Dishwasher, meet Platypus

We recently had to buy a new dishwasher. This was due to a grim diagnosis given by the repair man (the appliance was, after all, fifteen years old.) We also needed to get rid of it because it was creating a puddle on the floor below it. My escapade to buy the thing is chronicled in an earlier post.

Anyway, our five-year-old took a shine to our brand new dishwasher, and it has become his not-so-imaginary friend. He talks to it, sometimes from across the room. He checks to make sure it is closed properly. And he invites it to dance with him. It doesn't seem to matter that the dishwasher never talks back, except when it delivers delightfully clean dishes.

Flash forward to Hallowe'en. My seven-year-old, for a long time, wanted to be Yoda this year. I went online to find a budget-friendly costume but didn't actually order one yet, which was a good call. About a week ago he changed his mind and declared that he wanted to be Perry the Platypus from the Disney show Phineas and Ferb. Why a platypus? He may be a cross-eyed teal colored lump some of the time but he's also a spy-- a semi-aquatic egg-laying mammal of action. Brown fedora and everything.

Once again I went online, only to discover that the show is too new to have an established line of costumes. Get with it, Disney! Usually you are so on top of things. I hit the fabric store and decided to make a teal-colored sweatsuit. The challenge? To find some creative way to attach a long, flat tail in such a way that he won't get a wedgie when he sits down. So that's my current project of desperation. I stayed up until 12:30 this morning in hopes of sewing enough of the costume that I could have him try the costume on, then I would hem the pants and sleeves while he was at school. But my two-year-old had other plans.

My alarm did not go off. Or should I say, the time was changed. By tiny fingers, I believe. I woke with a start and saw that it was too late to do any costume work before school. Aargggh! I stayed up late for nothing!!! As I frantically packed lunches and prepared breakfast and dressed children I heard my five-year-old say, from the next room,

"Watch out for the platypus, Mr. Dishwasher."