Spaceport Part 2: The observation tower

We've had a shelving unit for some years. It used to live in the kitchen to store pots and pans, but since we moved to the current place, it's lived in the girl's room. We made a partial attempt to use it as a bookcase, but it ended up just being random storage – mostly for toys.

Once the dollhouse was turned into a spaceport, and all the extra parts moved onto the bookcase, I felt the two could be combined into a single larger spaceport. It needed some sprucing up, so I found some cheap used Star Wars playsets in dubious condition on ebay. Most of the parts were from a Theed playset – it didn't appear to be very fun looking on its own, but there were lots of walkways and platforms. I glued these to the shelves so they hung above the spaceport, making the bookcase into a sort of observation tower.

As it turned out, she wasn't tall enough to play with anything on the top level, so that ended up mainly to just be used for storage and posing figures she didn't use much. For the most part it was just for decoration, or as a thing guests could accidentally break, or just something to stop us from easily getting into her nearby drawers.

It was fairly bland up to that point, but I had an image in my head for the making the landing platform more fun. That would require actual decorating. More on that in Part 3.

A new turn of events

For the past four days R has decided to put herself to bed. I'm a little shocked at this given how difficult bedtimes have been for the past almost six years.

For the first 3 years, getting her to sleep mostly involved a combination of holding her while singing and bouncing up and down for 2 or 3 hours. L and I would usually alternate days for bedtime responsibility, though in the early years, it was more a case of 2 hours of bedtime for L followed by 2 hours for me, repeat until the girl was asleep. Plus naps.

After my slipped disk L was too painful to hold for long, so bedtime became more reading plus songs. We started with exactly 3 books, then songs (usually the same 3 songs) until sleep hit after a couple of hours. After she was 4, she demanded 4 books, then songs. This started to be a challenge because this is when my eyesight started going. But she started to consistently fall asleep during certain songs, so at least the process was starting to get shorter.

Sometime around when she turned five she started to fall asleep while I read to her. Around this time I got my first pair of glasses. Which meant reading was easy again. So I would read as many books as it took for her to doze off. Usually in only an hour or two at most.

Last year we came to an agreement that she would put herself to sleep once a week, in exchange for being able to go to bed in my bed once a week. It's been hit and miss, to be honest, but she succeeded more times than not.

Recently we came to an agreement that she'd put herself to bed twice a week. The agreement involved bribery. Every night she successfully put herself to bed she'd get either a toy out of toy jail, or get a new Star Wars toy. She apparently likes this. So for the past 4 days she's been enjoying getting a toy back every day. And while I'm not keen on the idea of her having too many toys, after nearly 6 years of hours of bedtime routine, this is worth every penny.

As things stand now, one of us reads to her while she gets ready for bed. Then, we leave her to put herself to bed. She usually plays for a little bit, then reads to herself. Her reading skills have increased dramatically since the start of the year. It's fairly likely that this is the driver behind the new behaviour. That and her rediscovery of her bedtime playlist. She usually asks for the music during bedtime. Tonight she asked the music be turned off so she could sing to herself instead. I think it's working.

I suspect, like with most skills, this will work for a while, stop for a bit, and come back and forth until settling down again. I'm fine with that. I'm personally revelling in the spare extra hours of time. I've made a path in the office so I can finally reach the filing cabinet! I did my taxes and paid bills! I've built two new platforms for her spaceport. Productivity!

Horton Hears a Who Day

On the fifteenth of May, in the Jungle of Nool,
In the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool,
He was splashing... enjoying the jungle's great joys...
When Horton the elephant heard a small noise.

After a few months of searching, I finally found a copy of Horton Hears a Who. I'd been meaning to read this to R ever since the march in January. As you recall, I wanted her to understand that the more people who stand up to be heard, the more likely those in power will be persuaded to represent us.

R is very keen on the book, and has wanted to be read it every day since getting it. She pointed out to me that the book begins on 15 May. That's tomorrow. So I am going to dedicate Horton Hears a Who Day 2017 to getting out the vote for the upcoming British election.

One of the two most important things to take away from this book is that everyone has to take part in order to make a difference. It's only when all our voices are added together that we can finally be heard. I'm very afraid that with some many high-stakes elections recently, the British public are going to sit this one out. Rather than the usual voting doesn't make a difference it seems we've gone down a few notches to voting can only ever make things worse. Yes, the opposition may not be perfect, and might have done things you find personally questionable, but they're not actively trying to kill you or destroy your livelihood. Getting out to vote is literally the only way to possibly stop the Tories and the madness of austerity and other policies designed specifically to hurt.

That brings me to the other take-away from the book: A person's a person, no matter how small. Not only is everyone worthy of basic human respect, but it is our responsibility to care of those people who cannot manage it themselves.

On a final note, as my daughter pointed out, one of the things she likes the most about the book is that, despite all the trouble the kangaroo caused, when she finally heard the Whos and understood the trouble she caused them, she turned around her thinking and decided to protect them. And Horton didn't resent her for what she'd done – he was happy to accept her help. It's not too late to turn around and do the right thing.

8 June is pretty much our Boiled in Beezle-Nut Oil Day. I'm confident the people of this country want the right thing. It's just a question of getting everyone out and to the polls so we can actually be heard. So, if you haven't yet registered, then do so. If you can help anyone else to register, especially young people who've never voted before, then help them. If voting on the day is going to difficult then vote by post. Get out, get your friends out, get your neighbours out, get your relatives out, and get our voices heard.

Now we are paying attention

It was an unusual morning in that it's the first time in ages we've all sat down and had breakfast together. I was looking at stuff on my phone and L asked What are you reading?

Just reading the news.

Anything interesting?

You mean you've not heard? Oh, ok. The American health care bill passed. I went on to explain just how much worse it makes things, and how it's sexist, classist, ableist, and just much more expensive.

R, clearly remembering that we are planning to visit the US in June, asked, Will be be safe when we go to the US?

Yes. Because we have travel insurance. That will take care of us in case we get sick or have an accident.

And we have light skin?

We both just pause and consider the implications of what R just said. Turns out, she's been paying more attention to what's going on in America than I thought. At this point L tries to explain White Privilege, though it's clear R already understands that it exists. L mainly focused on White Privilege when going through passport control. And then went on to explain how it's never really safe for anyone. Just never make any jokes. Or say anything, unless they ask you your name. They'll probably only ask you your name. Tell them, but don't be chatty.

I hate the way we now have to train the daughter to walk on eggshells when dealing with public officials. And I have how it's so obvious to her that things are so messed up when it comes to race.

The girl's first convention

I've been doing a few Star Wars related posts lately. It's the week after 2017 Star Wars Celebration and the week before May the fourth, so I felt it was a good time to get all these stories out.

Last year, R and I went to the Star Wars Celebration in London. Given how much she enjoys Star Wars and how close it fell to her birthday, L and I decided it would be fun for her to go as her 5th birthday present.

I cannot stress enough how much R loves Ahsoka. So L and she decided that she could go in costume as Ahsoka. And not just any Ahsoka, but a 3-year-old Ahsoka.

For maximum effect, R would go as 3 year old Ahsoka and I would go as Plo. (Plo was the one who recruited her into the Jedi. It's a long, complicated story which was cut down to literally 7 seconds of show.

We spent ages in the weeks beforehand putting together the Ahsoka costume. L found something like a pattern online for a Little Ahsoka. I was never very good at making clothing from patterns. My time in university working in a costume shop was more spent on repairs than building from scratch. So L and I spent ages trying to figure out what all the parts meant and how they went together. The absolute hardest part was adjusting the photos for perspective so we'd have flat patterns of the right size we could work with. After a few paper trials we figured out how it could all work and scaled it so it would fit R's head.

(if there is interest, L can do a guest blog on how she put it together)

In the days before the event, L and I were up late, cutting, sewing, painting and staring at the 4 or 5 reference photos we found online, plus as many of R's toy Ahsokas as we could find. Turns out, those things on Ahsoka's head are called lekku. There are loads of instructions online on how to make lekku (tho that's mostly for twileks). Later, I found out the horn things are called montrals. Though I'm not sure knowing that at the time would have helped.

The finished headpiece

The Accident

A few days before event, on the way to school, R got her foot caught in the spokes of L's bike. A nasty accident which took off several layers of skin and left R unable to walk. No bones were broken, but she was in a lot of pain and couldn't put any weight on that foot. They gave her these tiny 4-year-old size crutches and we borrowed a push chair from the neighbours. With that, we would be ok to go to the event. Unfortunately with all the extra care and attention the injured girl needed, there wasn't time to put together costumes for both of us. So the idea of a Plo costume was lost in favour of giving her the best experience I could.

The day

I'd prepared everything the day before, going as far as going to the venue the day before to pick up our badges early. On the day, I'd prepared enough food and water to get us through the day. We had the push chair and her crutches so she'd be able to move around. I even brought a jumper just in case she got cold in the July weather. And finally, I did some research online on how to do cons with a small child. I felt prepared.

We got there early. It took so long to get through the security queue, we were almost too late for the Ahsoka's Untold Tales session – the one thing we absolutely had to see. As it was, we did get in, but far enough back that it was hard to see, and hard to keep the 4-year-old R at attention. FWIW, I thought it was really good. And twice we've gone back to watch the video on youtube, now that she's less distractable.

Ashley Eckstein, the voice actress who plays Ahsoka did a meet-the-fans thing. It took us ages to find it (silly me, asking a staff member for directions). And by the time we got there it was too late to get R on stage to meet her. And while Ashley did a bit of pose for photos and meet the fans when she got off stage, the fact that R was confined to a pushchair due to her injury, more able-bodied fans felt free to push right past her (the low point of the day).

We didn't get to meet Ashley, but we did have a fun day seeing all kinds of interesting stuff. We spent a while in the kids' entertainment area, but it disappointed R that she couldn't participate in any of the standing-and-moving games.

She liked seeing the toys a lot. Especially the part where she'd tell me which ones she wanted to have. But of the parts she liked, I think it was the Lego stall she liked best. People made small ships out of legos, which the staff put up on display. R did one ship by instructions and another more creatively. When asked by the staff, when handing it over, she told them it was a Zillo Beast. I was proud that she'd chosen such an obscure star wars creature and that said it so matter-of-factly as if everyone should know what she was referring to. In terms for the best stall for a younger person, IMO, the Lego stall won for being so hands-on and so engaging.

Near the end of the she was starting to get a bit tired. I was still a bit disappointed over her not being able to meet the Ahsoka actress. But R made up for it in blagging her way on to the stage so she could get her picture taken on the Millennium Falcon set piece (lesson learnt: it doesn't hurt to ask). I'm even more proud of her for pulling that off than I was for the Zillo Beast thing.

On the Falcon

And finally, we went home. She was tired and got a little cranky, but we got home by 6pm. She immediately sat down, with her fading face paint, and hair poking out from under her headpiece, to play with her Ahsoka toys.

To this day she still wears the headpiece on occasion. Sometimes just when going to the supermarket with me. I suppose, given how much she loves it, eventually we'll have to make her another one when she outgrows this.