Doctor Who-loween (Part 2)

Once Connor found out that Cara was going to be the Tardis from Doctor Who for Halloween, he firmly decided that he wanted to be the Doctor.  Now, just which Doctor he would be was another question.

Again, for those of you not in the Doctor Who loop, there have been eleven different men playing the role of the Doctor throughout the show's fifty years, each with their own distinct look. My kids have only really been introduced to the last three, so the choice of which Doctor wasn't so difficult.

Connor opted to be the most recent (and youngest) Doctor and, after we ordered and received the sonic screwdriver (a non-weapon the Doctor uses which also varies from Doctor to Doctor) for the eleventh Doctor, it was easy to see why. We all took turns playing with this part of his costume, pressing the buttons to activate the sound and light.

Unlike Cara's intricate Tardis costume, Connor's costume was relatively easy.  I found a blazer at a used clothing store and sewed brown felt patches onto the elbows. I had fabric leftover from when I made the bow ties for Cara's shoes and I made a bow tie for Connor (and watched a YouTube video to show me how to actually tie it). A button-down shirt, skinny tan pants, and brown boot-like pointy shoes and he was all set.

The Doctor and his Tardis

Now, in addition to the recreational Halloween costumes, both Cara and Connor had costumes for a month-long Halloween project that they participate in at school. Each child in first through sixth grade selects a hero to study. They spend the month of October doing research on this person, making a portrait of their hero, and writing a report which they then present to the class at the end of the month.

Connor selected Dr. Seuss as his hero this year. Originally, he had been very reluctant to the idea of dressing up as this man, so I didn't worry too much about a costume. We had a sport coat and tie in our dress up stash that he could use and I popped the lenses out of some tortoise shell sunglasses to look like the glasses Dr. Seuss wore.  It must have been during the course of researching and writing that Connor changed his mind about dressing up. The night before Halloween hero day (or Halloween hero eve, as I'm going to call it) when I had laid out what I had pulled together for a costume, Connor insisted that he have a Dr. Seuss beard.  So, what do you do when a donkey who usually doesn't want to participate actually is excited about doing so? You make a beard out of felt, elastic, and yarn, of course!

The beard. A few choice words were uttered during the making of this beard. Mostly directed at the spiderweb of glue and fingers and yarn and felt fuzz.

When asked why Dr. Seuss, he replied, "He's the only famous person I know."  

Now,this is Cara's sixth Halloween hero and, this year, she selected Elizabeth Cady Stanton to research. Out of all that she learned about this amazing and outspoken woman, what stuck with her was how Elizabeth stood her ground, even when all those around her tried to convince her to give up. I listened to her talk with such passion about how horrible it was for Elizabeth's father to have said continuously to her that she couldn't do things because she was a girl. And the lightbulb went on for her. Wow. Women really were not treated well back in those days. Look at how far we've come.

Women's rights activist, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

I asked Cara if her father or I had ever told her that she couldn't do something because she was a girl. She thought for a moment and said that, no, we never had. Since Connor was present for this conversation and was listening intently, I decided to include him. "Have we ever told you that you can't do something because you're a boy?" This brother of an older sister says, "Paint my fingernails."

Two steps forward, one step back.

Two Kids. Same School.

As I've mentioned before, my two children have very different views of school.  So, it's fair to say that the mood in our house on the first day of school was a range of emotions.

You would have thought that Cara's first day back was Christmas. Ever since summer began, she had been waiting for this day. She's had her backpack ready for two weeks now. Her clothes for the first day week of school are all lined up and ready to go. She had trouble getting to sleep the night before and was up before her alarm, so eager was she for school to resume.

And this year, Connor will be going to the same school as his sister, which added a whole other level of excitement for Cara. She kept talking with Connor about how much fun the school is and describing all of the things that he might get to do while there.

Anyone who knows this blog or, better yet, knows my children, should know what's coming next.

The Donkey Factor.

With all of the energy and excitement my daughter was putting into talking up the school experience to her brother, he was using the same amount to dig his heels in about not wanting to go. He groused and grumbled about not wanting teachers to tell him what to do. When Cara would build the school up, he would try to hypothesize loopholes into her story. He even resorted to suggesting that he might just be "too sick to go to school" the night before. (Heaven help us when he learns to fake illness for longer than his normal attention span will allow.)

Tuesday morning came and both of the children were up and ready to go a lot quicker than I had expected.

We made it out the door in record time, which put us at the school early. A little too early. Their school does not really want kids to be dropped off earlier than 8:20 and here we were, 5 whole minutes before then.  We all sat in the car, waiting behind a few others for that magic time to arrive. This prolonged anticipation was too much for my son.

Connor announced that his throat hurt. Sometimes, this is code for "I'm gonna hurl". This time, I chalked it up to the cough he had from allergies. Until he spelled it out for us. "I feel like I have to throw up," he insisted. Craig suggested that the whole waiting game was allowing Connor's nerves to get the best of him. So, rebels that we are, we let the kids out of the car at 8:18 and watched them head off to school.

I waited most of the day, thinking that I might get a call from the school to come pick up my cookie-tossing son, but no such call came. And as I tend to do after a summer of thinking "I can't wait until they're back in school", I missed those two tremendously and counted down the time until I got to pick them up.

Pickup time came and my kids came towards my car. Cara had a huge smile plastered on her face and her donkey brother had a scowl. Great. As I prepare to hear how horrible this experience was just as he had predicted it would be, my son sternly asks, "Why do you have to be here so early? Why can't I stay for after school care, too?"

Teacher Trouble

Next month, Connor will finally be attending the same school as Cara.  While Cara has thought of school as one of her favorite places since she was about 3 (and still does at age 11 1/2), Connor would beg to differ.  Actually, he never begs to differ. He just differs.

As the summer ends and we approach the start of this new school year, I've been wondering how well things will go.  My worry is centered around whether Connor will have a hard time adjusting.

Before I attended the spring parent/teacher conference at Connor's old school, I asked my son what his teacher might say about him.  His thoughtful reply was, "My teacher thinks I'm challenging but actually, I'm the master."

I'm pretty sure my concerns should focus more on the well-being of his teacher.

Future Hermit

Connor: "I'm not going back to my school anymore."

Me: "Why not?"

Connor: (deep sigh) "I just wasn't born to go to school.  I was born to be by myself and make up my own rules."

I decide to play the "what if" game with him, asking him what his rules would be if he was by himself.  While I do believe that some of them are loosely based on Curious George episodes, I was pretty impressed that a boy who didn't like rules could actually come up with seven on his own.  

House Rule #1

You can paint inside or outside of the house on anything.

House Rule #2

You can eat bananas with your feet.

House Rule #3

There is no furniture, except for a dining table and chairs.

     Part of House Rule #3 is that there is a dining room.

House Rule #4

There is a TV and in order to watch TV, you have to sit on a dining chair.

House Rule #5

No coffee (When asked about this rule, he explained, "Because if I was a dad, I wouldn't like coffee.")

House Rule #6

You cannot make papier mache because if someone thinks it's a kind of a food, they won't like it.

House Rule #7

Five stools

Now, I'm not sure if these are going to be posted in his Fortress of Solitude, so you might want to make sure you commit them to memory before visiting.  And if you do visit, make sure you do NOT tell him what to do.