Boo!
Been a busy weekend round Ferguson/Tweddley Mansions.
Our 9 year old had a Halloween parade at his school this morning, and so the whole weekend has been dominated by what he would be wearing as a costume.
In my day, we had an old white bed sheet with two eye holes cut in it, et voila a ghost, and there were DEFINITELY no parades at school.
There was no "trick or treating." It was called "guising," and you'd get nothing but hot words and cold shoulder if you turned up on somebody's doorstep expecting anything without doing a party trick first.
Ah, the years I spent singing, "I'm a little teapot," under an old bed sheet.
(Maybe that should be my epitaph.)
Anyhoos, nowadays no self respecting 9 year old would even consider being 'a ghost'.
For mine, the theme of this year was Minecraft - it's a computer game thing, for those of you who don't have kids.
He had his heart set on being "a creeper," - a weird, black box-like figure that creeps around the game.
This costume he had in mind was not one that could be bought anywhere. It was a design in, "his mind's eye." (A mind's eye that kept going on and on and on about this costume all weekend.)
Finally, last night the costume was constructed, thanks to:
A mound of cardboard boxes.
Several rolls of back duct tape.
A roll of tin foil, two mini torches.
Four buttons.
Two purple shoe laces.
And a degree in engineering that my Mr. Tweddle picked up, by mistake, at University.
My 9 year old was overjoyed. Though the sheer amount of cardboard made it tricky to walk, and pretty much impossible to sit down or look anywhere other than straight ahead, he could not have been happier.
He went to bed without complaint (that never happens) and got up straight away this morning (that never happens either).
Then, he ate breakfast, packed his boxes neatly into a big Ikea bag, and headed off to school.
When Mr. Tweddle and I went to watch the parade, he was in full creeper mode.
Even the cardboard tubes around his legs could not hide him strutting like a rockstar. The great big cardboard hood that covered most of his face did not hide his pride, and the crazy hammer hand constructions on his arms did not, in any way, prevent him from high-fiving his adoring audience.
His joy was infectious. Half a ton of cardboard could not conceal it.
Watching him, I wondered where it changes: When is it that we learn to be so tentative, or to think our ideas are not good enough? When does shop bought become better than home made? When do we decide to follow the herd, rather than take the risk of embarrassment?
I thought about the things I do not do because I am too worried about how it will 'be seen'.
My 9 year old is afraid of invisible monsters, and so it would appear am I.
But though my 9-year-old's monsters could rip your arm off, or breathe 'real burning fire' in your face or cut off your legs with an axe (he has a vivid imagination), mine might remind you that you, "appear to have made a mistake," or "look ridiculous," or have gotten, "too big for your boots."
My son is dressed as a creeper, but the real creeper is me.
The parade ended and my son headed back into the classroom, and because I couldn't reach him, I called over and blew him a kiss. And even though it was a TOTALLY uncool thing to do, with his big hammer shaped hands, he blew me one back.
On the drive home I looked at all the decorations in peoples' front yards. There are skeletons and ghouls, gravestones and zombies, spiders and monster's hands and grinning pumpkins, which my 9 year old would tell you, when you look at them close up, they're really not scary at all.
Have a brilliant week!
Lynn
xox
November Course. Details here.
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