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Week 208: Standing, Robots, and Roles January 23, 2008

Here's another milestone marker: Mandy stood up by herself this week. As with most great accomplishments in the history of mankind, she did it by accident. She was using one hand to lean against something while holding a toy in her other hand. She then let go with her supporting hand and reached for a second toy, then stood there inspecting it for a moment before realizing that ZOMG I'M STANDING UP! The weight of this realization made her spaz out and do a face plant on the carpet, but we were both still delighted. And for once I was right there on the floor with her when she did something for the first time and I got to see it first. Before her, even. For me, this is a highlight, and if she never learns to walk I'm fine with that, because hey why push it?

Sam hasn't hit any milestones, though she has been back to preschool for a couple of weeks now and continues to bring home all manner of clever art projects. One day it was a little clock, the next day it was ...well, something I'm still not sure what it was and Sam doesn't seem to want to tell me. Most recently, though, they were studying squares (which seems a little remedial for today's 3-year olds, but what do I know) and Sam created this little guy out of craft paper:

Upon coming home from work and seeing this out on the counter I burst into gales of laughter. If you don't understand why, I assume that you're either a) not a native English speaker, or b) don't have the vestiges of your adolesent sense of humor. For help with option a, click here. I can't help you with b, but I wish you luck in your career as a schoolmarm.

Perhaps I'm making too much of this, and the labels upon this little robot's chest are not as lascivious as I first took them to be. At any rate, I explained to Geralyn that the whole double entendre could be eliminated with the strategic placement of the world "The" to make things more clear. She agreed, but I suspect that she was thinking of putting the "The" after the word "Randy," and I was thinking of placing it before.

At any rate, Sam does seem to be developing a fascination with the bad boys. For a long time she would want to reinact the various movies that she'd seen as a form of play. I was usually ready to participate in such charades, but Sam had a habit of of picking odd roles for me. She was always Flounder while I was always Ariel. Or she was the mouse while I was Cinderella. Or she Boots to my Dora. Sensing a pattern here? Couldn't I be King Triton instead and she could be the pretty little mermaid? Wouldn't that make more sense since Triton was the daddy? No! I had to be Ariel. And so I practiced my falsetto and went along with it, because that's my JOB.

Since we checked out Disney's Aladdin from the library the other week, though, she has changed her tune. Aladdin, the golden hearted hero of the tale, gets barely a scornful mention as "that boy' from sam. Instead, she wants to pretend to be the parrot Iago and I must be the villainous sorcerer Jafar. I must caper about and try to do all manner of wicked things to our heroes --and, I should mention, succeed far more often than was the case in the movie. I'm not exactly being a positive role model, but it beats talking to mice and pretending to sew dresses in time to fall in love with some prince, doesn't it? Doesn't it?

Well, it's more fun for both of us at any rate.

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Tags: Amanda, Parenting, Samantha