Kiss My Knits!

Tomorrow, Em and I are going to see Wall-E. This will be the first time she’s gone to a movie theater. When she was younger, we didn’t think she could sit still, and then lately she hasn’t wanted to go because it’s new and different and therefore to be shunned. But I’m not presenting it as a choice this time, I’ve just been calmly saying, “On Friday, we’re going to go see Wall-E” and telling her a little bit about what it’s about. She’ll go along with something that you tell her is going to happen. She seems interested.

Going to the movies is a good experience for a kid to have, in my opinion. It’ll be a good opportunity for me to help prevent another idiot cell-phone talking moviegoer from entering the world. You don’t know these things unless someone tells you, and I’d rather it be me who tells her than have someone turn around and lay the smack down when she starts kicking their seat in the middle of, say, a retro showing of Schindler’s List.

Interestingly, I’ve read on some autism boards that Wall-E is a particularly good movie to take children with autism to, since there’s not a lot of complex dialogue to confuse kids who have trouble with language. Em’s doing better in that regard, but I’ll still be interested to see if that seems to make a difference to her.

Green Jayne finished, orange Berrocco Jayne hat on the needles.

Today, Emily art! This one, you’ll need to click through to to get the full effect.

Apparently, along with the tag on her doll reading “Keep Away From Fire,” the last line of Romeo and Juliet is about the funniest thing written. It cracks her completely up, every time. It’s all in her delivery:

“There never was a story of such woe
as that of Juliet and her poooooooooor Romeo.”

Currently on the needles: a Berrocco Ultra Alpaca Jayne hat in green. Shiny!

Fellow Charlotteans, could you please be on the lookout for a lightly sloping parking lot or grassy hill? We’re wanting to help Em learn to ride her bike, and this method where you remove the pedals and lower the seat and start them off learning to balance seems to have good reviews. It’s gotta be better than the “run alongside method” which was causing my shins such damage.

Thanks!

Two topics: ‘who texted me?’ + ‘world: stop being an idiot around my kid.’

Sorry the updates have lately been of the “quick! here’s a funny picture/link!” variety. In the summer, time gets a little more precious and it’s tough to eke out enough time for a meaty journal entry.

The cell phone dried out and now works just fine. It was touch and go there for a while – first the “enter” button didn’t work, then the “7” didn’t work, but now everything’s hunky dorey. Hurray! I get to keep my phone, which I am considering naming Hulk for its durability and size. Or maybe She-Hulk, since I actually read that comic.

Jayne hats continue apace. The line so far hasn’t gotten as low as it did last summer. I don’t think it will, now that CSTS has happened, as that event puts Firefly more top of mind for folks. It’s still amazing to me that there’s been a waiting list continually since early 2005. Atsa lotta Jayne hats.

At left, Emily art! She has re-written the Bard. In Emily’s version, Romeo goes over to Juliet’s house and gets married. Since he gets married at her place, he takes her last name instead of vice versa. They move in together and apparently Romeo throws a birthday party for Juliet. And they all live happily ever after. Dig the toothy grin on Romeo. That hack Shakespeare could learn a few things from Emily.

Em has decided she doesn’t want to go to astronomy camp. This is because she came home at about 10pm from the in-laws last week, and it made her realize just how tired she’ll be at that time. Honestly, this may be for the best. We were playing a board game last night at about 8:45, and she get rather upset (sad, not tantrumy) that she hadn’t won any of the three games we played. If it hadn’t been that late at night, she would have been just fine. We played one more game, which she won, so that helped a little, but mainly she was just tired.

If she can’t handle life at 8:45, I don’t know how she’d do on a car ride back from Gastonia at 10pm. Too bad the camp is paid for. I’m going to see if there are any other little kids in our life, maybe up in that neck of the woods, who might like to go.

However, today we’re going to the planetarium anyway, and to help soothe her last night I told her we could go to all three shows – the 2,3, and 4, which are different shows. We were going to go yesterday, but they weren’t going to do the Summer Sky Show, which is where an astronomy buff stands up and talks about the constellations. I find it interesting that she likes that more than a pre-programmed show with music and production values. Just a guy talking about the stars, that’s her speed.

While Em was out of town this weekend, I picked up two new outfits for her. This kid grows too fast.

One of them was a floral halter top in a style she hasn’t worn before. I knew this might be iffy, because Em sometimes doesn’t go for new things, but lately she’s been a little more fashion conscious so I thought she might like it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t factor in her desire to always wear an undershirt. I suggested that this particular style doesn’t really need one, but she insisted that she needed to wear it anyway. So she’s off at camp this morning in a halter top with a Hanes tank top under it. The unfortunate part is that she will now forever associate the new skirt with the new shirt, so if she wants to wear the skirt, she’ll always want to wear that shirt with it. So she can look a bit odd, or I can hide $17 bucks worth of clothing at the back of her drawer.

Normally my guiding principle is “well, if she’s happy, then who cares?” but she’s starting to get to an age where kids notice and pick out any little thing. Of course, regardless of how conformist one tries to be, they’ll still find something to pick out. Does the fact that I’m thinking about it mean that it’s going to be a factor in my decisions from now on? Interesting little psychological moment, and one to watch for in myself.

Oh well. Today, she’s happy, so who cares what other people think?

ETA: Yes, she did let me at least put the hangy stringy thingies on the back down into the shirt.

ETA-again: My mother, who was a helper at the camp, informs me that Em got two compliments from adult assistants on her top, proclaiming it very beachy. This week’s camp is a church camp with a beach theme. She also says that kids were wearing all kinds of crazy stuff. Clearly I need to chill a little. 🙂