Daily Pixels: Eat It

The development just keeps on rollin’.  Kid won’t stop growing.

Sweet potatoes and bananas so far, but we have all sorts of goodies on the ready.

Cliché? Definitely.  Even at five months the thought crosses your mind: “They grow too fast.”   As much as I look forward to the next stage, I already miss where we just came from.

I guess it’s the now that matters most anyway.

PS – As you read the title of the post, I’d like to suggest that you have Weird Al singing in your head.

Have some more yogurt.  Have some more spam.  It doesn’t matter if it’s fresh or if it’s canned.” Lyrical genius.

Eat It

Eat It

The Princess Speaks

Princess Speaks

Princess Speaks

When a five year old speaks, the verbal onslaught is completely unpredictable…and hilarious.

It seems the Princess has some innate parenting skills…which she is happy to share with the Dude…

  • “Babies don’t like the dark.”
  • “Babies like to be with Mom.”
  • “I can’t feed Little Dude; I have little girl nipples.”
  • “It’s alright if he cries.  It hurts my ears, but I’m not frustrated.”
  • “Mom we’ve tried everything with Little Dude and he won’t cooperate.  I think he’s hungry.”

These parenting skills extend past Little Dude to the Dude.  Some of her go to lines these days…including hands on the hips and eyes rolling…

  • “What has gotten into you?”
  • “How many times do I have to tell you this?”

Another innate quality or already brainwashed by The Man?  Consumerism…Nature vs. Nurture

  • Princess excitedly proclaims,  “I just saw a bed on TV for $70!”
    Dude:  “Great.  Is that a good deal?  Do we need a bed?”

How are they making a bed look appealing to a five year old?  And why?  Just to torture parents?

  • While watching a kids channel, which should be providing quality stimulus but instead advertises products to kids that will torment parents, the Princess shouts to Mrs. Dude, “We need to go here.  I’m not sure where it is, but it’s only $53 a night.”

For real?!  Can we take a break from selling stuff 24 hours per day…to five year olds who have no money?  The Princess can’t distinguish a one dollar bill from a twenty dollar bill, but that commercial somehow has her convinced that $53  per night is a good deal and worth a trip to No Man’s Land.  Get out of our heads TV!

Pink one?In addition to hilarity, most Princess speak also includes a heavy dose of cuteness.

  • Accepting a serious life transition; “I like having a new brother in my life.”
  • Watching Mommy nurse; “Is he biting you?”
  • Talking to her friends at school; “When you have a new brother or sister, you can have a baby vacation too.”
  • While she enjoyed her first experience with the Wizard of Oz; “You can’t buy a brain.  All you need to do is ask God.”
  • Trying to avoid dreaded bedtime; Dude: “What time is it?”  Princess:  “Don’t ask Mommy, she doesn’t know.”
  • Mental preparation for the next big life transition, kindergarten; “I have to go to school in the fall.  But I can still trick or treat.  It’s at night, not during the day.”
  • Picking out the uniform for her new hobby, Tae Kwan Do (i.e. the all white “karate” uniform); “Mommy, is there a pink one?”

It’s pretty fun to witness life coming together one day at a time for a kid.

The Joy of Swinging

The Princess has turned five, and at the same time reached an important life milestone; self-propelled swinging.

Five is huge.  Five is a major shift from little kid to medium sized kid, and along with the shift come some added responsibilities.  Five brings with it kindergarten.  School bus, cafeteria lunch, a big school, and a big playground.

Big playgrounds have big swings, and kindergarteners know how to swing (or at least that’s what I tell the Princess).  The Princess loves to swing.  She could spend days gliding back and forth, but she still needs to be pushed.

To avoid any further discussions of a hideous swing set being added to the Dude’s righteous landscaping, the Dude crafted a masterful plan to help the Princess and ring in the five year old birthday; a swing hooked to the underside of the deck/house.  The swing is the most popular part of the swing set anyway…it’s called a SWING set for good reason.

So, to ring in the festivities, the Dude surprised the Princess with a groovy new green swing with bright yellow rubber protecting the chain link running from swing to house.  A beautiful swinging specimen.

Joy of Swinging

Joy of Swinging

And the Princess rejoiced at the sight, but I’m not sure any of us were prepared for the true joy such a simple gift could bring.

Of course the Dude didn’t buy all of the right parts, but of course the Dude made due with the provided parts and some magic parts from the garage, and the swing was eventually hung with care…about an hour after a fifteen minute project began.  Typical Dude.  But, the end result is just right, and the Princess agrees wholeheartedly.

Within seconds of being hung, the swing was swinging and the joy was growing like the Grinch’s heart at Christmas.  After one or two introductory pushes, something clicked and self-propelled swinging began.  The Princess had learned how to pump her legs to swing.  A major hurdle overcome, and new life long skill was cemented into place.

The Princess was immediately in love with her new skill.  As the Dude tended the garden, the Princess excitedly talked as only a five year old girl can, quickly leaping from one random thought to another.  At one point I heard “Yippee!” yelled repeatedly at least 30 times; I say at least because that’s where I lost count.  The Yippee was followed by the My Little Pony theme song sung at top volume, which of course led to the proclamation, “I’m swinging…with my eyes closed…and singing!”

The singing eventually led to some Dude and Princess discussions (always interesting), and the Dude realized the swing was a great gift for both of them.  The Dude sidestepped the swing set in the backyard debates, helped the Princess with one of life’s simple pleasures, and created a great forum for Dude and Princess discussions.  The Dude gardening and the Princess swinging, delving into many of life’s mysteries…usually profoundly explained to the Dude by the Princess.

It was a struggle to pull her off the swing as the stars began to peek through the dusk sky, and the first words uttered the following morning were “can I go outside to swing.”

So begins the big summer of the Princess and the development of life skills all kindergarteners know (at least that’s what I tell her).  Next on the list:  swimming, tying shoes, and riding with no training wheels.  Watch out kindergarten.