appease the pickiness, but when I am suddenly limited to cold things, it feels like all I send with him is bagels and PB&J. I had planned to make his favorite strawberry banana jam, have it all canned and ready to go for the first day. My bananas are on the counter, gnats buzzing around them, and my strawberries are still not out of the freezer. But hey, there are a lot of days in the year, right? I'm sure he'll have the right jam by Christmas.

4. Emotionally, I'm pushing it all down.  Other mom's are super excited for their kids' new adventures and making new friends this year. I dread losing six hours a day with my kiddo and sending him off into what I can only hope will be a "green day" every day. I have to hope that he finds a few good friends who will include him. School is not easy for my son. He has been diagnosed with AD/HD on and off and is on medication. (Yes, I tried everything else first. Thank you for you concern.) He deals with a great deal of anxiety and frustration over it all, and spends a lot of time in trouble at school. I don't enjoy getting phone calls from the school at dinner time, or worse, during the day when he's still there. I don't enjoy dropping him off every morning after praying all night for a good, positive day.That is a routine I'm not ready to start again.

5. I'm not ready to let him do it alone. I love watching my sons grow up. They are amazing, smart, caring, hilarious balls of energy. And I miss watching it when he's at school. I miss him terribly and I worry about him ceaselessly. I want nothing more in the world than for him to make tons of friends, be happy, enjoy all the great things that school has to offer! But the fear of letting him do it on his own...that ugly fear of anyone ever hurting him when I'm not there to fix it... that is the hardest part. I don't want some other kid to break that part of my son that is so special. And here I am, sending him off into a sea of kids who may or may not get how special and awesome he is. And I want to yell out the window, "No matter what anyone says, no matter what happens, I love you!" It's scary to drive away.


So I'm not ready for school to start tomorrow. It's 11:00 pm, and I'm still up writing. And maybe I'll make his lunch before I go to bed to buy myself a few extra minutes in the morning.

Still, that greatness in my son came out at bed time tonight.
I told him, "Tomorrow is the first day of school."
He replied, "Yep. But it's not going to be scary, right?"
"No," I said. "Of course not."
He laid his head down and said, "Yep. I've already done this before. It's going to be easy."

The Cosplay Kids - Noel Kreiss and Hope Esteim

In our house, geek chic is a lifestyle choice. Our living room has framed Boba Fett artwork from Star Wars Celebration VI and VII. Our family room has a collection of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter replicas on display, swords and wands, respectively. And our closets are no exception. Costumes are a big thing.

And I'm not talking about Halloween costumes either. Halloween is just a bonus day. I call it "Nerd in Public Day." I get to wear my costumes to the grocery store and to my sons' schools instead of to a convention or a Rebel Legion charity event. Costumes are a way of life for my husband and me.

So it was no surprise to me when my then-6-year-old son came to me and asked what he should be for Denver Comic Con. He quickly ousted the regular choices -- Power Rangers, Avengers, Spiderman -- and decided on a character from Final Fantasy XIII-2, a game we had been playing together over the Winter Break. He was going to be Noel Kreiss.  I was thrilled. Not only did he choose something that fit his personality and was "less mainstream" than most of the kids who would be there, he also chose something that I, with my minimal sewing skills, could make for him.

I Quickly Learned: Do not make a child's costume too complex. The goal is for him to be COMFORTABLE and RECOGNIZABLE; screen accuracy is just a bonus. 

I chose the important parts. The shirt, with all it's bright embellishments, would be the most important. A pair of puffy blue pants, the belts, a little armor on one arm, and a flaming sword. 

I bought a regular black T shirt at Walmart a size too big and starting cutting. I cut the collar to a V-neck, cut the hems off of the sleeves, and cut all the way down the front so it opened like a jacket. Then I found some great ribbon online in a brocade pattern that looked similar to both Noel's shirt pattern and the pattern around the hem of his pants. 

 

I knew the shirt was the most vital piece. It was closest to his face and would be most noticeable, so I put more time into this. 

For the stripes along the collar, I bought blue bias tape, white bias tape, thin yellow double-folded bias tape, and fabric markers. 

First, I had to duplicate the horizontal stripes because I knew I wasn't going to find a ribbon to match it (trust me, I tried.) I chose to make my own. I used the fabric markers to make the stripes on the white bias tape and then sewed it along the side to the blue bias tape, making the wide piece for the collar. I measured this so it was the same width as my brocade ribbon that would run down the front. 

I then sewed a stripe of yellow horizontally across one end of the strip and a piece of white bias tape that I had colored the correct shade light blue with the fabric markers. I sewed the whole thing to long pieces of the brocade. Then I attached each strip to the open "lapels" of the shirt and used the yellow bias tape to hide the edges and give it the finished look of Noel's shirt. I also used the yellow bias tape on the ends of the sleeves and around the collar.  

To close it all up, I put hook and eye closures all down the front. It makes it more comfortable than sewing it all together and it made it lay better. 

I chose to leave off the leather armor for my son's comfort and because I didn't feel like the discomfort and "floppyness" of it was worth it for recognition. I also tried to make the necklace, but it was too heavy and he wouldn't wear it. 

I Quickly Learned: Don't make a complex piece that your child won't even try on or resists in any way. It would be a shame to put hours into something they won't wear. Forcing them to wear it doesn't work either.

The back of Noel's shirt has a very distinct design on it. It is the seal of a Guardian of the Seer and I wanted to be sure to include it. I found a similar image online and then added some gibberish text in a similar font I found online.

I put it on the shirt using printable T-shirt iron-ons for dark fabric. 

I made the pants. Yes, I know. It sounds scary. There are lots of great tutorials out there though to make simple kids pants. They are REALLY simple, and not very well made, to be honest. They are the first item of clothing I have ever made from scratch. But they have an elastic waist band for comfort, and I just used a basic pajama pant pattern, shortened the legs and lowered the crotch. Then I added my brocade ribbon. Tada!

The belts were easy too. I found a light blue scarf the right color at a thrift store and just cut it to fit. The yellow belt is just that, a yellow belt, I think off of a ladies' dress I found at a thrift store. I punched holes in it, added grommets, and put tassels from the home decorating department in them. The third belt is just a plain leather belt, tied long. 

The arm band I made out of a small piece of upholstery vinyl and made a few leather knot buttons by tying knots repeatedly (and tightly) in a length of leather cord. It wasn't fancy. I did this on purpose because I knew that, of all the items he was wearing, it would be the first to get sweaty and uncomfortable. He ended up wearing it all day, but at least I was prepared.

I Quickly Learned: Skip anything that will make them less comfortable. I skipped heavy leather or metal pieces (the round washer at the end of the belt, the leather shoulder pieces, etc.). Give them comfortable shoes instead of making screen accurate ones. I may be okay wearing crazy-heeled, lace up boots with my costume, but my kid has to take twice as many steps as I do.  Instead, he wore his sandals.

Weapons sounded like fun. My husband was even totally on board for making Noel's awesome two-sided flaming sword. I was looking for a toy sword to use as a base, when we found the one my son ended up carrying. It was a How To Train Your Dragon flaming sword, and although it wasn't a perfect match, the concept of a flaming sword was there, it was made of foam so it was light, and it was only $15. Sold.

 I Quickly Learned: Don't let them take lots of accessories. Even this ONE SWORD ended up strapped to my back with a piece of twine we mooched off of a vendor friend, and I was dressed as a My Little Pony. Kids don't like to carry things for long. 

The Little Brother

Little brother was a very different story. He rarely wanted to wear costumes, unless they were totally and completely his idea, and this tended to happen very last-minute. He was not into planning ahead. After Big Brother chose his costume, and after watching a few fittings, Little Brother wanted to be Hope Esteim, also from the Final Fantasy XIII series.  

At first, I planned to go all out for him too. And then I remembered how many Halloween costumes he usually "decides" on before he chooses the final one. 

So I took it easy on the Hope costume. I found a yellow button up denim-ish jacket at a thrift store, cut it short, and put white bias tape around the bottom and the sleeves. I put on two big buttons. I sewed a rectangle of orange flannel under the collar to look like the "cape."  Then I found a blue bandana, a white T shirt, and some grey shorts at Walmart.  I knew he would never wear gloves, so I skipped them all together. For his weapon, we found a yellow boomerang, also at Walmart. 

Then I waited for him to change his mind. He did. From Hope, to Spiderman, to the Red Ranger, and then he was GOING to be Ironman the day of the Con. That morning, he saw Big Brother sword fighting with his flame sword and decided he was going to be Hope again.  I was glad I got his costume together, but also glad I didn't put more than an hour or two into it. Had he decided to go as Ironman, it would not have broken my heart. 

  

Are they perfect costumes? No, but did they make my kids really happy and make them feel like part of the cosplay world at Denver Comic Con? You bet! They had a blast and LOVED it when someone would recognize them as their character. If my goal was to get my kids to love dressing up and going to conventions, I feel like a success. Here's to a long life of family cosplay.

I Quickly Learned: DON'T wear you most awesome, complicated costume the day you take your kids to the Con. You will need both hands, lots of snacks, and need to be in total Mom- Mode. Mobility is a must. Heels are not.