Jess Boctor

Category: Blogger Who Moms

  • Building BRAD

    The boy came home from school on Friday with a plan. Specifically, the plans he had drawn during centers (read: self-directed activity) time in class. We were going to build one of the “dog robots” from Jurassic World Park: Camp Cretaceous.

    I am no Tony Stark, so the materials I had on hand for a robot were limited. First step was to look up some of the robot images and confirm with the boy that the BRAD (Bio Robotic Assistance Droid) was the one he wanted. The 3-D render from deviant artist junior3dsymas was a great reference tool. I had originally planned to make three small BRAD units, about the length of one clothespin each. This got tossed when the boy saw my first attempt at creating the head piece. He declared he needed a single larger unit (the size of the paper) in order to properly fight his bigger dinosaurs.

    The boy is fairly obsessed with toys that have articulating jaws. So to make the head, I doubled up some clothespins, colored them black, and covered them with white craft foam. By sewing the corners of the top piece with red embroidery thread, I was able to both make the squarish shape of the head and include the eyes for the robot.

    Making the legs articulate was a little bit trickier. My small-scale plan was to use pipe cleaners. With the change in project parameters, there was no way the pipe cleaners would hold up. The answer? Swivel straws. By linking three together, I was able to create the double-jointed legs needed for the dog-like robots. I covered these with black craft foam panels to fill out the shapes of the legs and feet.

    The legs were attached to the paper-towel roll body with miniature brads (the pokey metal kind). The head I attached by lacing a pipe cleaner through a combination of straw remnants and the clothespin hinge (this allows the neck to articulate). I used white craft foam to create the outer storm-trooper-style armor plating. This also allowed me to cover up the metal brads which attached the legs to the body.

    The boy is very pleased with his robot. He has already submitted a request for a BRAD-X build. I let him know that further builds would be dependent on material supply (e.g. I am out of empty paper towel rolls).

  • Forgetting where things go

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    Forgetting where things go

  • Progress is messy.

    Right now, my living room looks like a baby GAP threw up in it.

    It has for a week.

    Using this GIF because I do not want to post a picture of my living room. 🙂

    I started a project to clean out and organize our closets. As part of that project, I washed all the laundry and plopped it on our coach. I dragged all the clothes that my kids have outgrown and put them in trash bags in the entryway (so I remember to take them…somewhere). I am also sorting through the mountain of clothes that my kids are growing into, so their closets are updated. I don’t want to accidentally buy the same thing twice again (yes, it has happened).

    This is a whole day project in the best of times. Between work, family obligations, and health issues, this has turned into a two-week project.

    My living room has been in this chaos for two weeks. I hate it. My husband hates it. The dog loves it. There are, after all, extra snuggies on the coach.

    The most frustrating part is the mess. It feels like the more progress I make, the messier the living room gets.

    This week, I had to take a breath and remind myself that it’s okay, because progress is messy.

    Want to get rid of the junk in your trunk? You have to drag it all out.

    Want to learn a new skill? Prepare to tear your hair out, have notes, and learning things, and mental models, and mess everywhere.

    Want to heal from your childhood trauma? Bad relationship? That mental health issue that has plagued you since you were a teen? Prepare for a snot-nosed, emotional mess.

    The good news is that the mess doesn’t have to stay. It can get cleaned up, picked up again, and put back in order.

    The process of progress, though, it is a messy one.

  • Day 7

    It’s day 7 of COVID quarantine.

    The toys have started drinking.

    Adventure on.

  • Hey Mama, Arpo Sees You

    He’s sees you too daddy. You too nanny, oma, teta, and basically anyone who takes care of small children.

    Arpo gets it.

    https://youtube.com/channel/UCrSx8rek9EuC3YGHvG8aalw

    Arpo is a cartoon robot that takes care of small children. It is a fun quick show that showcases the craziness of being a caregiver.

    One of my favorites is this quick short about the struggles to spend quality time with your charges (in my case, my kids) while also taking care of the day to day business of life.

    I felt so seen the first time that I watched this cartoon. Not only because it was relevant to one of the daily hurdles I face, but because it showed me the struggle is universal enough for cartoon makers to tap into it for inspiration.

    It is so good to know that I am not alone in this. I am not the only one trying to figure out how to get everything done. Even a multi-handed robot can’t quite sort it out.

    So remember whoever you are when you’re taking care of littles, Arpo gets it. And laughter helps any situation. So take a deep breath, have a quick laugh, and get back to the saints work you are doing.

    Adventure on.