Art, yes; tattoos, oh no

Original typing by SKZ      Dec. 12, 2012

   One of the great and vastly understated joys of being a parent (of a 5 year old; I won't get ahead of myself) is sharing the creative experience all over again.
   Watching my daughter this past year takes me back to the time I was her age: a time of unbridled creativity.
   You take a song you've known for a couple of years triggered by a cartoon or visual stimulation, add characters that are handy (a stuffed toy, an empty paper towel core) and make up a story on the spot.
   All the synapses are firing because your mom is there, your dad is there, you are safe, secure, satiated; anything is imaginable because possibilities are endless. There is no death.
   There is only the joy of creating a story or drawing a picture that allows intuitive spontaneity to come gushing forth.
   What happens to a parent is an overwhelming connection to the child and reconnection with your childhood — joy begets more joy.
   No one who is not a parent will understand this.
   It is an amazing spiritual connection, a greater understanding of oneself through understanding the child.
   And then you think of how precious this gift is, how you want to nurture and protect it forever.
   I think of how I'll do everything in my power to shield her from tattoos, drugs, Paul McCartney lyrics, alcohol, bad boys, broken hearts and the Kardashians (pornographic profiteers, not Armenians).
   But she's going to live her own life and is (and has been) already making preferential decisions that shape her values and limits.

Going off the rails with pride

Thomas is quite a useful engine.

   I find it odd that a man of the cloth champions pride so much, yet such is the case of the Rev. W. Awdry.
   Awdry, a Church of England clergyman, has provided children around the world with his fictional series, Thomas the Tank Engine.
   My daughter can't get enough of Thomas and his many engine friends who grapple with moral dilemmas in ten-minute segments.
   A good engine is a useful engine is a theme visited and revisited, and that's all well and good. Thomas always tries his best to make everyone happy and goes to great lengths in this endeavor.
   One problem which often rears its head is stubbornness. It is another theme that Awry writes of with frequency, indicating that it is better to ask for help rather than end up in an intractable situation.
   In these stories it seems obvious that pride is an obstacle to success as one engine or another can't admit it needs help for fear of losing face. Pride is a problem.
   But very often Awry will also tout how proud a character is after a successful venture, a development which introduces conflict in a young mind searching for understanding of right and wrong.
   Pride is a slippery subject: one can be pleased with an effort or problem solved, but pride, as I know it, precedes the fall.
  Of this I know from experience.
   Now I'm not going to prevent my daughter from watching the show but I feel better when I watch it with her and discuss the lesson from each episode.
   Again, I've just found it a little vexing how a clergyman can talk of pride with such, dare I say, pride.

'Trick or cheese'

Prepping the Jack o' Lantern

   I remember being excited about Halloween, but without question it is my daughter's favorite holiday. She talks about it in April and May, asking if it's tomorrow or next week.
   Poor thing. It does seem a shame the 'holiday' celebration only lasts a month, and most witchy events are in the last week of October.
   This year she had two costumes and an outfit that could pass for another costume and I think it may snowball in the coming years. I can see that as she gets older that she'll aim for every Halloween event she can make. This year it was three costumed events and one non-costumed festival on the calendar.
   Tonight we reloaded on the trick or treat festivities: the first round was about an hour, the second half that. We needed a break as the stylish yet uncomfortable shoes necessitated a pit stop. (She's 5 yet even at 4 preferred fashion over functionality, how feminine. Go figure.)
   The initial outing included one flat-out fall on the sidewalk (I blame the shoes), but she was determined to soldier on (because saying 'she was determined to ladybug on' just doesn't sound right) and after a few tears and a massaged knee she blissfully took advantage of the "take as much as you like, sweetie" offer from the lady at the next house who had witnessed the sidewalk mishap.
   Interestingly enough, she's not clamoring to eat the candy.
   I think it's the thrill of getting dressed up and teasing some of the candy-givers with a high-pitched, "Trick or cheese" that is the most fulfilling part of it all.
   It's just such a treat for me to be able to experience her unbridled glee.

'I gotta have more cowbell'

Major League Baseball: Majorly kid-friendly.

   One of the greatest thrills of being a dad is taking your child to their first Major League Baseball game. Although we've lived outside Tampa for three years, I finally got to take my daughter to her first game last week.
   It was so much fun but not necessarily quite what I expected and, I guess, that's what made it so special.
   I'll always remember the first game I went to but I was twice the age of my 5-year-old and had actually played baseball and knew a good bit of how the game was played.
   My daughter, on the other hand, had little clue about what was going on and that was just fine.
   That's one of the great things about going to a game — you don't have to know the game to have a good time. There's ice cream and Cracker Jacks and hot dogs and soda. There's a batting cage where the young ones can hit the ball off a tee. At the stadium in St. Petersburg they have a large fish tank in center field where you can dip your hand in the water a 'pet' a sting ray (that have been neutered of their sting).
   One of the trademarks of the Tampa Bay Rays' fans is the cowbell. We bought one at a concession stand and my girl was ringing that thing through most of the game — as were the other kids at the park.
   But aside from the game and all it's friendly noise and distractions, the greatest joy is the bond that's created by spending precious time at a special place.
   You see, going to a baseball game isn't like going to a football or basketball game where you have to constantly be following the action.
   The action in baseball is a lot slower (okay, more methodical) and this allows time to talk about what's inside the stadium, how the game is played or making new friends with nearby fans.
   Should the home team wins is always a bonus: they did and it was.

Julius takes a swipe at Kitty

The latest distraction for kids.

    It was bound to happen, some marketeer to children could not afford anymore sleepless nights trying to purge his brain of Hello Kittty images.
   It appears artist Paul Frank has been enlisted to harness the boundless feline phenomenon from Japan.
   The creators of the puissant puss cleverly crafted the snuggly creature's backstory, claiming she was born in Britain.
   Nonetheless, Kitty was a stroke of genius by Sanrio and is a staple of little (and sometimes, not so little) girls; she is, after all, a pink-passionate stuffed animal.
   Julius, looking curiously Curious George-like, is a brown critter, seemingly aimed at boys as well as girls. Apparently Frank has other animal creations: Worry Bear, Scurvy, Clancy the Giraffe, Bunny Girl and Elly the Elephant.
   Now, McDonalds is helping Mr. Frank make even more millions from his accessorized art by plastering Julius on their Happy Meals.
   Interestingly, Sanrio has started to work out some of the pink from Hello Kitty and instead are using more black coloring.
   Perhaps Kitty's feelin the heat from this mouth-wide-open simian.

Campbell's sells out

M-m-m-m-m .. hmmmm?

   Okay, kids let have something nutritious and delicious. What are you hungry for?
   Princess soup!
   Interesting, but what kind of soup would you like to eat?
   Princess soup!
   All right, but what flavor of soup sounds good?
   Princess soup!
   Yes, I understand, but would you like chicken or beef or vegetable soup?
   Princess soup! Princess soup!!
   Yes, I know, I know, Princess soup, I get it but what kind of Princess soup, what flavor do you want??

(anxious silence)


(more anxious silence)


Disney soup!       Disney soup!

Fashioning a conspiracy

Ah, were it only this easy

   Before I became a dad I was merely a dude. And as we dudes know as long as what you are wearing doesn't smell bad or isn't wrinkled too bad, you're fine.
   Now that I'm the father of a daughter and one who tends to get her dressed each morning I have discovered what all women face and, to my horror, it begins for them after they grow out of their baby clothes.
   It is the conspiracy of women's fashion.
  As both the mother of my child and I have found you cannot believe what any label tells you about a size —the girl simply has to try it on to see if it fits.
   And so it begins.
   For the rest of my daughter's life I know she is going to have to grab a couple of different sizes of each garment and trek into a fitting room to find out if a manufacturer has any clue as to her actual size.
   Possibly when she gets older it may get easier for her as — for now — she is tall and thin and as I understand it women's clothes are designed with that frame in mind and everyone else has to fend for themselves.
  It is incredible how much brand variance there is for my 5-year-old girl — even with socks. It ranges from size 4 to 6X.
  And I'm not even going to get into the fiasco that is footwear.
   Sigh

Something bugs me about this

'Somebuggy' is missing here

   For about a month our daughter was simply possessed by Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends which was fine but I was glad to see her let it go (or rather we let it go for her).
   Clever enough for "everybuggy," the Nick Jr. show has a warm message about adoption and adoptees and diversity.
   But there are a couple of things that always bugged me about the show.
   The first one is the recurring theme of the weak, clueless father figure. For at least a couple of decades, the gradual clubbing of the father as a dim, out of touch, near waste-of-space character has dominated television in both programming and commercial advertising.
   And here we have Holley (Holley??), "a songwriter and loves to play his guitar," and that's about all he's good for.
   He has a weak, wimpy voice, wears rounded spectacles, a beret and is much, much smaller than his wife. The other aspect which further diminishes the male spider is that the show is called Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends and not Mrs. Spider's Sunny Patch Friends. ¿Por qué?
   Holley is not even pictured in the promo photo.
   And while the show is all fuzzy and 'diverse,' other characters also reinforce stereotypes.
   A pushy, uncouth city bug (a cockroach, nudge, nudge) named Sweetie is blown by the wind into Sunny Patch. She, naturally, has a New Jersey accent.
   Similarly, a couple of ne'er-do-well brothers, Ned and Ted (red ants, wink, wink) have accents: Ned speaks with a Cockney accent, Ted has a New York accent. Interesting that two brothers have different accents. Again, ¿Por qué?
   Similarly, I have no clue if David Kirk, the author of the books, had these devices in his stories.
   I was just glad we let our daughter delouse herself from Sunny Patch and move on to something more palatable, such as Doc McStuffins.

The gang's all here

It can't be a party without a cake. SKZ

   Well, my daughter's list of imaginary friends has grown to six; quite the posse I would think. [it may be time to get her a 'd o g' even though we all know who would be stuck with the yuuuuuuuuuuuuk aspects of the animal.
   But the little one has acquired a diverse cast of characters which include Mr. Conductor from Dinosaur Train; Fido the Fly from The Upside Down Show; another creature named Fido (possibly a dog) and a couple more secondary runts to round out the entourage.
   So naturally with such a following, elaborate soirees can pop up at a moment's notice as well as parades, sleepovers and the inevitable faux disagreements and misunderstandings.
   The first thing she said when informed she was now five years old was : "No more four."
   Right. And she hasn't looked back ... and 14 is right around the corner.

The re-education of daddy

Each element at a tea party has a purpose.

   Now that my daughter's interests are becoming even keener, I have the opportunity to develop new interests and learn [or relearn] things I missed along the way.
   And it's interesting [but shouldn't be surprising] that the more rudimentary the elements are, the greater the imagination becomes. Let's face it; sometimes the box is more fascinating than the contents.
  She'll take her blocks and a number of other toys in order to construct some imaginary edifice. This is the 'stuff' of creation and I love to see it: to take seemingly incongruous elements and make something new and wonderful.
  And now that she has turned 5, the little one is 'becoming an expert' regarding the solar system, swamps, pirates, dinosaurs, trains, airplanes and constructing buildings. She creates elaborate stories with her small stuffed animals, detailing their personalities and needs.
   And isn't it ironic that there are times when I believe she is teaching me as much as I am teaching her; proof than one never, ever stops learning and that many of the things one thought they 'knew' are now often laughable.

Thumbs up for the action fingers

www.nickjr.com/the-upside-down-show

   You might not be familiar with The Upside Down Show and unless we stayed up way late a couple of times it would remain a mystery to our daughter.
   Initially, my wife and I thought it was a fairly absurd exercise: Monty Python for kids, was how the better half described it.
   But our daughter was enthralled and relentless pleas for "again, again" have turned us into fans of the program.
   Australians Shane Dundas and David Collins managed to crank out 13 frenetic episodes before producers backed away from the zany half-hour episodes. Previously known as The Umbilical Brothers, a physical comedy act, Shane, David and crew earned a 2007 Logie Award plus the Creative Craft Daytime Emmy Award for Main Title Design and a Parents' Choice Award Silver Honor for Television in the same year.
   The brilliance of the show is the ability of the guys to produce intricate stories out of practically nothing.
   My daughter's favorite secondary characters are Fido the Fly, a pet fly who lives behind a tiny door in apartment; and Action Fingers — Knuckles and Pointy, who perform a variety of two-digit skits.
   Set your TV to record the Nick Jr 11 and 11:30 p.m. time slots to pick up reruns of this jewel from Down Under.
   Absurd skits aside, the show is a huge vocabulary-builder and the physical flexibility to Shane and David make for some hilarious viewing.

A corker of a proper porker

www.btvision.bt.com/kids/peppa-pig

   One of the smartest Nick Jr. offerings out there has got to be Peppa Pig. If nothing else, it's teaching my daughter how to speak with an Oxford accent and 'peppa' her conversations with British phrases and references.
   What initially caught my attention about the show was the contrast of swine speaking proper English and displaying impeccable manners (except for the occasional snorts of exclamation).
   Aside from Mummy and Daddy Pig, Peppa has a younger brother George. But the show isn't just about pigs. All of Peppa's friends represent other species who also speak proper English: Rebecca Rabbit, Suzy Sheep, Danny Dog, Freddy Fox, Wendy Wolf and others. My favorite supporting ‘characters’ are the Zebra clan: Zoë Zebra, Mummy and siblings Zaza, Zuzu, Zack and Zarafa.
   We've also started to wander around Peppa's web site for more Brit wit.