Children have a magical way of creating something from
nothing. Not only that, but they can put so much heart and imagination into the
simplest thing that it becomes an indelible part of who they are. As a direct
result, said creation can become a permanent fixture in the home for an
indeterminable amount of time. I know I basically just outlined the
entire character arc for Forky in 'Toy Story 4'. It's still applicable though.
As is true on many a Friday, Ellie and I had hit somewhat of
a boredom wall for the week and found ourselves out of things to do. By the
time 9:30 rolled around, we had already read over ten books and had watched 40
minutes of 'Llama Llama'. Even though she could have kept watching TV all day,
I really don't want to be that kind of parent. Therefore, I started
contemplating fun things for us to do. Unfortunately for me, I was pretty much
out of ideas. The only one I had left was to text Bethany and have her provide
us with a great idea. Lucky for us, Bethany rose to the occasion.
As people well know, the Christmas season is upon us. As a
result, gift buying is a common thing which results in, you guessed it, lots of
boxes. Bethany's big idea was for me to come up with a craft project Ellie
could do using the boxes. With that, I wandered to our subbasement and began
taking stock of the shapes and sizes of the boxes. Very quickly, an idea came
to me: it was time for us to build a "fauxman"!
What is a "fauxman", you ask? Well, it's kind of
like a snowman, only not. For one thing, it's constructed out of three boxes,
each slightly smaller than the one that preceded it. From there, one uses their
choice of adhesion to make the boxes stick together. My choice was Gorilla
Tape. Once assembly is completed, the decorator can then get to work on their
design.
Now, I'm fully aware of Ellie's love for doing crafts.
However, I totally underestimated how much she would enjoy this activity. The
first step for Ellie was to break out one of the most precious of her craft
supplies: the stickers. With great care and precision, Ellie happily removed
one sticker after another and placed on her "fauxman". There were
'Frozen' stickers, 'Spider-Man' stickers, glittery stickers, and last but not
least, some freebie stickers we received in the mail from the DAV.
After she tired of stickers, Ellie dug into her craft box to
find her markers. Over the next half hour, Ellie asked all the color she could
ever desire to her "fauxman's" body. There soon came a time for Ellie
to raise the artistic bar ever more. However, for that to happen, she would
need a little help.
Ellie's request was simple enough. All she wanted was for
the "fauxman" to have eyes and a mouth. I was more than happy to
oblige with the mouth. However, I felt the urge to raise the bar on the eyes. I
mean, why have eyes when sunglasses would be more cool? For the sunglasses in
question, I first cut out a basic shape from an old blue filefolder. Then, I
cut lens to match out of some shiny gold cardstock left over from a recent
Kaleidoscope trip. The last step was to affix those become moving on to the
scarf.
The scarf may have been less labor intensive than the
sunglasses if one cares to know. To create that scarf, all I had to do was cut
an appropriate piece of ribbon, place it gently around my neck, and tie it up
in a four-in-hand knot. This gave me the ability to easily loosen and tighten
the scarf as needed. From there, I also helped Ellie add some hair using an old
wrapping bow and a bright green necklace made from more ribbon.Finally, we
reached the point where Ellie had added all of the personal touches to her
"fauxman" that she cared to put forth at that time.
There was one more step in creation that needed to occur
though. Ellie needed to name her creation. Ellie's choice? Bubble-Wrap. Yes, Bubble-Wrap
the "fauxman". It just so happens that when I asked Ellie what she
wanted to name her snowman, her toy of choice was a small role of bubble-wrap,
hence the name. Even though I didn't really have an issue with Ellie calling
her hard work, "Bubble-Wrap", I recommended a different name might be
in order. Perhaps something like Bubbles would be for the best.
Whenever I find myself glancing over at Bubbles' smiling
face, I can't help but be proud of all of Ellie's hard work and how happy it
made her. On the flip side, I also can't help but wonder if Bubbles would feel
the same unyielding desire to throw himself in the trash that Forky did.
Unfortunately, I may never have the answer to that question. Here's hoping
Bubbles stays right where he is, though. #DaddyWrite
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