Conversations with my daughter VII.

[rivka]

Me: Markers only go on paper, not on your feet.
Alex: No, on my toesies!
Me: I know Gran had painted toenails, but you are not Gran.
Alex: applies marker to toes with a flourish. I'm pretending to be Gran.


Alex: pretending to bathe a triceratops. I will pour water on you.
Triceratops (a.k.a. me): No, I'm all done! Waaaah!
Alex: Shh! I have to wash your hair.
Triceratops (a.k.a. me): Waaah! I don't like it!
Alex: No, you do not say that. *I* say that.
Me: Oh, that's true. Maybe triceratops likes to have its hair washed. What *does* Triceratops say?
Alex: Raaaaar!


Alex: holds out a banana peel. Mama, will you fix it?
Me: Once a banana is peeled, you can't really fix it.
Alex: You will try to fix it with your tools.
Me: I don't have any tools that could fix a banana peel.
Alex: You will go to the store and buy some tools to fix it.


Edited to add:
Alex: listening to a Kermit the Frong song. He can swim in the water.
Me: That's right, "he's a Caribbean amphibian." An amphibian is an animal who can live in the water, or on the land.
Alex: Or in a house!

Comments

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Alex is Wash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoban_Washburne) AICMFP

[kcobweb.livejournal.com]

My toenails were painted black ('cuz I'm so goth), and Elena would say "Mommy's toes black" when she noticed them. Then I took off the polish, and she decided they were grey. "Toes GREY," she'd insist. It was a little weird - I'm not dead, and my feet aren't strange colors. I had to paint them again - now, "toes dark blue."

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She'd better not be.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

...although now I do have an overpowering urge to teach her to say "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Triceratops got hair? Okay, I guess; after all, clams got legs.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

How good that Alex recognizes Mama as a tool-using fixer, even if she's a little unclear on the details yet.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

I can never get enough of these.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She has a touching faith in our ability to fix anything, including - on one memorable occasion - a popped balloon.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I suppose you could try duct-taping the banana peel back over the banana. Wouldn't be perfect, but it would protect the fruit for a few more hours. Of course, getting the peel off again might be a bit of an adventure...

I think her washing the triceratops' hair is a good sign.

[elisem.livejournal.com]

Those are pretty cool.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Mine is an evil laugh!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

I think you could probably put the banana peel back together with superglue, but that should be locked away from Alex until she's at least 25. A popped balloon can be fixed by plastic dip that you use to coat tool handles. It would still pop again so I'm not sure it's worth it, but you could.

[ailbhe]

I LOVE refusal to recognise unfixable problems.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

>Me: I don't have any tools that could fix a banana peel.
>Alex: You will go to the store and buy some tools to fix it.

I love this refusal to recognize unfixable problems. Though I suppose that if you went to the store, you *could* come back with a fixed banana, good as new.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

This time I won't invite you to visit, because it's 100 degrees and humid and there's no chance of improvement any time soon. I'm sure New York is bad enough in the summer without making things worse for yourself by coming down here.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, her dinosaur figurines are flocked.

Uh, not friends-locked. Slightly fuzzy. It was a bold and interesting design choice. One can certainly see why Alex thinks the occasional shampoo might be necessary.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I love this refusal to recognize unfixable problems.

Well, it's certainly good problem solving. She's really starting to have an idea of possible alternative approaches to a problem.

[fourgates.livejournal.com]

I wonder what she'd think of the trick where you cut a banana without breaking the peal, using a needle and thread.

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Ha, ha, munch, munch, die!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Also: merely recognizing that there are many kinds of tools, not all of which are useful for every jobs, is major progress. It used to be that everything, including broken china, was met with "Papa will fix it with a hammer."

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

An excellent CD, by the way :)

[thette.livejournal.com]

I heard a good surgeon is someone who can sew up a mandarine peel and make it look like an unpeeled mandarine. I think that goes for bananas as well.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

As far as surgery skills go... I'm a great psychologist. ;-)

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

This puts her a step beyond many of the adults I know. I still consider "Papa will fix it with a hammer" a good solution to the vast majority of problems I encounter.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

We'd love to visit! We've got a wedding, visiting my folks in Seattle, and a trip to Montreal coming up, so it's probably not going to happen soon. But we will.

Cheers!