I Hate Snaps

When I go walking with my daughter, we often go to our local, independent “Movie Store,” as she calls it. It is only a few blocks away, and she likes looking at the kids movies. And we both like looking at the “treats” they sell there (this weekend’s haul - Swedish Fish).

We usually wind up looking at, and often renting, a Princess Movie. Lately, however, she’s been into Scooby-Doo (or Scooby-dooby-doo, as she calls him). Still, it surprised me (although pleasantly, I must say) when she chose a Scooby-Doo movie (”Pirates Ahoy!“) over a Princess Stories DVD.

“Really?” I asked.

“Uh-huh,” she replied, “Timmy likes Scooby-Doo, and I like everything Timmy likes.”

Later, at dinner, I tried to get the truth our of her, “So which do you like better? Scooby-Doo or Princesses?” At first, she replied as she usually does, “Scooby-Doo and Princesses!” Then, thinking about it, she confessed, “No, Princesses.”

Continuing the game, I threw out the age-old, fully not expecting her to get it, “Ginger or Mary-Ann?”

“Ginger and Mary-Ann!” she told me. “Oh, daddy,” Ms. Kaz said, “she doesn’t know who they are!”

“No, no, wait,” I said, “I think she might be onto something. I like that answer. Ginger and Mary-Ann.” Ms. Kaz rolled her eyes.

Man, kids seem to be learning and understanding earlier and earlier. It must have something to do with the fast pace of technological change. My parents thought it was fast when I was a kid, I’m sure, but it wasn’t like it is today.

My daughter, a few weeks ago, was watching some sort of video on the computer. I had to feed The Boy his bottle, so I told her, “just move the mouse over the movie you want and click,” and in the time I was getting the bottle ready, she must have watched 3 other video.

Last night, when getting her ready for bed, she told me, “I have one hundred friends!”

“Wow,” I said, “that’s a lot”

“Yeah.”

“Is that Friendster, or Facebook?” I asked. She thought for a bit, then told me, “Facebook.”

Maybe it is time to put a password on the ol’ Internet.

I know they will break your heart… I just didn’t know it was so young:

Daughter: You’re so silly, daddy.
Me: I know. Am I funny, too?
Daughter: Uh-huh.
Me: Am I funnier than Timmy?
Daughter: No. Timmy’s funnier.

I guess I need to brush up on my 3-almost-4-year-old humor. More “bum-bum” jokes, I guess.

Personally, I like to believe she is more blinded by love. I came to this conclusion remembering a conversation we had last week sometime:

Me: Anything happen at school today, sweetie?
Daughter: Timmy asked if I would marry him.
Me: Oh. Uhm… what did you tell him?
Daughter: Sure.
Me: Oh. Are you getting married soon?
Daughter: I can’t get married until I’m older, daddy!

Whew.

I like Timmy and all, but I have a feeling my daughter is just hedging her bets for when she is older. I think Timmy is just her fall-back.

Yeah, yeah, enough about the BPA…

Well, we’ve tried to be good about avoiding the BPA stuff for The Boy. We started with glass bottles, moved the the Green To Grow bottles as the boy grew (and grew, and grew - 97 percentile for height - yowza!) and became more of a chow hound. Went through and tried to make sure all our daughter’s sippy cups were “clean” and all.

Then, the other day, we realized that, when we made a new batch of formula for the baby, we put the powdered stuff in the bottle, added the hot water to the.. uh.. the plastic bottle. Hmm.. that doesn’t sound right. We checked the bottom of the bottle - a dreaded #5 plastic.

So, now we’re on a search for a glass version. We need 32oz, but with the little measuring lines on the side, like our plastic bottles had. Right now, we’re making formula in a 32oz glass measuring cup, waiting for it to cool, then pouring into the plastic.

This is less than ideal. So… if anyone has any suggestions, it would be much appreciated!

For now, we’re trying not to worry. After all, my daughter had all her formula this way and probably got a lot of BPA in her system. And she seems pretty normal– er… oh, crap.

[Update: GeekLady points out to me that #5 is not the bad plastic. I swore I read that somewhere. Maybe I just got my numbers confused. Maybe I should be relying on Z Recommends instead...]

My daughter has a blonde wig (to go with the pink and green ones her Aunt gave her) that she likes to wear and say she is Hannah Montana. We don’t watch Hannah Montana at home, so I don’t know where she gets it.

Oh, wait, maybe I do.

Anyhow, it was hi-larious when I put the wig on her nice, wooden rocking horse and called it something like “Horse-y Montana” (hey, you don’t have to have your “A” material for 3 1/2 year olds).

We were talking about this at bedtime last night. My daughter said something about the cat being, “smi… smile… smiley…”

“Miley Cyrus?” I suggested.

“Yeah!” my daughter exclaimed, “Miley-saurus!”

I guess when my daughter is my age, Miley will be a dinosaur. But that’s okay, because by then, Miley’s kid’ll be raking in the dough…

My daughter’s playing three days a week at preschool. Apparently, she’s slayin’ ‘em. Her schtick? Apparently, any phrase with “bum bum” in it. Unfortunately, she tries this same comedy act at home, and you can hear the crickets chirping.

On a related note, I hate prop comics. I hate prop comics, yet I have become one. Any toy that results in some physical comedy has my daughter cracking up. She even peed her pants the other day from laughing so hard.

For me, it is a little exhausting. That, and I am running out of material/props. My daughter doesn’t seem to mind. And it is nice having an easy audience. But I am getting bored.

I’m afraid if she gets too bored, Ms. Kaz will have to cover the furniture with plastic sheets. I’m just waiting for watermelon season.

Things are finally starting to settle here at work. This is my last scheduled night shift (6p - 2a or so - shh! Don’t tell my boss!), and, hopefully, my kids will get to know me as more than just Morning Guy.

Actually, this past week, while making nights and early mornings tough for Ms. Kaz, has afforded me a bit more time with the kids. My daughter, especially has been excited.

I promised her, once things calmed down, I would take a day off (not yet) and do something fun. “How ’bout we make cookies?” she asked. “Sure,” I said. So, the last few days, she’s been asking me about making cookies. So, today we began making cookies. “Is today your day off, daddy?” It isn’t, but I was home during the day, and the recipe I chose (sugar cookies - yum!) required overnight refrigeration.

We had a lot of fun making the dough. My daughter kept asking if she could try the dough as we added each ingredient. “Not yet,” I told her. The dough kept filling the bowl and filling the bowl. As my daughter enjoyed licking the mixer, I checked the recipe.

Good lord. Servings = 60!!

Well, if anyone wants cookies, let me know. We’ll have plenty.

And hopefully, I’ll be able to post a lot more frequently.

So, I am in the middle of my 80 or so hour week, and it is getting difficult to think straight. I think the kids may have already gone off to college.

When I do happen to be home on the weekends, or before the kids go to sleep, the boy gets all smiley and wriggly, and looks at me as if to say, “Hey, Morning Guy! What’re you do here?!??”

Is it Monday yet?

I recorded Cinderella III off the Disney Channel a little while back because my daughter is a Cinderella nut and I actually heard this wasn’t half bad.

My daughter has, in the past, always asked us to skip the commercials (that goodness for DVRs)*, but I started to notice that she asked us less and less frequently to “skip the commercials”. She had discovered that the commercials during this movie were for some, in her eyes, really cool stuff.

Great.

One day, as Ms. Kaz was fixing the baby a bottle in the kitchen and my daughter was watching Cinderella III, my daughter came in and told her that she wanted a Hannah Montana beach house toy.**

“You don’t even know who Hannah Montana is!” Ms. Kaz told her.

My daughter’s answer? “Sure I do! She rocks the beach!”

* What a world our kids live in. My daughter even asks us during live shows to “skip the commercials.”
** Also available - a doll of her best friend, Miley. There’s just something weird about that.

My daughter has really been into drawing and painting lately. And she’s gotten pretty good at making things look a bit like the thing she is trying to draw.

The other day, Ms. Kaz and she were making cards for Easter for everyone. Today, she showed me how she made one, and made this most awesome drawing. It was so awesome, in fact, I had to change the blog’s header (look up!).

The card is actually for one of our cats, but that’s okay, because it means I get to keep it around the house.

When she showed it to me, she told me, “this fish is mad because it has to live in dirty water…”

I am glad to see she’s learning about her environment. Now we just need to get her to draw some angry birds and perhaps a whole line of angry animals. She might even be able to pay her way through college!

She also drew a most awesome “buggy guy” and a parrot, which I will have to upload some time.