Super butterfly and dragon for Halloween

The pink spiderman kitty butterfly just wasn't quite going well... so I opted for Super Butterfly (seen previously with different wings and no antennae) for Halloween.  We found a dress in some handmedowns from long ago that had butterfly sequined images on it - and it sealed the deal.  She is enjoying it and saying she is going to fight zombies in her Super Butterfly costume, and save the day.

Super Butterfly!

As I was putting the photograph together she said she just wanted one of those Esme's to come be her friend and they would be in the dark together and not be scared because they would be two friends  Poor kid - she did want to be twins, I think.  As her expressiveness continues to improve she has told me this story often about how we need to go have another Esme to play with her and have her live here in our house so she will not be sad. 

She has her party today at the school - the teachers were in costume and they had a table full of food in the inside gym.  It looks like it will be fun.  Still thinking about what we might do later... the weather is quite cold!

Having a thoughtful moment

Surreal life of dragons who sew 

 Little girl took a nap - and Daddy said I needed a costume, too. I built this out of a knit hat I already had and a baseball cap from work.

Other notes:  Yes - I bought the cake mix today.  I can stop mentioning it and reminding myself of it now  Oh, wait, now I will have to remind myself to make it with the decoration, the 'five' candle and the pink gel for writing her name on it :)

I woke her up from her nap and the hat was scary!

 

It wasn't all that scary...

And here we are posing together before we take off...

Note://  We went to a local trunk or treat on invitation from the daughter of one of the Trunkers.  I still felt guilty because no one knew us, felt like crashing  We did half the round and then went out for a milkshake and a french fry  Esme had a good time and she talked about it a lot.  She is really making headway with understandable sentence structure and was able to describe a lot of what we had done all day over the milkshake and french fry.

Butterfly costume preview

She is a super Butterfly that fights zombies.  I have her hair freshly washed but have to brush it out and braid it up tomorrow morning before school.  We've been given the '411' on an event later on tomorrow night but are not sure if we will attend... see what happens.  She has a velvet dress with sparkly butterfly rhinestones on it that I hope she will fit into - or her black dress with silver sequins... which may actually be more 'fitting' and I know it fits her as well. 

Other notes:  working on the quilt top... have wednesday thursday off.. Esme is playing Skyrim with Daddy and telling him to get his guy puddle power so he can splash in the water.  I still need to buy the cake mix for the party and the other groceries...

bits

Esme ran up to me asking if the mail was toys for her.  I told her it was - but they were for her birthday party.  She then asked me if I had any toys for now.  Ha.  No.  So she tried to weasel the other ones out saying I could have a pretend birthday party so she could see the toys now.  No dice kid.  They went on the shelf when she wasn't looking - still in their manila envelopes.  One is actually a cake topper for the cake I have yet to get materials for.  The other is a k-oo-b by Syd Hoff that she does not yet own but I did have when I was a kid.  Mark was listening to the debate, Esme was watching My Little Pony and trying furiously for me to have a tea party with her.. but I fell asleep soon after dinner.  Esme was nice and tucked a kangaroo in with me before she went to my computer to play Minecraft until her bedtime.

I still have things to finish before the real winter gets here - but it is coming.  I likely need to make several long sleeved dresses to replace a few that are gone.. and pants.  But I have not sewed since the sponge bob doll (which was a hit... it has no face and just brown pants, but Esme loves it and sleeps with it as a pillow).  I am still working on Esme's blanket and am hanging up more beans to dry in the storage room.  I need to sort out the storage room and put things in closed containers now that they have dried..... Mark thinks something has been in there knocking things over.

Work now until Friday off... feels like there isn't much of me to go around even when I'm at work I need to split "myself" among two or three problems simultaneously just to help everyone and that isn't working very well!  I have received a few high praises to the manager for it - but my brain feels drained afterwards and rarely after a customer interaction I feel like just falling into a million pieces on the floor and saying 'pick me up in five minutes, okay?' but gravity keeps it from happening, so... I turn and run after the next problem that comes in front of me without really centering.

Styling

Esme styling wearing my blanket and sunglasses in the house, at night.  I am off work for Sunday - which is good... been working straight all week long.  I've been knitting on Esme's blanket (pink, blue and purple version of same) and wonder if it will be done by her birthday.  I'm thinking about more birthday things - have to ask Grandma some things about using the office up there for her guest(s)?  I told Mark the blanket colors (which started out as scraps and I bought some items today to extend it) remind me of Esme's unicorn we bought for her birthday... and I asked if it then was unicorn puke with all the yarn stretched out...

cool fact: cowpeas have 2.5 to 3 percent pressable oil, which is expressed mostly as trigylcerides containing unsaturated fatty acids, mostly phytosterols and  tocopherols - the first being studied as a blocker for cholesterol and the second an antioxidant component of vitamin E similar to olive oil.  (percentage cite from pdf: Pak.J.Bot 42(2) 1333-1341, 2010 found through Wikipedia, other chem knowledge from wikipedia)  The other night when I was peeling and shelling cowpeas Mark was drawn from the upstairs and said he thought he has smelled olive oil.  I find that a very cool connection.  I am very glad the Whipporwill cowpeas that I bought through Etsy - from a farm in Waverly, TN- have taken so well to our soil and given me so much food and seed in return.  They want to be 'late season' crops, though... last year as well the late season ones did the very best of all.

Other notes:  Esme's speech is taking off - she has so much more to say now... and boy does she say it!  It is still strangely worded/structured at times, but she accepts corrections well and has such a large imagination, creativity to her play and her building and her stories... still demanding Napoleon attitude, though.. .have to work on that part probably for the next thirteen years!

I can hardly recall exactly the streams she goes off on now - she is 'imaginative' and sometimes downright facetious, as well...  She wanted a third glass of juice last night after dinner and we told her she would have to wait until one of us went back downstairs.  So - she said she would go get water *cough cough* because she was feeling sick.  She came back upstairs and said she felt all better now, let's play.  She also told me during dinner she did not need to eat because her teacher told her she was done.  *roll eyes*  Really now.  When, last week?  She is very very interested in decorating for a party (she can say 'decorating' now, too!) and pretends she is doing it, talks about doing it - makes tea parties for her toys ...  I think of the difference since last January and ... it blows me away.

A Toy turtle and a bucket and minecraft creations

Esme playing outside with her toy turtle, a balloon and a bucket full of water.   She was filling the balloon with water and having the turtle use it as a cup of magic that turned into a money bag then back into water..??  I'm not sure where it comes from half the time, now as much as before even though I hear more of the contents of her imagination now than ever before.

She had told me she was a boy, with a message (a leaf) that said she missed her house and her family was in the woods and she had escaped the bears that were attacking and they needed help!  But, she quickly said they were alright, they were alive - and she was here to play.  It is a little cold out for this playing in the water she is doing, had to bring her in and change shoes out once already.  And now I am about to drag her in for a bath before a warm dinner and hopefully she will comply.  Daddy has porkchops in the oven and I have a butternut type squash in there, as well.   Esme  has been absolutely full of energy today since going to town with Mom and Grandma earlier... she needs to work a little bit of it off for Mom's sanity, perhaps?

And also - this is what she spends most of her time doing when she is not outside playing in the mud and water. It is her latest edition of Minecraft - we make her a new world every few days to a week because she fills them up so much with cows and chickens it is hard to keep the processing speed up.  Mom and Dad have their own separate worlds to play in, and she is not allowed to spawn millions of chickens in them.

The tall blue spires are water that can be swum up and 'rode' down.
I did help her make a railway that went to this 'jungle' from the village, but cows and chickens keep getting in the way when we ride it.

She spent a lot of time making this garden today before we went to town. 

 

She is fond of pink wool, and for some reason she finds it very funny to replace blocks in the village houses (which are prebuilt in this game) with pumpkins. She fills the houses up with water as well and makes 'pools' serving them cake blocks and having 'parties'. There is a row of beds outside one of the houses so they can all take a nap when they are done with the party. There are a few signs all over the place that say 'dog' and 'egg' on them and other words she has attempted to spell but needed help with.