Halloween is not my holiday — the itchy costumes, the cold walk home from the party, and the 43 decorative skeletons, witches and ghouls that have filled my neighbor’s yard since September 2nd leading to a mini traffic jam outside my house as others slow down to inspect the display. But Sloane? Sloane loves Halloween. To a four-year-old, it’s pure magic: you get to be whoever you want, knock on strangers’ doors, and they give you candy. Her eyes light up at every jack-o’-lantern. She’s been planning her costumes (plural) since Christmas. And watching her excitement makes it really hard to stay grumpy.
This year, she decided on Princess Peach for a party costume (she has a separate school costume and another trick-or-treating costume). And because I apparently can’t say no to that little face, she also decided that I’d be Luigi. Not Mario, mind you. Luigi. The sidekick.
So on Saturday night, a 44-year-old attorney donned a pair of overalls, an electric green trucker hat, and a mustache stuck to her upper lip with spirit gum. I spent all night trailing behind a tiny pink princess with a candy bucket, posing for photos, and waiting in an endless line for balloon animals. And all night, as I inhaled strands of fake hair, I tried to remember that someday she won’t want me to dress up with her, and I’ll miss being her sidekick.
Achoo! Three times this fall, I have thought I was about to get really sick. And if you’ve read this blog for a while, you know that when I get sick, I stay sick for a long time. But all three times, I had less than 36-hours of mild-moderate symptoms and then, full recovery. The only thing I’m doing differently is taking this supplement. Like I said last week, I’m not a doctor, this is not medical advice. It is purely an anecdotal observation from taking two pills every day and six when illness is present in my home.
Yipes, Stripes. Remember when people made quality clothing? When clothes didn’t fall apart after the fifth wash? When material didn’t feel like cellophane? Me too. Now, quality is a rare bird in these woods. AYR makes the best long sleeve tees. They’re spendy, but they’re worth it. I wear mine every week.
Holiday Spirit. It’s not November, but I have already started planning Christmas decor. I promised Sloane we would decorate a bit more this year. And I think this kid-friendly, charming decor is the direction we’re heading in.
Soup Season. I have mentioned before that Kyle will not eat soup (or beans), and oh, how I miss making white chicken chili when the weather turns cold. Add in a small freezer, mostly stocked with chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries, and I was without soup for a few years. But recently, we bought a fridge-freezer for our garage, the ultimate symbol of middle-class wealth, and I am planning to make a large batch of chili and a large batch of squash soup in my Caraway stock pot, and use the Souper Cubes I bought last winter to save it. I am so excited to eat soup this winter.
Pin It On. For a few weeks, I’ve been shopping for a large canvas pinboard. But anything over 36″ wide is so expensive. Last week, the algorithm fed me a video tutorial on how to make an oversized pinboard using fabric-covered foam insulation. It was like an answer to a prayer. I plan to make two for my office and add a picture light over the top.
Dystopian. This Marissa Mayer interview has gone viral. The former Yahoo! CEO, most famous for taking just two weeks of maternity leave because watching soap operas and scrapbooking wasn’t her thing, is now leading Dazzle, an AI platform for women that promises to reduce your mental load. And women have thoughts about her product. So many thoughts. Because most of us don’t need an AI to help us figure out the best three words to describe our own children for a school assignment (a real issue for Mayer, apparently).
We all struggle with the mental load of motherhood. But is the solution outsourcing those tasks to an AI? For me, the real issue is that most two-parent households don’t divide the labor — mental and physical — equally. So outsourcing tasks to a computer doesn’t fix the uneven distribution of parenting labor. Instead, it allows parents who don’t do their share to offer up a mythical techno-genie as the solution to maternal burnout, while continuing to shirk responsibility for that labor and require the mother to train, optimize and utilize the AI. Because unless Claude learns how to wash and fold, chop and dice, or babysit my daughter while I’m working late, an LLM isn’t the solution for this mother.
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As a mom to a 4-year-old who is going as Buzz Lightyear and has insisted that I go as Woody, in a yellow plaid shirt that does nothing for me, thanks for the perspective. These days are numbered and cherished. At least I found a cool cowboy hat.
The toddler is Curious George, the baby is also Curious George, and I am pretty excited with the nice quality yellow tee and ball cap I had made at our local t shirt shop.
My daughter dressed up at the Little Mermaid last year and her baby sister was Flounder. I pitched Ursula, Sebastian, and a mermaid sister but she insisted on…Scuttle. #sexyhalloween indeed.
The things we do for our children: My older son was Sloane’s age during the original Star Wars mania. He raced around our house with his pajama legs tucked into his socks and brandishing a lightsaber because he was, of course, Luke Skywalker. In my role as an intergalactic adversary, I was directed to stomp around after young Luke, wearing an upside down laundry basket on my head, because, as I’m sure you will have realized, I was an Imperial Walker. I was always relieved that he didn’t want his socks to get dirty, so Luke and I never went outside.