Peter(ette) Pan

As you probably know, our girls are rather obsessed with pirates. This obsession took a bit of a blow this morning, however. In the wee hours of the morning, Addi comes into our room and leans in so she is nose to nose with me (in the process of groggily waking up).
"Ma ma, is Peter Pan a girl or a boy?"
"(Yawn) He's a boy, and it's too early to get up right now, so let's go back to bed."
A deep, mournful sigh comes from Adelaide. I thought she was getting ready to argue about going back to bed, but instead she just slumps her shoulders down and scuffles back to her room. Before closing the door, I hear her say, "I like girls better."

;)

While I generally don't like to be the bearer of bad news, this was the first time she went back to bed voluntarily, so maybe it's not too bad!

Enter the World of Superheroes!

Kindergarten has been a whole new experience on many fronts ... but all the things I thought would be a concern (not knowing what the heck they're saying any given minute of the day, for example!) are not the least bit of a concern for Hannah. The part that disorients her the most is the boys in her class! Granted, there are only five of them in her class, but they are typical boys in that they are obsessed with super heroes, sports, and spend most of their time bragging of trophies they don't actually have (which their absence wasn't at ALL noticed by Hannah on play dates!) Their behaviour and obsessions are so completely foreign to Hannah that she doesn't even know what to think. Well, until now!

Surfing Netflix tonight, we found the 1967 episodes of Spider-Man. Hannah knew who he was from the picture as a couple of boys dressed up like him for Halloween, and Addi is always game for something a little scary, so why not! We thought we'd try one episode to see what it was like, and the girls have now morphed into the very same deranged 5- and 6-year-old boys that have baffled Hannah up until this point! They couldn't get enough of it!

Some of the story was lost on them because we didn't explain beforehand how Peter Parker came to be, but Jeff filled in some details while snuggling in bed as they were way too excited to fall asleep after watching it!

Nothing like bedtime stories of Spider-Man! Even the cat is interested!

The fact that a man could acquire spider traits, hang from ceilings and have "spidey instincts" wasn't at all confusing to either one of the girls. But the moment he shot webbing from his wrists (not his bottom) Hannah started asking questions and wondering if this was for real! The writer really should have checked his facts on little arachnids before writing the comics, but I'm not sure it would have taken off had it been anatomically correct!

Anyway ... we had a battle of wills tonight at bedtime that we haven't had for a long time because both girls were so fascinated with Spider-Man they didn't want to stop! Addi wouldn't let me close the door and say goodnight until I promised her we would watch another episode tomorrow. They're hooked!

Jeff is saying a few hallelujahs as surely this means less Angelina Ballerinas and Doras for sure! And what's not to love about the 60s?!

Go Spidey!

Lost In Translation

Hannah and I tend to have several conversations that seem to loop around and around and around. Adding Spanish immersion into the mix certainly hasn't helped anything! For instance, she jumped off the bus today all excited that there was going to be a party at school. "Only 7 of us get to go! It will be after the school is closed ... Like during night time!" After searching her backpack for more information and doing several laps around this topic trying to figure out what in the world she was talking about, I finally concluded that she was referring to a play that was held at the school ... at 7 at night. The details were all there, they were just left up for a bit of interpretation!

A mere hours after this loop of a conversation, she told us that during computer lab time that afternoon, everyone watched a video on "the man who watches over us with the two pretty ladies by his side."

"The man? What man?"
"The man up high. You know, the one with the two pretty ladies," she says, clearly frustrated at having to repeat herself.

Now, what she does in Kindergarten is still a great mystery, so while I thought showing a video of God surrounded by two angels wasn't exactly something that would be shown at school ... the image below is what popped into mind. Perhaps they were starting a subject on art history!

 
Clearly frustrated with her mother's inability to understand her, Hannah starts to describe him yet again.

"You know, the man with the short hair and with the two pretty ladies by his side. He's way up high, and he watches over us and helps everyone."

I sneak a peek at Jeff, who looks every bit as bewildered as me, then I look back at Hannah with pleading eyes.

"Can you describe him a little bit more?"

Suddenly, a book we recently read popped into mind.


He has short hair, he is one of the "guardians of childhood'" so in a sense, he watches over us all, and he's up high on the moon ... it all fit! There is even a little blurb about the Tooth Fairy and Mother Goose in there, so that must be where she got the two pretty ladies!

Relieved and quite pleased with myself for figuring the daily riddle out, I blurt out the answer. But Hannah just rolled her eyes and huffed in disgust. "No, Mom!"
So, we return to this seemingly never-ending loop trying to decipher what it is she's trying to say. It's so rare that she talks about what she does at school - so I feel we ought to get it right when she does!

Soldiering on, she gives me the description yet again.

"You know, the man who watches over us, from up there, with the two pretty ladies beside him."

Dead silence from Jeff and I.

"You know him ... I just can't remember his name," Hannah says.
"Is this from a book we read?"
"No".
"A video?"
"No."

I think it's safe to say I was at a complete loss in this conversation!

Then she chimes in, "you watch him on the news sometimes. You know, the guy with the short hair and the two pretty ladies beside him. He's the one who watches over us and helps to keep us safe."

Light bulb moment!
Tee hee!! Happy President's Day (a bit late!)