1 Mother 2 Another

This weekend both girls were invited to a
friend’s birthday party. The theme? Superheroes. And the
girls were invited to dress up as a superhero, should they so
choose.


Dress up? My girls? Twist their arms.


Maddie was excited because she already had a Super Girl costume,
complete with go-go boots, from two Halloweens ago. I was doubtful
it would still fit, at least booty-wise, but she was pretty excited
about it. Cora, on the other hand, had no superhero costume, and I
tried to downplay that fact as I said enthusiastically,
“Cora, that means you get to make your own superhero
costume!”


Cora chewed her cereal contemplatively for a moment, then said,
“Heck, yeah!”

I should say at this point that I had an
ace up my sleeve: last fall I’d bought a Wonder Woman
costume, size 8, at a resale shop, thinking that Maddie could wear
it this Halloween when Cora grew into the Super Girl costume. And
yes, I’ve been hiding it for six months already. That’s
how I roll.


So I knew that, worst-case scenario, I’d break out the new
costume and everyone would be covered. But I forgot about one thing
– Cora’s imagination.


Cora brainstormed for a while, and eventually decided she’d
be the Princess Painter Super Hero: a loving princess by day,
bestowing gracious judgment on all her subjects, at night she turns
into Painter Girl, flying all over the world and bringing beauty
and color to everything she touches.


How super-cool is that?


So Cora chatted with Gamma, and the two of them came up with quite
a nice costume. Cora wore a fuschia tutu costume with gold trim; a
gold tank top that Gamma turned into a cape and sewed on to the
back of the costume, with a fuschia feather boa festooning the top
of it; and a pink “badge” with her name on it,
festooned with splashes of paint.


Now, I was laid up with a bad cold and didn’t get to see the
party go down, but I guarantee you my girls kicked some butt. And
speaking of booty, yes, Maddie’s costume was rather on the
short side, so she had to wear shorts and tights underneath and
looked dismayingly like a teenager in her outfit.


But the star, to me, was Cora. My fantastic, outside-of-the-box
kid, who dreams up her own superhero and then lives it out.


I love that kid.