make it work

Jafta is my crafty little kid. He is always coming up with creative solutions for the things he wants, and this often involves dressing up like someone else. Like when he was watching football with Mark, and he suddenly bolted out of the room and re-emerged with two rolls of toilet paper under his shirt, declaring himself a “USC football guy”:

And then, a few days later, he came up with a better solution, using his skateboard pads on his shoulders:

He has also been asking for an ipod so he could “go on a run” like I do. I found a little flash drive at Target that plays MP3’s through earbuds. It was $9.99, and holds 40 songs. I loaded it with High School Musical and Ozomatli, and he is convinced it’s an ipod just like mine. The problem was, the earbuds wouldn’t stay in his little ears. I bought him an old-school set of headphones, but he wasn’t having that. He ran to his room, and came out with a sweatband that would go around his ears and hold the earbuds in. And then he went on that run.

My little problem-solver.

He has also been begging me – BEGGING ME – for a Robin Hood costume. He and Mark have been reading the book, and he is a little obsessed with Robin Hood right now. (By the way, in case you were interested, the actual book of Robin Hood is NOT the same plot as the cartoon movie, and completely inappropriate for small children, as we discovered upon reading aloud. Which is probably why he loves it.)

I’ve had a little trouble finding a Robin Hood costume (more on that later), so he has taken it upon himself to create his own Robin Hood costume. In his mind, this involves three elements:
1) a skirt
2) a hat
3) an arrow coming out of the hat

His first attempt involved finding a sunhat that a relative left at our house. Then, when India went to the bathroom, he seized his opportunity and stole her skirt. He ran into the living room declaring himself to be Robin Hood, and India ran into the living room screaming about her stolen skirt. I scolded him, but not before snapping a picture of the debacle. It’s a little fuzzy, but that’s the best I could do. Notice the skirtless, angry India in the corner:

His second attempt was less violating, but not much closer to looking authentic. This time, he used his blanket as the skirt and a swimcap as his hat (with compulsory arrow, of course). He was pretty pleased with himself:
I was fine with this get-up until we had a costume event to attend. I tried to get Jafta to wear one of the store-bought superhero costumes he owns, but he was dead-set on being Robin Hood. He even laid out his swimcap and blanket before the event. Now, I am all for encouraging Jafta to think outside the box, but I was not gonna have my son show up to a party wearing a blanket skirt and a swimcap. Nooo. Lucky for me, I had some extra fabric laying around, and so I crafted it into a tunic and belt, and then I found an online tutorial and made him a Robin Hood hat:

I know you are reading this and marveling at my sewing abilities and general craftiness. And I know what you are thinking: I could totally go on Project Runway and win. I know. I am amazing.Hopefully someone will read this post and just forward me straight to Fashion Week.