Otto and I have been fiddling around with paper crafts this week. Once we finished with the awesome robot kit I found, I became obsessed and found so many more online that you can print yourself! Thick card stock, a sharp X-acto knife, and a color printer are all we need to rule over our own universe of dinosaurs, the Copernican solar system, and subduction zones. Oh, and a space hotel, too! Muhahahaha!
Once almost all our dinosaurs fell in the subduction zones or moved into the space hotels, Otto got bored and mumbled something about preferring to build real robots. I, on the other hand, am now obsessed with paper. So I moved on to time machines. "Out of a Delorean?" you ask. Yes, of course. What else? Now I just have to find some uranium. Or invent Mr. Fusion. Then I can travel back in time to the time of castles and knights and take the last remaining dinosaur with me. Siege weapons will rule the day!
Then back in the real world, I can print out a planisphere to use with Otto and John to find constellations at night. Perhaps we'll take up astronomy with earnest next!
The only drawback to my new hobby? Papercuts.
The other day I planned to go out shopping to buy Otto some new socks. He must be battling Orcs with his feet because every pair of his socks are filled with holes! Unfortunately, the snowy weather kept me inside. I secretly love it when that happens. But apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo that it is springtime now? It was so snowy that Otto barely made it to the school bus. I could see his little head bobbing above the top of the snow, in the narrow crevice that John had carved out before work.
I decided to shop online instead.
One thing I like about shopping online is that it is easy to comparison shop without leaving your cushy office chair! I didn't even have to change out of my robot pajamas. I eventually managed to find awesome glow-in-the-dark space socks for a good price, but the price was so good that I didn't fill my basket with enough for the free shipping. Such is the curse that are online discounts.
I think websites ought to make a new category entitled "Items under $5 that you might need to fill out your order that you will eventually use even if you don't quite need them yet." I'm often searching out $1 and $2 items to get to the free shipping threshold. It's harder than you'd think! Pencils come in a gross. Even granola bars come in a package of six or twelve boxes. I kept adding inexpensive things until I got over the $25 limit. So when my package finally arrives, it will have a book, Otto's socks, crackers, toothpaste, and a small package of emery boards.
I love ordering so many disparate things! When I open the box, I will pretend that we're all lost on a desert island and we got lucky enough to get a care package from a passing airplane. Everything I ordered could be handy in such a situation. After all, you don't want to snag your nail on a coconut!
As a total comic girl, I saved my pennies to get new comic books as they came out. I loved Teen Titans and X-Men were my favorites. No matter that the other girls looked at me, Barbies in hand, with expressions of utter bafflement on their faces. I loved my comic books. (Though not so much that I'm not selling them off slowly to pay for Otto's college education!)
So when Otto came along, I wanted to suck him into the comic universe. I found some really cute or weird comic books intended for very young children. Once he stopped drooling on them and using them as stepstools, I set him free to read and pick out his own. His favorites were OwlyArchie. But of course I also had him read plenty of X-Men. Our weekly trips to the comic book store, Otto still in his stroller, were met with curious glances.
So it's no wonder that these days he's often elbow deep in his own comic book wonderland. Granted, that isn't very high, but comics are quite thin. So, yeah, that's a lot of comics.
These days, his swirling vortex of entropy (i.e., his room) is filled with a different kind of comic. I was concerned for a while that the comics Otto chose to read were giving him a ridiculously stilted view of life and interpersonal relationships. So I took away his Archie comics and bought him some Manga. Manga has been around for a long time, but I'd never read it when I was a kid. But now... the Japanese certainly know how to entertain the geeky masses!
Watching Otto get lost in comic books made me nostalgic for the days when my face was buried in the newest issue. So he's re-inspired me, and I've found some really fantastic books that appeal to me as a grown-up. So now I curl up with a mug of tea, Earl Grey, hot, along with books such as Mouse Guard or the Marvel Illustrated series.
And maybe someday I'll "borrow" one of Otto's books so I can figure out why he's so obsessed with Fullmetal Alchemist. I hope it has to do with alchemy and not the fact that the story involves cute girls in skirts that are WAY too short. Just so long as he doesn't pass it off as a science book. I know better.
and, strangely enough,
It's been like The Shire around our house lately. Everything's been about fantasy. John and Otto have played hours of Castle Quest. Their D&D character sheets cover the kitchen table. I even found some of their game pieces in my coupon drawer! This is really getting out of hand. (Plus, I don't see why they don't organize everything nicely in a binder, as I do with mine.)
And John's taken up sewing. In his brief stretches of spare time between video games and D&D campaigns, he is making D&D costumes for Otto and himself. He has read some sewing books, made some sketches, taken measurements, dug out my old sewing machine, and even braved the fabric store. Most nights I hear the whirring of the sewing machine long after I'm in bed. He's taken over the dining room table with earth-toned fabrics and various metal accessories. I can't wait to see the end results, but I'd also like our horizontal surfaces back. We've been eating on the counter for a week!
I have to admit, though, I wish he was making me a costume, too. A cape please? Maybe I'll send him and Otto to Costco so I can whip up something for myself while they're gone. That is if I can find the shopping list among the characters, stats, and dice. Can't let them have all the fun!
Otto and I have been fiddling around with paper crafts this week. Once we finished with the awesome robot kit I found, I became obsessed and found so many more online that you can print yourself! Thick card stock, a sharp X-acto knife, and a color printer are all we need to rule over our own universe of dinosaurs, the Copernican solar system, and subduction zones. Oh, and a space hotel, too! Muhahahaha!
