the things kids take in

[Jaboney]

So, last night was chilly and I wore an old t-shirt to bed.

Sprout was feeling frisky, didn't want to sleep, and wanted Baba to read her a story.
Ok, good.
Not good enough to get her to sleep, though.

Later...
~ play - play - play ~

Now, Sprout's 20 months old and has recently begun learning how to count. Not a problem in Chinese: "一，二，三，四，五" But, in English, so far it's "one, (another) one, (another) one". Alright, fine; there might be an advantage in developing numeracy in Chinese.

Anyway, last night, apparently in an effort to stave off ultimate bed time, Sprout launched herself into the wonderful world of the alphabet, beginning with my ratty old t-shirt.

"Baba. Baba. Whatzthat?"
"'F'. That's an 'F'."
"Jefffff."
"That's right: 'ef'."
"Whatzthat?"
"O."
"Ooooh. Whatzthat?"
"R."
"Arhh. Whatzthat?"
"'U'. That's a U."
"Ew. Whatzthat?"
"M."
"MMmmm. Whatzthat?"
"That's another O."
"Oh. Baba, whatzthat?"
"S."
"Ehs. haha! Whatzthat?"
"A."
"Ahhhhh."
"That's right. 'Ahhh'."

Yeah, we went through the '.com' as well.
My lil' girl's first spelled out word: 'forumosa.com'.
If a Jaboney, jr-ette starts stalking the site in 15 or 20 years, you should know she started early and came by it honestly.

[Mother Theresa]

Speaking of the things kids take in. . .

Yesterday my wife, daughter and I went to see 127 Hours, that movie where a guy gets his arm pinned under a boulder, so he cuts his arm off to free himself. But it turned out the movie was rated R, so she couldn't get in, so my wife and daughter saw a Disney flick instead and I watched the arm hacking flick by myself.

But last night before bed, my girl and I watched some more of a fabulous BBC documentary that my brother gave us for Christmas, "Life", a sequel to their fabulous "Planet Earth", which we also have. And what we saw last nighted featured six komodo dragons attacking and killing a buffalo, then devouring it all down to the bones. Quite brutal and gruesome stuff.

And I asked myself if that was any tamer than the arm hacking scene, any more justifiable for a kid to watch. I don't know, but I'm very proud of my girl as she didn't seem overly disturbed or grossed out by it. She didn't flinch at all. I explained how it seemed brutal, but the dragons needed to eat too, and she accepted it all perfectly calmly and naturally -- better than my wife would have. So, perhaps she's destined to be a doctor some day. . . or a butcher.

[housecat]

My son and I have been talking about going to Disney Land for a long time. Our plans keep getting interrupted. Anyway, we were talking about this again yesterday when my son suddenly and forcefully declared that he does NOT want to kiss a princess!

Apparently, there's a commerical where a Disney princess tries to kiss a young boy. The boy runs away but then has a change of heart and goes back to kiss her. Because of this commercial, the prospect of a trip to the happiest place on earth is now a bit worrisome for my budding little romeo!

SOOOO CUTE!!!!

[divea]

Jaboney, that's a great start. My daughter not yet 2 then, first spelled out TAIPEI TIMES.

[Petrichor]

Speaking of the things kids take in. . .

Yesterday my wife, daughter and I went to see 127 Hours, that movie where a guy gets his arm pinned under a boulder, so he cuts his arm off to free himself. But it turned out the movie was rated R, so she couldn't get in, so my wife and daughter saw a Disney flick instead and I watched the arm hacking flick by myself.

But last night before bed, my girl and I watched some more of a fabulous BBC documentary that my brother gave us for Christmas, "Life", a sequel to their fabulous "Planet Earth", which we also have. And what we saw last nighted featured six komodo dragons attacking and killing a buffalo, then devouring it all down to the bones. Quite brutal and gruesome stuff.

And I asked myself if that was any tamer than the arm hacking scene, any more justifiable for a kid to watch. I don't know, but I'm very proud of my girl as she didn't seem overly disturbed or grossed out by it. She didn't flinch at all. I explained how it seemed brutal, but the dragons needed to eat too, and she accepted it all perfectly calmly and naturally -- better than my wife would have. So, perhaps she's destined to be a doctor some day. . . or a butcher.

The difference is that in a film there's a lot more added in order to make it distressing to watch - music, suspense, close ups of actors faces showing their agony/horror etc. I think kids are very susceptible to these things because they aren't jaded by exposure as adults are.

We've been reading Redwall, where there's a scary snake. My son didn't understand how snakes could eat things much bigger than themselves so we looked up a few examples on Youtube, which he was fine with watching. Yet we had to stop reading The Lord of the Rings because the fictional black riders, who at that point had done nothing other than be menacing, were freaking him out. I think I was trying too hard with the scary voice.

[divea]

I think I was trying too hard with the scary voice.

My kids have watched, a cat devouring a bird, a badly bleeding dog, with a smashed in face dart across the street, we used to save turtles and those big black fish, all bloody from the fishermen's hooks and they never once winced, but they see an illustration of the wicked witch in any of the Disney made fairy tale books and they get scared. It is the expression of evil that they don't like, instinctive I guess.