Days of Our Lives

“Ummi, can we take this box?”

Since October, I’ve had boxes lying around in the house, and since October, I have been packing, and since October, my life has been put on hold. Well, not completely on hold, but to a certain extent at least. I guess I can blame it on my extreme dislike for last minute work, that I started packing in October. I expected to move out sometime after December, but alhamdulillah, things turned around, and we stayed.

And now, the packing has somewhat resumed, but not full throttle. Thus, I had empty boxes lying around, which the kids saw as opportunities for unleashing their creativity on.

Without much interest or care, I nodded, thinking that we would find more empty boxes later on.

So they did what they wanted with that empty box, and before I knew it, they had created something that I overlooked for days before curiosity and fascination overtook me.

This morning, as I labeled the photos, I asked them the names of each crocheted character. As S told me, she paused and said,

“Well, actually, they’re characters from a book, so maybe you shouldn’t put them on the blog.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because it might be plagiarism or something.”

To be honest, I don’t know the complete in and out of the plagiarism, but I don’t think kids creating something in imitation of a copyrighted character is plagiarism. Is it?

The Ugly Guide.

This was the book that drew sighs and groans and slaps on the foreheads from both hubby and me, especially when even Baby Z started to carry it with him everywhere. He even fell asleep with that book by his head. He seemed to particularly be drawn to that book, maybe because of its illustrations. So we had the kids return the book.

So this morning, when S interjected and said,

“Those characters are from a book.”

“What book?” I asked, as I continued to label each photo with Photoscape.

Suddenly it occurred to me, and I asked.

“Oh please don’t tell me…” I began, and S slowly uttered,

“The Ugly Guide.”

S giggled nervously. As for me, I was stopped in my tracks, and rendered a forehead-slapping mother with her head in her hands.

There we were, disapproving the book The Ugly Guide, and here they are, recreating the world inside the Ugly Guide, to my ignorant admiration. Subhanallah. But I have to admit. Those Uglies are kind of cute.

Making scraps of old clothes we had refrained from throwing away, (intending to use them as rag cloths especially when the move comes closer), the kids used what they could find around the house to make a home for their crocheted Uglies.

They cut the box in half horizontally, and combined it to make two open enclosed ‘rooms’. The first time I saw this, I told them,

“Hey, you can actually practice interior designing or architectural designs with this.”

I was so fascinated by this (after days of its creation) that without telling them, I whipped out the camera and started clicking.

For days they were playing with this, and for a while, they kept shooing Baby Z to me, so he wouldn’t mess up their ‘house’.

So this morning, we made these captions/labels together.

When they realized I was taking photos of their creations, they jumped up and cleaned it up, placing each character in his/her place. (Slaps forehead…can’t believe I’m actually doing this)

As a proof of my aging, I kept forgetting the names of these Uglies, and had to ask them several times.

I told them we would get rid of the Ugly House when we move. They consented, albeit not without woeful groans.

Of course though, I had fun with the photography session.

I think, after reading some reviews about The Ugly Guide, I might take a deeper look inside in between its covers. The rate at which the kids are reading leave me not up to date with what they are reading, which is one of my parenting problems right now.

Though they do roughly know the shouldn’ts. I dread these upcoming years. I really do. Oh Allah, please strengthen me with parenting wisdom and a lot of patience. Ameen.

Creativity, like all things, can be made bad and good. Proper channeling. That’s what I probably have to do a lot of.

I dig this scarf rack !

The commode. Ahh…kids at this age. I couldn’t help but smile at the ingenuity. Of all ‘furniture’ they had to make, it had to be one of necessity. Smart kids. (Is that really the case?)

And of course, I had to go along with the madness.

Uh oh! A little visitor!

Bamboo skewers I usually use for satay, aluminum foil, an empty toilet paper roll, and some yarn. How come I was never this creative when I was growing up?

When I wasn’t looking, they opened the windows, and set this up on the surface of the air conditioner that juts out from their bedroom window. I discovered this when I was uploading the photos from the camera. It rendered me a head-shaking mother, tinged with tickling amusement.

And the winnah…

This is what happens when you’re cooped up in the house by recurring snow days with plummeting temperatures that make their presence well known even inside the house. Add the hecticness of packing and anticipated move to that, and you have yourself a bunch of really creative kids, not to forget a half crazy mama.

On a more serious note:

Subhanallah. I have to tell them.

Allah created us in the best of molds. That’s it. Suck a lesson out of all this. Milk it. Milk it till it’s dry.