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Perception
A very happy Mothers’ Day to all! I hope everybody called their moms today and thanked them for tolerating all that we children put them through! I was in charge of Avey only slightly more than most days today, and I got a pretty big wake up call about how hard it can be to deal with a little princess all the time. For some reason Avey decided that she would make sure I paid my dues, and had two potty accidents over the course of the day for me to clean up. It’s kind of sad how Kira and I both went to 6 years of college in the hopes of keeping from having to do that kind of work, and yet here we are cleaning up poop, doing food preparation, and attempting to smile at our “customer” as she tells us that nothing we do is helpful. We sometimes begin to understand why so many people these days are opting to let the television raise their kids (here‘s a funny article on a similar subject).
We have had quite the busy week! Yesterday was the Blossom Festival, and we (i.e., Avey) dragged two of my brothers around town to all of the little fun spots. They even waited patiently while Avey got her face painted. She chose a dragon, but we lost one of his eyes while playing at the park later:
Earlier this week Avey was sitting at the table attempting to keep herself entertained. She typically accomplishes this by imagining inanimate objects are living beings, and making them interact with one another. This often creates problems, as her spoon and fork nearly always are the stars of her play, but her unimaginative parents also need her utensils to help direct the food from her plate to her mouth. These conflicting roles are often the subject of great dissonance at the table. I tried to explain to her at dinner the other night that I needed to “borrow” her fork to help her take a bite. She barely muffled the impatience with my naivety in her voice as she said, “No, Dad. My fork is not a fork – it’s a girl!” I chuckled internally and decided that I might add to the fun. I picked up my glass and suggested that it was a rocket ship. This time she made no attempt to hide her disgust with me, and informed me that my glass was “just a glass.” She almost seemed legitimately worried that I was losing my mind, because she added, “Look at it” just to drive her point home.
Well, I did look at it. I concede that it is no rocket ship, but you have to admit it sure would have taken her little fork and spoon game to a whole new level.