Educational TV

At dinner with my family tonight, my 3 year old niece was wearing a shirt that said "Grandpa's TV Buddy". Since Papa keeps her almost every Friday, I knew there was some truth to that statement, so I decided to ask her about it. I asked her what her favorite show was and she responded,

"Hannah Down Hannah"

What she means is Hannah Montana. Man, is that Miley Cyrus everywhere. She's even bigger than Britney was in Britney's heyday. I only hope that the pressure of stardom at such a young age doesn't drive poor Miley to explode in some teen pregnancy scandal or heroin overdose in a couple of years. That seems to be about the only way these things end anymore.

But back to the TV. I quicky found out that the niece isn't the only one who gets to pick the shows to watch on Friday. I asked her what Papa's favorite show was and she responded,

"He likes the one where the bad boys shoot people."

Apparently Papa and the niece watch a lot of Cops as well. Glad to see Papa is broadening her viewing habits and not pigeonholing her into watching only toons.

Can you throw them over your shoulder, like a Continental soldier?

My niece is a whole 3 years, 3 months, going on 30. I say her age every time I talk about her because I'm still amazed at some of the things that come out of her mouth. I know they say I was a smart child, but there is no way I was as smart as she is. My mother will be the first to tell you that she has picked up lip reading. Even from across a short distance. She can understand what you are saying even if there are no words coming out of your mouth. Which is dangerous.

Today, she and I were having one of our random conversations. It just so happened to be about what I needed to take off before she would let me shower. She was taking me through piece by piece of clothing, starting with my socks. Surprisingly, she was letting me keep my sweats on. But I had to lose the shirt and the socks, and then "that thing", she said as she pointed to my bra. I asked her if she knew what it was called, and she didn't. So I told her it was a bra. I spared her from telling her what one of her grandmother's used to call it*, and will definitely avoid telling her until she's older what another of her grandmothers used to lovingly refer to is as**.

Once she got the word, I asked her if she wore a bra. She replied with a simple "nah", and before I could get out her ever favorite "why" question, she offered an explanatory, "but I'll have to when my boobs get big."

The fact that (at 3) she didn't know what it was called but knows the purpose and gets that she's one day going to be cursedblessed with a chest just freaks me out a little bit. Are they teaching sex ed in daycare?

*Over the shoulder boulder holders.
**Not appropriate for this blog, but it rhymed with kitty hags.

Tidbits

On the way to dinner in the car the other night, I was trying to keep my niece from whining so much, so I started singing along to the radio. The song at the moment happened to be "Ba Ba Ba, Ba Barbara Ann.." About halfway through, she turned to me and said, "Heidi... you sing GREAT!" If the kid knew what sarcasm was, I'm certain she would be being sarcastic. As it was, we followed that song with "Benny and the Jetts". (Which, funnily, has a great scene in 27 dresses). The next night we were out for my birthday and my niece started singing away like she normally does. Usually she sings the ABCs or the like, but we caught her singing "Ba Ba Ba Benny and the Jetts." A hybrid song, I guess.

You may not have been able to tell from my previous post, but my grandfather passed away over the weekend. Things have been a bit hectic around my parents' house as you can imagine, and I'm trying as much as I can to get things squared away at my work since I will be out for the rest of the week. Probably not the best situation to be out the whole week after I took off last week for vacation. But you have to deal with what life throws your way. And the miniscule stress I'm dealing with doesn't compare to what my mom has to face since she is the executor/power of attorney/finance person and everything.

My niece doesn't understand death, which isn't surprising since she's 3. She keeps saying she wants to go visit Papa Guy. My sister told her the Papa Guy isn't at his house and he's in heaven. To which my niece responded, "oh, that's bad mommie." Not sure what that means. Then she determined that she wanted to go to heaven too to visit Papa Guy and Jesus. I'm not sure how my sis is going to explain it at the visitation tomorrow when Papa Guy is at the funeral home.

Well, not much else to say at the moment. Please keep our family in your thoughts/prayers as we say our final goodbyes. It's tough to let him go, but we know he's not in pain anymore.

A Gift to be Simple

I asked my niece on the phone last night what she wants for Christmas. Her response? "A present." Ok. Well what kind of present? "A pink one." A pink one what? "A pink present." After a little more back and forth I let it drop. I have no idea what she means by that at all.

She also wants an airplane. I'm pretty sure though that she doesn't want a model airplane, but in fact wants one of the actual airplanes she sees in the sky all of the time and loves so much. I do tend to spend more than I should on her, but $30 million or so is definitely out of my price range.

From the Mouths of Babes

My niece has entered this phase where she repeats back everything you say to her in the form of a question. It's like your own echo machine constantly following you around everywhere.

For instance:
Me: Get your shoes on. We're going to Mimi's.
Her: My shoes on? I go Mimi's?

She's even got the inflection down so you know it's a question. Where do kids even learn that?

Sometimes it is cute. Yesterday Mimi asked my sister if she had seen the niece's latest drawing. Only Mimi referred to it as a masterpiece. So the niece picked it up in the kitchen and ran to her mom shouting, "look at my masterpiece mommy." The kid can't say pillow correctly (she says cah-low) but she can say masterpiece. Go figure.

Earlier in the night, I'd been sitting on the couch reading a magazine while she played with something. She came over to me, got my attention, and simply said, "I'm smart, Heidi." Yeah, humble too.

The Littlest Consumers

My dad gets the opportunity to babysit my niece every friday. They have a pretty standard routine which includes lunch with my mom and the other teachers at her work. Every friday also includes a trip to Walmart.

Now, for the average 2 year old, I'm sure Walmart isn't very notable or all that exciting. For my niece, it's the best thing in the world. She LOVES Walmart. If you ask her if she wants to go, she'll run through the house grabbing her shoes and coat and yelling "I go Malmart".

Lucky for us, she's not quite to the stage where she throws fits if you don't buy her something. Instead, when she sees something she likes, she'll comment, "I get it." You then let her hold it for a couple of minutes until it's time to put it back and move on. But if it's something she really really wants, or knows she's getting, she'll brand it "mine" and you don't dare pry it from her hands.

The other day, mom, my sister, and my niece were driving to the big city to do some shopping. On the way, we passed the Walmart shopping plaza. It sets way back from the road and is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. While driving, from the backseat we heard my niece perk up. Then she excitedly started saying, "Look, look, Malmart... Malmart." The little bugger even recognizes the building. She's going to be quite the shopper when she grows up. And I'm sure Walmart just loves to hear that.