Free Socks!

"He may be president,

but he still comes home and swipes my socks."

-- Joseph P. Kennedy

A free sock 7-29-14

"One can never have enough socks," said Dumbledore.

-- J.K. Rowling, 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Leo bought three new pairs of snazzy socks yesterday for five dollars.

I am a sucker for snazzy socks. I like to wear them with my motorcycle boots.

So when Leo brought his new socks home -- 2 stripey, 2 camouflaged and 2 color-blocked -- I was a little jealous. 

Covetous even.

Yep. I did. I coveted.

I kinda wanted those socks.

I kinda really wanted those socks.

Leo knew this, and so he openly flaunted his new socks as he released them from their little sock-hanger and snipped all the plastic thingies that hold the matching pairs together at the toes. 

Then he tried them on it was clear they were a trifle small on his size 14 foot.

I don't know everything about my son, but I do know that if something doesn't fit him comfortably, Leo will not wear it. Too tight, too short, too loose, too itchy, too whatever ... forget it. 

So I knew that it was just a matter of time before these really great socks would be relegated to the back of Leo's sock drawer, held captive and imprisoned there, lost and forgotten, confined to a sad life of non-use.

As a champion of snazzy socks everywhere, I simply couldn't let that happen.

I saw my opening and made my move.

I told Leo that if the socks shrank more in the wash -- and surely they would -- I would take pity and take them off his hands, er, feet. 

I even offered to give him back his five bucks, just to sweeten the pot.

The hook was set.

He didn't give in right away. He stubbornly tried on all three pairs, like Cinderella's step-sister searching for a shoe that fit. 

Finally he gave up and just flung the socks at me.

Him: "You might as well take them now. I'll be giving them to you anyway."

Me: "Yay! Free socks!"

Making Sock Puppets With Cute Kids

"I like the things puppets allow you to do."

-- Julie Taymor

Sophia and her sock puppets Larry and Sally 3-31-14

"Children are more willing to learn when they are having fun,

and puppets are a gateway to opening up the mind and

inviting knowledge in."

--Christie Belfiore, 

"Puppets Talk, Children Listen: 

How Puppets are Effective Teaching Aids for Kids," 

TEACH Magazine

Guido, my sock puppet 3-31-14

I'm bending the rules a teensy bit and borrowing a good thing from my weekend for today. But it was a thing too good to pass up.

I brought sock-puppet supplies to a family gathering in my childhood home over the weekend. I have a cute little niece, Sophia, and two cute nephews, Marco and Matteo, and I thought it might be fun. And it was. We all spent part of the afternoon gluing eyes and ears and everything else onto fabric socks.  My super-big-kid Leo even joined his younger cousins and built a puppet of his own.

It was interesting how each puppet had a distinct personality that reflected the essence of the imagination of its maker. We all had a blast building our puppets. Sophia, however, was the only one who got to have fun playing with her puppets. It turns out that the littlest kid was the smartest puppet maker of us all.

While the rest of us tried to outdo and out-clever one another with how elaborate or outlandish we could make our puppets, while the rest of us glued on more and more accessories and discussed the hilarious puppet show we were going to stage later on, while my nephews competed for who-go-which hat, or lips, or mustache or who had the glue last, Sophia kept things simple and quiet.

As a result, Sophia's puppets were the only ones that dried fast enough to be played with. By the end of the day, while the rest of us were still waiting for the glue to dry, Sophia was having a ball with her imagination and her adorable new sock puppets "Larry" and "Sally." With just eyes and teeth and a single foam flower, Larry and Sally were loaded with personality. Sophia proved that elaborate does not equal artistic, that less is often more.

The puppet show never happened. Sad face.

My puppet wasn't fully dry until the next day (I had to re-glue some parts that fell off.) I made a little purse-snatching, wrench-wielding thug puppet named "Guido." 

I like my puppet, but what I'd have really liked was the chance to play with it, with Sophia.

But hey, I learned an important lesson from this wise, quiet little artist. 

Everyone talks about how much kids can learn from puppets. Maybe we should discuss how much we can learn from the kids who make the puppets. That'd be a good thing.