For the last fifteen minutes, Bede has been placing a 2 inch length of string and a piece of vinyl flooring about the size of his finger atop an upside-down saucepan lid and then spinning it with his hand like a roulette wheel. He spins it, then stops it, picks up the pieces of debris, examines them, repeats.

At least if he’s up at midnight he’s doing something valuable, right? This is what I get for letting him sleep thru dinner.

Heh.

Who Says The Princess Is Stereotyped? or, A Study in Gender Roles

Scene: the kids’ room. F & A are playing with 3-inch high Snow White and Prince Charming figures in a Fisher Price dollhouse.

F: (in falsetto) Priiince! PRINCE! Come back to the castle!
A: (in gruff voice) Okay… I come back to the castle. Ono! I’m ‘TUCK! ‘Tuck inna forest inna vines! No Wite, save me!
F: I’ll save you, Prince!
A: Save me No Wite!
Enter Bede, stage left, making a beeline for the now abandoned ‘castle’
A: Ono! A MONSTER inna CASTLE! Quick No Wite! We save the castle!
F: OK prince! Give the monster some food and he will go away (in undertone to A: here Abby give him this truck) Yay Prince! You saved the castle!
A: Yay! I save de castle!
Bede plops down to roll the truck back and forth. A, meanwhile is making the Prince climb the windowsill, which F does not like.
F: PRINCE! Get down from there! You might fall and hurt your head!
A: I fall, No Wite! Save me!
F: I’ll save you!
… and so on

Bede got scared of the Magic Mirror and the Evil Queen on Snow White last nite… he trundled out of the living room as fast as those short little legs could carry him and climbed into his ‘uncle’ Kenny’s lap. It was pretty cute, he’s never had the scared response to anything like that before. When Snow White started singing he climbed down and tentatively peered around the corner at the television and very warily made his way back in…. about the time the EQ and the Huntsman were discussing SW’s demise… which of course scared him again, poor dude! He then refused to go in for a good 10 minutes until finally his adoration for SW singing (”Whistle While You Work”) overcame his new fear of the EQ.

Abby has a ‘ruddy dode, baba’ and is starting to get some weird tushie rash too. Poor little girlie! Her nosewiping technique leaves something to be desired… she has a tendency to come lean her face into my thigh and rub. Ick. She’s otherwise her normal agreeable self tho, just playing and boppin’ around as usual.

Faith is becoming very habitual in her food choices. It’s interesting to see them shift about… last year at this time she would be happy to try anything offered to her… now, uh, not. We had Fettucine Alfredo the other nite and she refused to taste it. It’s a shame, cuz she would like it, I know… but hey, I offer, she refuses, her choice. I expect it’s some 4yo thing and with any luck a year from now she’ll be back to trying stuff again.