Last Wednesday when I decided I would make K a Thomas to go with his costume, I was envisioning it being a simple task - tape some cardboard together, paper mache it (just as I'd done for his pinata), and paint. But, rarely ever does a project go as planned.
Things started out well. I got the boxes taped together just as K was waking from a nap. He saw it and knew it was Thomas straight away. He spent the next hour or so waking around inside Thomas. I was worried he'd ruin it, as it was just a weak cardboard structure, so I made him stop with the promise that he could use it again soon. That night, after he was asleep, it was time to get paper mache-ing.
The paper mache bit went really well, everything was still going along swimmingly.
I wanted to make sure that Thomas was dry by morning, so I put him in our shower with the drying mode turned on and went to bed knowing that I was way ahead of the game! It was only Wednesday night and all I had left was to paint.
I woke up Thursday morning to find this:
A bowed box that was supposed to be Thomas. Gaaaa!!! I called my parents for advice on how to fix it. My mom suggested getting a new box and just covering it with duct tape and my dad suggested getting really thin wood and starting over. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I had used all of the boxes we had on hand, so I seriously had to think of something. Finally, I remembered that the grocery store has boxes you can take for free. Yay for our local grocery store! I grabbed a few boxes and then some duct tape from the 100 yen store. That night, I got to covering and taping.
Although the inside is (obviously) just as bowed as the outside, I didn't have it in me to cover the inside as well. So, only the outside is flat. And even that isn't perfect.
After all of that, I worked out that the blue paint wouldn't cover the brown tape very well. Crisis #2. After painting the front face part, I had to stop for the night since I was beat and all of the shops were closed. Also, I had to think up with a new strategy. The next day Y had the day off, so while K was napping I ran off to the 100 yen shop to come up with a plan. While I did that, I had Y cut holes into the top so K could carry Thomas easily.
I ended up buying black and white duct tape (they didn't have any blue) and figured I could just paint the white as necessary. I ended up sending Y back to get some red since tape is a heck of a lot faster to deal with than paint. Thomas got a second layer of duct tape and then a coating paint. I had to put some white tape in the bottom black area so that I could paint on some wheels.
By Friday night, Thomas was all painted and ready for Saturday's party. Phew! We kept Thomas hidden from K until it was time to go to the party. When we brought it out, K had the biggest smile on his face and just said, "Thomas!" When he gets overwhelmed, he tends to get really quiet. He really didn't say much, he just looked at it and asked to get in. As I mentioned in yesterday's post he hardly got out of Thomas the for entire party. He just sat in it, proud as could be.
After waking from his nap, he spent the entire evening playing with the "big Thomas." It was time for dinner and he refused to sit in his seat. He brought Thomas over next to my chair and made me feed him while he sat on a pillow that we placed in Thomas so he wouldn't have to stand the whole time.
He is still smitten with Thomas and to be honest, I'm stoked. Making him was a bit more involved than I had anticipated and I would have been pretty bummed if K wouldn't have had any interest in him. We are having the final Halloween party tomorrow. All of the boys coming really like Thomas. As lame as this is, I think I am going to put Thomas away during the party. K is really quite good at sharing his toys, but I imagine this would be off limits.
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