Category Archives: preschoolers

I want to see BarackObama RIGHT NOW!

Posted on January 17, 2009 | 3 Comments

Every day for past few weeks my 4 year old has thrown a mini or major tantrum that starts with the question “Are we getting on an airplane to go see Barack Obama today?” When the answer is “No, we’re going in __ days” then there’s yelling and sometimes kicking/flailing accompanied by “I want to go see Barack Obama NOW! RIGHT NOW!”

It doesn’t help to point out date on airplane ticket or look at a calendar and count the days because, as the preschooler wails, “That’s too LOOOOOOONG to wait!!”

I’m pretty sure she thinks we’re going on a playdate with a man she’s seen all over the media – he has daughters, after all, who are just the right age to be complete idols for a 4 year old. (Speaking of idolizing “older girls” we have a new neighbor who has a 7 year old daughter and my kid is already planning sleepovers with her – if you’re 4, then a 7 year old causes heroine worship)

Also, it’s not Obama or Barack, it’s BarackObama (all one quickly spoken string) as far as my kid’s concerned. She regularly corrects me when I refer to him as Obama.

I’m heading to DC early tomorrow morning for the inauguration along with my 4-year-old daughter Lucy, her friend Olivia, and Olivia’s parents Greg and Christine. My wife’s not going due to work and other things and we’ll all miss her and will do plenty of iChatting (and Twitter DM’ing and txt’ing) with her.

I am BEYOND excited about this trip – tickled that my kid will “see” the inauguration, thrilled that we’ll be there (in the freezing cold) for it, excited to have finally voted for a candidate who won, and hopeful that there’s a smidgen of a chance that this president will do something to give my family some federal legal rights.

I haven’t been to DC since I was 16 years old (in 1987) and that was on a trip with 40+ other 16-year-olds. I don’t remember much about DC except the Vietnam Memorial and eating lots of greasy fast food and staring at the White House. I’m sure I went to lots of other places in DC. I was more interested in having fun with the other kids – some of whom are still my friends today.

We probably won’t get much opportunity to go in any museums, what with the other millions of people in DC next week, and we’ll likely be a very well-packed sardine in the Metro sardine can on Tuesday.

Still. I. Cannot. Wait.

If I felt comfortable enough to throw myself on the ground and yell and kick like my kid, well, I might just copy her.  Sometimes she’s my heroine.

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Posted in obama, preschoolers, president

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She renounced carnivorism

Posted on December 31, 2008 | Leave a comment

A few weeks after my 4-year-old declared she wanted to eat meat, she declared she didn’t really like meat (except prosciutto).  She tried turkey at Thanksgiving and spat it out.  She said chicken isn’t meat and didn’t want to eat it.  She loves ikura and tobiko and anchovies and sardines and salmon and fake meats (fakin’ bacon, smart dogs, veggie burgers, etc) and chocolate.

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Posted in food, preschoolers

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A New Carnivore

Posted on December 8, 2008 | 1 Comment

About a month ago, sometime around when this picture was snapped, my 4-year-old declared she is no longer a vegetarian.  My wife and I are “vegetarians” who eat a bit of fish here and there.  We’ve kept our daughter on the same diet, but told her that it’s her choice if she wants to eat meat — it’s not something we’re adament about, we just don’t eat it ourselves — and that we’d just want her to eat sustainably-raised and kindly-killed meat if she eats it.

She’s had a bit of proscuitto at some parties in the past and loved it.  After declaring her desire to be a carnivore we asked her what meat she’d like to eat.  She said, “only cow, that’s the only meat, pigs and chickens and ducks aren’t really meat, I want to eat dead cow.”  We suggested she eat meat at school and not at home, but she said, “I only want to eat meat at home.”

We’re flexible.

We did our grocery shopping at Whole Foods that week instead of Rainbow Grocery so she could pick out some meat.  She selected some all beef cocktail franks (not super healthy, not super unhealthy, already cooked which is nice for those of us who don’t want to cook meat) and we designated a small cast iron fry pan in our house to be the meat-cookin’ pan for our carnivorous preschooler.  She ate a few franks.  She’s asked for them since but then declined to eat them when they’re hot and ready to eat.  She’s tried bits of a few different types of meats at restaurants but didn’t like it.  She tried a bite of turkey at thanksgiving and spat it out.

I’m pretty amused.  I’m proud of her for trying out something new and taking advantage of a choice when, really, kids don’t have that many choices.  She’s my rock star.

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Posted in food, preschoolers

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Thanksgiving with Lucy

Posted on November 28, 2008 | Leave a comment

she quietly listened to music in the car ride to in-laws (moya’s parents) then she browsed the new yorker. for the few hours before cousins arrived she asked, every 5-10minutes, “when will my cousins be here?” and every answer was unacceptable, “that’s too long, I want them to be here NOW.” since declaring, a week ago, that she is not a vegetarian anymore, she tried eating turkey and spat it out. a gingerbread house was constructed and flamboyantly decorated before collapsing like liquefaction and earthquakes. she arranged all of the large stuffed animals around her bed so they could watch her sleep. I turned off her “totoro” nighlight and tucked it in her bed. in the morning she sleepily removed it, turned it on, placed it back on the ledge, grunted something (probably “who moved and turned off totoro?!?!!”) and went back to sleep. she’s a fun kid.

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Posted in preschoolers