Green Is Not My Best Color

March 14, 2009November 12, 2023 | patmcg

Driving home from today’s swim lesson, traffic slowed to a crawl as police closed lanes and directed traffic. Just as I started to become irritated, the sight of a lady walking down the sidewalk with a crazy green hat and green-and-white striped stockings changed my mood. It was a Saint Patrick’s Day parade! Crowds of green-clad pedestrians were funneling their way down Greenville Avenue towards the apparent parade site. I started daydreaming about going to the parade. The parade route past the old brick cottages of Lower Greenville, coupled with the cool damp weather, seemed perfect for an Irish celebration.

Then Claire chimed in her thoughts…

She wondered why everyone was wearing silly green hats. I explained that it was for Saint Patrick’s Day. She should wear green to school on Tuesday, since everyone was going to be wearing green for Saint Patrick’s day. She took some exception to this idea. “Green is not my best color. I like pink! Pink is my favorite color! I don’t like green,” she explained. I told her she could wear green and pink. “No! I want to wear pink. That’s the only way to do it.” I said that’s alright, and just in case she was confused, I went on to explain that Saint Patrick was not me, her dad. He was a guy in Ireland a long time ago. Yep, old Saint Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland. What a guy. They like to celebrate him every year. Claire was not impressed, replying, “I do not want to wear green, and I do not want to go Patricking!” I loved that, the idea of “going Patricking.”

Anyways, I guess Saint Patrick’s Day is not really for three-year-olds (not even for rather Irish ones).

Candy Time Out

February 14, 2009November 12, 2023 | patmcg

Claire has scored more than her share of candy lately. First, Valentines Day was a jackpot. She came home with a white paper bag full of candy (and accompanying valentines cards) compliments of her 16 classmates. I think I was those only parent who just sent Valentines cards and no candy. I figured I was doing other parents a service by giving them one less piece of candy to deal with. I can see now that this is an uphill fight, and maybe I was just being uptight about the whole thing. Next year, it’s Fun Dip for everyone!

The following day was a birthday party for her friend and classmate Georgia. As luck would have it, the party was right after Claire’s swim class, a couple of doors down. So Claire topped off her 40 minutes of swimming (well, crying) with another 45 minutes of running and jumping and rolling around. Then came the pizza and juice boxes, after which sadly, Claire could not eat all of the birthday cake put in front of her. To top it off, they sent her home with a party bag full of candy to add to her Valentines collection.

We dealt with this candy glut by giving Claire one piece of candy each morning and one piece each evening (Kit did some of her own “helping” as well). One night after Claire had already enjoyed her candy allotment for the day, she started asking for more candy. She was being very sweet about it, actually. But I said no, she already had her candy for the day. She asked again nicely, and I said no again. Then she sighed a slow “oookaaay” and carried the white candy bag over to her “timeout” corner, where we normally send her for two minutes if she misbehaves (like hockey). She left the bag on the floor there and walked back to me. I asked her why she left the bag there, and she explained that the candy was having a timeout. That nearly killed me. I almost gave her a piece of candy right there on the spot just for being so cute. (But sadly, I did not.)

Book Shortage

February 8, 2009November 12, 2023 | patmcg

This morning, I was explaining the day’s plan to Claire. It seems to help her to know what to expect. I started with the basics: it is Sunday, so it is not a school day; it is a Mommy & Daddy day. Claire corrected me and explained that today is actually a Mommy, Daddy, and Muffin day. Then I went on to explain the errands for the day. First we would go buy some shampoo, and then we would go to the bookstore and get some new books for Mommy. Claire glanced up at the 12-foot tall bookshelf in the living room, half covered in books, and looked a little confused. After a few seconds, she said, “Are we running out of books?”

Name Your Friends

January 12, 2009November 12, 2023 | patmcg

In the past, Claire’s stuffed animals had names that were accurate but not very exciting. She had Bunny the bunny, Longhorn the longhorn cow, and so on. I think we actually named those for her. But she has gotten more creative recently. Her stuffed kitty is named Cranberry Sauce. I think this happened during Thanksgiving when the conversation about dinner got mixed up with the conversation about her kitty. For less understood reasons, her stuffed puppy is named Salsa Bleeze. I cannot be sure about the spelling, but that is exactly how it sounds when she says it. Her rocking horse has gone nameless for a long time, but now she has officially christened it Texas Island. This just gets weirder and weirder.

Sleepy Time

December 13, 2008 | patmcg

Claire has been pretty good about taking her naps the last few months. But today she was extra wired up around nap time, maybe because she was over-tired. When Kit put her down to nap, Claire came right back out of her room and declared that she wanted to play instead. Then Kit did her trick where she sets a timer for 20 minutes and tells Claire she can come out when it beeps. Claire begrudgingly agreed to this plan and disappeared into her room. Within a couple of minutes she was quiet.

Three hours later.. Claire showed up on the stairs outside her room, a little confused and rubbing her eyes. She asked very sincerely, “Did the timer beep yet?”

We said yes, and she could come down and play now. Her hair was soaked with sleepy sweat. She motioned toward her room and said, “But my pillow is sweating, We need to clean it up.” She may have gotten too much of a nap, actually, because she woke up pretty early the next morning, and that darn pillow was sweating on Claire’s head again.

Fun With a Bag

October 27, 2008November 12, 2023 | patmcg

Lots of times, Claire and I play on the playground for a while after school. Today we had an extra prop handy, which happened to be a plastic bag with dirty clothes in it from the school day. Claire invented a fun game and nearly ran herself ragged. Notice the wild giggling and stumbling. Is she drunk?

Pardon the jerky camera work. I was trying to film and catch said bag at the same time.

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