Friday, June 15, 2012Fast as a Jackrabbit
You know those kids who would rather poke themselves in the eye with a pitchfork than try something new? I don't have one of those. Thank goodness. I'd have to poke myself in the eye with a pitchfork if I did.
Fortunately, Alexis is game to try anything. And not just once. Nope. She will continuously re-try things even if she knows for a fact she doesn't like them. I think she gained that super power because of her hatred for cheese. I refuse to believe that she really doesn't like it, so I make her try new cheeses all of the time.
She usually obliges with a tiny little nibble, and then looks at me with a death glare as she spits out, "I don't like it."
I figure she must not hate cheese THAT much or she wouldn't be willing to keep trying it. There is hope for a gouda revolution, kids. There is hope.
The best part about Alexis being willing to re-try things she knows she hates is that she often discovers that she doesn't hate them anymore after all. Chocolate is the most important thing that makes that list because SERIOUSLY? I don't know how I survived four years with a kid who didn't like chocolate. I'm working on teaching her that it's a a major food group right now. It's a twelve step program and steps 1-6 involve me eating entirely too much chocolate.
When we managed to score super inexpensive tickets to Kennywood last week, I immediately told the kid that her mission was going to be to re-try some of the rides that she hates.
For the record, when I say "she hates," I'm referring to the tragically sobby and snotty mess that was my daughter when she rode The Jackrabbit last year.
Of course I have a photo of her misery. OF COURSE I DO.
It took her about two seconds to decide that getting on that ride was the dumbest thing she had ever done in her entire life. She sobbed and she cried and complained on and on and on. The second the ride stopped, she yelled something about The Jackrabbit being the worst thing that had ever happened to her.
We made her right it again this year. What's not to love about a kid who goes into hysterics on a ride?
Her reaction was ... a bit different than it was last year.
Some things:
1. Lame rides are infinitely more fun when you're trying to carefully balance an expensive camera at just the right angle as you take photographs of your happy-screamy kid.
2. There is now photographic evidence that the husband does smile. Whodathunkit?
3. LOOK. AT. HER. FACE.
That, my friends, is glee. Pure glee.
Alexis loved The Jackrabbit so much this year that she has now ridden it approximately eleventy-billion times and counting.
Now I just need to convince her that scrubbing toilets is WAY more fun that she remembers.
Closure, Reminders, and Short Thoughts
* Just as suddenly as they appeared, the centipedes were gone. I still don't know for a fact how they managed to invade our home, but thank goodness I stuck with sifting through the scary stuff on The Googles long enough to find out that they were the kind of centipedes that can't handle cold, dry air. It just so happens that we have a big box attached to our house that pumps cold, dry air all through every room. It was ... uh ... a wee bit colder than usual (read: Alexis woke up with icicles hanging from her nose) in our house last night. That killed every last one of the creepy crawlies within a few hours. It's possible that I stood over a few of the effers and screamed "DIE A COLD, MISERABLE DEATH! DIE! DIE!!!!!!" The best part is that they did, almost as if I was their god and they had no chose but to do as I said.
Oh, yes. You can now refer to me as Goddess of the Suicidal Centipedes.
(By the way, they weren't the super creepy many, many legged ones you find near drains and pipes and such. If they had been, I would have burned the house down. They were the lesser creepy little black ones that you find under rocks and logs.)
* I have a few seats available in this week's Child Photography class and in the Getting Started with Your DSLR workshops. Email me at burghbaby (at) gmail.com if you want in on the fun.
I feed people fun stuff at the workshops. I'm just sayin'.
* A friend and I took Alexis to Reilly's Summer Seat Farm to pick blueberries.
BEST. IDEA. EVER.
I will probably write an entire post about how my ears owe the blueberry bushes about a kajillion dollars. There was so much magic around the whole thing that I've still got a bit of a contact buzz. A happy, happy contact buzz.
Picking raspberries was a whole other issue, though. My kid REALLY sucks at picking raspberries.
* Speaking of "sucks," that happens to be one of the words that is considered a "Grown-Up Word" around our house. Grown-ups are allowed to use it (thank goodness because it would suck to have to try to find a replacement for suck), but Alexis isn't. She refers to it as the s-word, which amuses me greatly. It's not as entertaining as the f-word, though.
Not that f-word, silly.
Fat. In her world, the f-word is "fat."
I'm oddly proud that she doesn't think it's spelled P-H-A-T. It's the little victories, you know.
* Please take a moment to comment on this post. Each comment will turn into a $1 donation to Reading is Fundamental. The 13 seconds it will take for you to tell me about a teacher who made a difference for you will go a long way in making books more accessible to kids. DO IT FOR THE KIDS.
* Why are you still here? You're supposed to be over there commenting. Please!
