It’s father’s day. And that means my brain goes to Cake Wrecks which had a series of cakes for father’s day that included an epic cake spelling “error.” I can only tell you that today (technically the day before Father’s day) my daughter Abby presented me with this:
She’s not wrong.
Abby was baptized today, so that was cool. Except last night I told her that Grandpa Peterman (an elder at our church) would officiate and I would accompany him in case I cried. I told Abby I was emotional sometimes. The baptistm went well and Abby and her aunt Kelsey, and the children of another family (Go, Doans!) all publicly testified to their faith. This was all good and I’m excited for them.
As it turns out Abby’s Sunday school teacher asked if I was going to do the baptism myself. She replied in the negative. When Mike, her teacher, asked why I was not going to do the baptism she said, “My dad has emotional problems.”
So there’s that.
Abby was learning about stereotypes in school. We discussed the concept of stereotypes at dinner and Abby said to Jessica, “I’ve been stereotyped before, Mom. Someone thought I was born in Colorado.”
And that, my friends, is stereotypism.
One of the women’s olympic swimmers competed first in 1984. I watched those olympics. I told my girls that I watched those olympics. Abby replied, “But they didn’t have TV a long time ago. You couldn’t have watched it.”
I guess that makes me old 🙂
Abby, “Mom, are there still pirates?”
Jessica, “Yes, I guess there still are.”
Abby, “I want to be a pirate when I grow up.”
Jessica, “You probably don’t want to be a pirate, that’s illegal.”
Abby, “What does illegal mean?”
Jessica, “It means that if they catch you, you will go to jail.”
Abby, “Oh. I don’t want to be a pirate.”
This Valentines day I will simply state that I am thankful for my bride. Yeah, I’ve been thankful for her before, but she does rock the Casbah. In fact, speaking of rock, Abby was surprised to learn that Jessica liked rock music. For some reason the constant kids music Jessica would play to pacify the children led Abby to believe that Jessica would prefer to listen to kids music and the cranky daddy was the one who liked rock music.
Turns out my Ska, Rock, Classic Rock, Alternative Rock and generally music loving wife isn’t as big on Backyardigans as Abby had first thought. I’m thankful for that, too!
This morning I asked Abby about a song that I had heard her singing along with on a kids CD. She began to sing it. I joined in at one point and then she stopped and told me that in the recording of the song at times only the kids sang because they knew, “… the anniversaries**.”
** that is verses in case you’re not quite sure what she was trying to say
I have seen two snakes, of the garden variety, around my house. Two! Its pretty cool to see those sorts of critters since we have a garden. As if the snakes weren’t cool enough Abby today watched in rapt awe as a spider wrapped up an earwig near our back porch. She said that it was wrapping the earwig in its yarn. You just have to love kids’ vocabulary.
In an attempt to say, “I want to feed the birds.”
Abby just said, “Mom, I want to fird the beeds.”
I took Abby out to get frozen yogurt tonight. Only the shop was closed. They’re on sabbatical for approximately 10/12ths of the year. Abby was dissappointed and said, “The lights are out and the people are bummered.” But I think she was the ‘bummered’ girl. Such is life. I love her little phrases that try to hard to speak at an adult level. Being her dad is awesome – if your kid is half as cool as mine you’re a blessed parent 🙂