My kid, the fyderfighter

So my kid has announced that he wants to be a firefighter, which he pronounces more like fyderfighter. I was thinking how cool it is that his school is teaching gender neutral names for jobs, when "Caillou" came on the TV and went on and on about a MAILMAN. Oy! Is "mail carrier" so bleeding hard to say?

(Ironically, a friend's gf is a mail carrier and calls herself a mailman. But anyway...)

I do think it's interesting that my little 50%ile for height/weight guy wants to be a firefighter. His strengths, so far, are numbers/math and art. He's not that strong nor athletic. Well, we'll delve into that further. He wanted to be, within the past year, a "doctor-fyderfighter." I thought, Paramedic, not bad, sure. I found myself, this morning, actually encouraging him to consider a career as an artist. Oy, I'll be supporting him till he's 40 (should I live so long). Well, we gotta have the arts...

I love the way kids think

My son has a plush snowman doll, probably from the movie of the same name. The smile isn't a series of dots like pieces of coal, but rather, a black line. This morning, he asked me if anyone eats the green parts of a carrot. I told him I didn't think so. He was wondering because folks usually take the green part off of a carrot and then stick the orange part in the snow for the snowman's nose. Interesting.

Then he went on to wonder about the mouth. How do I think they made it? I said, maybe a piece of black licorice. He said, yeah, or maybe a dead black snake. Thought a little. Or maybe a dead black worm. Sure, maybe so, I said.

Loving it.

gender-variant behavior

Not sure where I found this link, but it sure is interesting... and makes me a little sad. My son is a pretty happy, well-adjusted kid, who tends to choose dolls, purple & pink, shiny things, little things, art... but who also loves a good rough-and-tumble. The booklet says that gender-variant boys tend to be gay when they grow up, full stop.

Not sure why that bugs me so much, but it does. I guess I don't want life to be hard(er) for him; he's already feeling some stress about being from a mom-and-kid family. We had the "I want a dad" conversation again last night; at one point, he said he wanted to have two dads, to the exclusion of me, it sounded! :) I try not to be sensitive and just deal with it like my wistful longing for a grandfather when I was young--a yearning for an idealized creature. He wants a dad to play with him and watch videos with him. Sure, who wouldn't?

Anyway, the booklet above just underscored my need to accept him exactly as he is, whatever his choices are. I'll do my best.

tired of being late

This morning, got up bright and early at 6. Got the church newsletter
all edited, did some other stuff, felt productive. Kid got up fairly
early, got himself dressed with little prompting, I got showered
fairly early... still didn't get to work till 8:30. I'm SO TIRED OF
BEING LATE!

I have to figure out the key to being on time. I really want to have
an 8-5 workday so I can occasionally use that extra hour at daycare
(pickup being at 6PM). 9-6 is okay; 8-5 would be terrific. Do I have
to get up at 5:30???

ah, a virgin blog.

What is this bloggish thing? I just created it to blab on a friend's blog that wouldn't accept "anonymous" comments, and here I am.

Just signed my son up for Kindergarten, an interesting process. I thought I was ready but felt like a kid being held after class when the school secretary pulled paper after paper that was incomplete. (I'd stopped filling out the emergency card when I realized I didn't know my friend's address--I'd been to her place umpteen times but never had the address written down. I wrote a fake one; what, they're going to mail her something in an emergency?) Finally got done, and she didn't reject us for missing one required vaccination (as I feared she might), but accepted the papers, pending G's annual exam in May. Still, even after having convinced myself that this school just might be acceptable, we may get bumped for space. Help me God! I don't need more dyspepsia.

On to the new adventure of Summer Care! It looks like we'll go with the school his daycare funnels into. They charge the same as now with a small additional fee for daily swim lessons, which I'll gladly pay. I'd love to see him swimming without flotation aids by summer's end! How fabulous that would be.

Oh, lordy, I'll have to figure out how to pack him a lunch for this fall. Haven't had to yet. Do I brown-bag it, or try to have him remember to bring back pieces of tupperware and a reusable lunch bag? Questions, questions.

More later.