Now that we are in the process of moving back to Canada from Seattle (that is a story for another time, my friends), it has been nice to get re-acquainted with some key elements from our homeland:
Kids: What’s that?
Me: Shreddies.
Kids: What’s Shreddies?
Me: Shreddies are Daddy’s very favorite kind of cereal. You can’t buy this kind of cereal in the United States so my Mommy sent this box to me as a special present!
Kids: Oooooh!
Me: No.
Kids: I love Shreddies!
Me: You don’t.
Kids: I do I do! I love them!
Me: You don’t even know what Shreddies are.
Kids: I do so! I love them!! Can I have a big bowl right now??
Me: Dude. Daddy has one. single. box. of Shreddies. One box. One. To last until Christmas. One box.
Kids: That’s okay Daddy, you can have some too!
Me: We can . . . my . . . the . . . I bet you have never tried Shreddies in your whole entire life.
Kids: I have! I love them! Can I have some right now Daddy? Please Daddy?
Me: How about Frosted Mini Wheats – they’re a lot like Shreddies but they have FROSTING! Oooooh, frosting! Yum yum yum!
Kids: I don’t want Mini Wheats, I want Shreddies!
Me: Froot Loops. You know that shiny rainbow cereal I never let you buy? I’ll buy you Froot Loops. Today. Right now. Just leave Daddy’s Shreddies alone, okay?
Kids: Okay Daddy.
Me: Thanks kid.
Kids: Daddy?
Me: Yes honey?
Kids: When you buy me Froot Loops I’ll share them with you! That will be fun!
Me: . . .
Me: Grab a spoon, kid. I’ll get the bowls.
.
“Daddy?”
“Yes Madeline?”
“What’s a system?”
“Well, a system is a group of parts that work together to accomplish something. Like the nervous system in your body, which helps you think and feel things.”
“Are systems only in your body?”
“No, there are systems everywhere, like in computers for example.”
“Oh! I see. Computer systems.
They help you find Google, and funny pictures.”
Last weekend, our five year old daughter made a couple of crafts.
This is her very favourite thing to do, and something she does pretty much daily. She’s amazingly good at it too – and I’m her Dad, I know for sure.
So on Saturday she decided to make “some grownup things” and started with what just might be the two most prominent fixtures in her parents’ lives – coffee mugs and computers.
So she made a coffee mug and filled it with bits of black paper for the coffee.
And then she made a computer.
This is the screen and keyboard:
Notice that she is currently looking at the weather forecast on the screen.
And this is the back of the computer:
You know, just for anybody out there who still questions the power of branding . . .
“I don’t know” is not in the vocabulary of a five year old child.
It simply does not compute.
So instead of ever saying that they don’t know the answer to something, or shrugging their shoulders, or asking and trying to find out the answer, their tendency is more to . . . well, to lie.
Okay, it’s actually not totally surprising that she’d be named Mipmip – everybody knows that Mr. and Mrs. Suzzlefuts are assholes.
In the foreground is a craft.
It is a marker & crayon organizer that our daughter made when my wife and I told her to “go and play quietly so Mommy and Daddy can talk.” We didn’t help with the construction or the labeling and I think it’s pretty darned good.
In the background is a mess.
Dirty dishes and clothes and some tears and the frustrations of being 5 years old and not quite knowing your way around the world. Anxiety and upset tummies that make you miss your school Valentine’s Day party and a rip right through the cover of your favourite book.
In between though?
In between that craft in the foreground and that mess in the background is a look of such sheer pride, such happiness, such self-satisfaction and wonder . . . that if you look at it for a few seconds, the mess in the background just fades and fades and suddenly poof it’s gone.
