Contradictions

Today, a study in contradictions.

My daughter has always been a can-do, take charge kind of toddler. "Let me do it!" has been her mantra ever since she learned to form the "d" sound. Playground equipment, pouring cereal, driving, conjugating latin, splitting hairs, she wants to try her hand at everything. Sometimes it's very hard to dissuade her that she should let me do some things, like drive the car, for her. I believe she takes after The Doctor in this respect.

She will often get herself dressed. That's something I like to encourage, even if it means my daughter goes to school with outfits mixing several different patterns of stripes.

I shouldn't be surprised when she starts talking about subjects that have never been discussed at home. She must be taking initiative at school and learning things outside her home experience. For instance, she correctly identified that the boy across the street was playing "Basketball, Daddy, BASKETBALL!"

"How do you know about basketball?"

"Daddy! That's the basketball. We don't have that at home. We have soccer. Right daddy? BASKETBALL! You can't play, [my son], you're too little!"

My son drooled at her.

Another good example: while in the Base Exchange, she was examining some items. "Care Bears, Daddy, CARE BEARS!!"

I have no idea where she learned about Care Bears. Probably from the same people that taught her about Disney Princesses.

I told you those stories of my daughter's initiative in order to tell you this one.

Weekday mornings can be hectic. If the kids wake up late, I sometimes have to push them to hurry up so they can get to school so Daddy can get to work on time. Issues arise when my daughter wants to take her time getting dressed.

Mind you, it's not because she's deliberating over her sartorial choices, she just gets distracted easily. She'll want to play with her dollhouse, or her pajamas. Maybe she'll try to insist on wearing pajamas to school. Perhaps she's worried about my son entering her room. It could be that she's distracted by all of this, all while I'm trying to get everyone out the door.

So I start suggesting clothing she might like to wear.

"You want to wear this shirt?"

"No."

"OK, how about this one?"

"No."

"You didn't even look at it."

[Looks at shirt] "No."

"OK, you pick a shirt out of your drawer then."

"I want to wear my pajamas! Pajamas, Daddy, PAJAMAS!"

And so forth. I tried a secret parent trick.

"Oh, I think I know what you want."

"What?"

"This one's special."

"What??"

"It's right here!"

"What, Daddy?"

"This shirt! It's the one you want, right?"

"YEAH! That shirt, Daddy! I want to wear that one."

I still got the touch. Time to keep the forward momentum.

"And these pants go with it! Isn't that a nice outfit?"

"Yeah. Thanks Daddy!"

I made that last quote up. She only thanks me for food products that I give to her. I should probably start working on saying "thank you" in other contexts.

"Great! Get dressed so we can go downstairs..."

So she gets dressed. We make it to the car and drive to school. When I pick her up in the afternoon, her teacher pulls me aside.

"Your daughter's wearing a pair of CDC panties today."

"Why, did she have an accident? She's still wearing the clothes from this morning..."

"No, no accident, she didn't wear any panties to school today."

"Huh?"

"When I asked her why not, she said 'Daddy didn't give me any!'"

Ah. Forgot that step.

So much for initiative.