Day 878 - Ellie and the Backpack Conundrum

Do you want to know something that seems absolutely crazy? Oh, you do? That's awesome.

Yesterday afternoon, Ellie and I headed to Target for some back-to-school shopping to pick out all of the thing she needs for preschool. Well, actually, per Ellie, that statement should probably be changed to just school shopping. Allow me to submit the following (un)recorded conversation into the record.

Jesse: "Ellie, did you enjoy back-to-school shopping?"

Ellie: "I've never been to school. You can't call it back-to-school if I've never been."

 

Honestly, the girl does make a good point. How can it be back-to-school shopping if she has never gone to school in the first place? I'll have to keep that in mind for the future.

I discovered that taking one's child school shopping for the first time is quite the experience. For one thing, I spent the majority of our time at Target having an internal dialogue with myself debating whether or not she was really old enough to go to preschool. For the record, she was born in 2016 so she is definitely old enough. Of course, our trip wasn't all Daddy suffering from some kind of minor crisis. Ellie had her own "minor crisis" coupled with lots of fun decisions to make.

When we arrived at Target, we grabbed our cart and raced to the school supplies section at the back of the store, Indy car-style. What I mean by that is that Ellie perched herself on the front of the shopping cart while I placed one foot on the bottom bar, using my remaining foot to quickly push us through the store. Based on what I've gleaned from talks with other people, this is kind of a male-only thing and any attempts to do so in the presence of a woman will result in severe eye-rolling, forehead palming, or denial of relationship. Lucky for me, Ellie's not old enough to realize what her opinions on cart riding should be and still loves it.

Once we arrived at the special back-to-school section, I consulted the list on my phone and began instructing Ellie what she needed to put in the cart. For her, this was an amazingly fun experience. She initially went down the aisles and only picked up the things I instructed her to. However, when we reached the art supplies section, her excitement reached a fever pitch. Before I knew what was happening, she was loading our cart with crayons, paints, markers, and glue sticks. Lucky for us, everything she picked up was on our list. In other words, she's a natural back-to-school shopper.

Finally, we reached the final item on our list: a backpack for Ellie. Looking back upon my elementary school days, I remember the importance of choosing the right backpack. After all, no one wants to accidently have the same backpack as the geeky social outcast (I know; it's mean). Like a good parent though, I didn't communicate this to Ellie. I simply let her make her own decision. Before long, she had picked out a teal space and panda bear-themed backpack. Sounds pretty cool, right?

As we headed towards the check-out, I stumbled across another section of backpacks and felt the urge to point out one particular model to Ellie. You see, earlier in the day when I asked Ellie what kind of backpack she wanted to buy, her description was both simple and incredibly complex. She wanted a blue backpack with rainbows. Lo and behold, I had just found exactly that.

When I presented it to Ellie, she immediately jumped at the idea. However, when presented with the idea that she would have to part ways with her cherished teal backpack, the choice became harder. Finally I told her we would take both to the front and she could decide then. 

When we reached the front, Ellie still was having difficulties and openly wished that her mommy could chime in. Therefore, we placed a quick Facetime phone call. While talking through her choices with Bethany, Ellie came to a decision all on her own. While she liked the blue rainbow backpack, she could live without it. The one she wanted was the space/panda bear combo she had liked all along. For the record, that was my favorite too even though I was never going to tell her.

Finally, the time had come for us to check out and leave Target. $57 later, we left the store; me with a plastic sack full of schooling supplies and Ellie with her new backpack proudly slung over her tiny shoulders. 

While I poke fun and laugh, I have to say that I'm really happy I got to experience back-to-school shopping with Ellie for her very first time. While there will definitely be more trips like this to come over the next 13 years, there will never be another first. I know I'll always cherish that moment standing in front of the registers with my little girl painstakingly analyzing her choice for her very first backpack. #DaddyWrite

Day 875 - "Cat!"

Have you ever been a victim of subliminal advertising? Just in case anyone is unaware of what subliminal advertising is, it's the use by advertisers of images and sounds to influence consumers' responses without their being conscious of it. In other words, it's a subtle advertisement trying not to be too obvious.

For example, think about the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo. Did you even know it's there? Another example would be the smile/arrow in the Amazon logo drawing a line from A to Z. In other words, you can find anything you want at Amazon. One of my favorite logos with hidden meaning is the Milwaukee Brewers logo. It's amazing in its simplistic nature as it not only conveys that the Brewers are a baseball team but it also reinforces where the team is located due to the hidden "MB".

Over the last week of so, Ethan has embarked on his own form of subliminal advertising around the Holt household. The difference is that he's so good at it that he doesn't even realize that he's making me really want the product he's trying to sell. Confused yet? Good.

Part of Ethan's newfound sales prowess comes from his burgeoning ability to speak. Over the past month, Ethan's vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds. It started out simply enough with old favorites like "Mama", "Dada", "bye-bye", and "night-night". From there, it expanded even further. We now find ourselves hearing things like "cracker", "milk", "more", "remote", "bike", and my new personal favorite, "cucumber". Really, what kind of one-year-old learns the word, "cucumber"? For the record, there are a multitude of others but you get the point. There is one additional word that bears mentioning though. That word is "cat".

It started out simply enough. Anytime we would work our way through some of his favorite books, Ethan would excitedly point out whenever he saw a cat or what might be a cat on the page. After he received continual praise from us for doing so, I think he decided to chase after that feeling. Now, seemingly out of nowhere, he will pick up certain books, walk over to us, open to a certain page, and proudly point to a picture of an animal while exclaiming "Cat!". Sometimes it really is a cat. Other times it's not.

"Cat...Shaq...Cat...Shaq..."

From there, the cries of "Cat" continued to escalate, moving from books and pictures to anything he might see in real life. So far, Ethan has referred to cows, dogs, birds, and even a bunny as a cat. Despite our best attempts to correct him, he will always respond with an enthusiastic cry of "Cat!". Oddly enough, I don't think Ethan has actually met a cat at this stage of his life. When the time comes, would he call it a cat or would he ironically refer to it as a dog. Who knows?

One thing is certain throughout the process of teaching Ethan different words for animals. The sheer amount of times I have heard "Cat" has now resulted in me really, really wanting a pet cat. Thus far the attempts to sell Bethany on the idea have not ended in success. I'll let you know if anything changes though. #DaddyWrite

**sigh** At least he's cute.

Day 870 - Bike Story

High-octane thrill rides aren't for everyone. Not everyone wants to go skydiving (I'm living proof of that, LOL). That being said, I still think zip lining looks like it would be pretty fun. The thing about high-octane thrill rides is that you need to know what you're getting yourself into rather than being surprised in the moment. If you don't have that time to prepare, who knows how you'll react. For Ellie, while she may have been expecting nothing more than a leisurely bike ride through the park yesterday, she ultimately got a little more than she bargained for.

First though, I want to touch on a much tamer kind of "Bike Story". That story revolves around Ethan and his very first bike. While Ethan has spent a little time trying to ride Ellie's old tricycle, Bethany and I decided that it might be fun to have him learn to ride on a balance bike instead. Balance bikes are basically a bike frame sans pedals. The idea is that the child will learn to maintain their balance first by walking/running while straddling the bike. Eventually, he/she will reach the point of being able to glide along stretches of pavement after a running start by simply placing their feet on the frame. Once that occurs on a regular basis, then it's time for a big kid bike...without training wheels!

Earlier this week, Bethany and I found a very gently-used balance bike on Facebook marketplace for a good price and decided to pull the trigger. Ethan, for his part, was definitely cautious about the new purchase at first. After riding his sister's tricycle, he was definitely confused by the lack of petals. Also, he wasn't a big fan of how the balance bike would easily fall over with him if he wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. By the second day though, he was happily trotting up and down the sidewalk between our house and our neighbor's house while proudly sitting atop his balance bike.

If one is more into an exciting/dangerous kind of "Bike Story", Ellie's trip to the park is probably just that. Over the past few weeks, Ellie has become quite adept at riding her bike up and down the sidewalks in front of our house. She's even brave enough to ride to the highest point of our street and barrel down the sidewalk, laughing and screaming all the way. Since she's been doing so well, I thought maybe it was time for a change of scenery for her bike rides. Therefore, I loaded up the kids and Ellie's bike in the Traverse and set out yesterday morning for Barry Platte Park.

After spending a half hour or so playing on the playgrounds, Ellie was ready to embark on her ride around the park. With Ethan in a stroller and Ellie on her bike, we set out. For most of our trek, I couldn't have been more impressed with Ellie. Outside of some unnecessary hard braking, she covered basically the entire park trail before asking to stop and play at the playground once more. As I had no reason to turn her down, we did just that. 

Once the time came to leave, I loaded Ethan back in his stroller and told Ellie to hop back on her bike and pedal it back to the car. Oddly enough, Ellie wasn't very happy about that idea but I didn't really think anything of it. Moments later, as she was pedaling down a minor hill, Ellie randomly took her feet off the pedals and veered out of control towards a tree. Despite my best attempts to get to her, all I could do was sit and watch as her bike struck the tree and she toppled onto the ground.

When I got to her, there were already a pair of moms who were at the park with their kids doting on a still-screaming Ellie. Luckily, it was only her pride that was hurt. Outside of a small scratch on the inside of her arm from the tree trunk, no harm was done. Thank goodness for helmets, right? In case anyone is wondering, the same went for the bike as it only suffered a small scratch on its handlebars.

Once I got Ellie calmed down and we headed back to the car, I asked her what happened since her accident was very out of the ordinary. Her response of "I just didn't want to ride my bike anymore," was definitely not what I expected to hear though. Even though I was kind of disappointed in her, we at least had a good conversation about the right and wrong way for a person to stop riding their bike. 

On a positive note, at least I know that Ellie likely won't be asking to go on any high-octane thrill rides in the immediate future. As a result, that gives me a few years to psych myself up to ride some of the more crazy roller coasters with her. I wonder though if those kind of high-octane thrill rides compare to an out-of-control bike heading towards a tree. Only Ellie can answer that. #DaddyWrite