Earth Day - Belated

Yesterday, our morning was governed by a six and a half year old.  I would love to spend a day inside Natalie's brain to see how it works.  This is a child who regularly has what she thinks are incredibly genius ideas.  Like the the time, when she wouldn't dare touch anything called macaroni and cheese, told me that what would be really good for dinner would be if we made ziti and then mixed it with melted chèvre, cheddar, and jack cheeses.  I agreed that is did sound delicious, and it is also called macaroni and cheese.  "Oh." She says.  "Well, I think I would like to eat macaroni and cheese then."

So yesterday, Natalie has begged and pleaded for us to go to an Earth Day parade in Concord.  She cared not about the fact that it was celebrating Earth Day, but her little friend would be marching in the parade, and Natalie wanted to see her.  How does a parent argue with that?  Originally, I was told the parade started at 8:30, and I let Natalie know that we would not be making it.  But then the parade started at 10, so, again, I was without argument.  So we travelled, with no other information than what our daughter was told by someone else's daughter, into Concord to see a parade that for all we knew may or may not be happening.  After all, Earth Day was a week ago.

We drove aimlessly around Concord looking for signs of a parade, both literal and figurative.  Finally, we arrived to what we thought was the starting point of the parade-- families gathered on the bridge, children carrying hand made floats of sticks and  bark and leaves and flowers.  So we followed the crowds down to the river bank.  A parade on a river bank you ask?  Perhaps Dan and I should have also questioned this, but we didn't.  Instead we were involved in some bizarre Earth Day abduction/ritual.  A woman, face painted with stripes of blue and white and shiny strands of colors hanging down her back came wading through the water, picking up cups of it with a long wooden ladle and sprinkling it around her.  She was accompanied by a group of adults dressed as chickens who would both sing and "bock" complementing(?) her Earth Day speech of oil and warming and convenience and the amount of plastic water bottles we all consume. Dan and I try to do out part, really we do.  But this was the weirdest thing we have ever taken part in since we unknowingly walked into a Christian bookstore.  (Had we known it was a Christian bookstore, it would have been less uncomfortable, but not knowing and walking in...).

Joey, being the sweet boy he is, started yelling which allowed us to walk away shortly before it ended on its own.  And the parade that followed was impressive and earthy.  And Natalie saw her friend, which made both girls giggle with excitement.  I'm not sure Dan and I were as quick to recover....

Insert Foot Here

Joey is a bit of a politician-- making friends with potential, future campaign donors everywhere he goes. Taking names, shaking hands, and looking soulfully into other's eyes with his own beautiful blue ones. Today, out of sheer lack of anything to do, I took him to get a donut. We had time to kill, and he kept asking, and I gave in. So there were are, sitting at our high table at Dunkin Donuts with two random children next to us.

"What's your name?" Joey asks.

One child answered with what I heard as Alex. The grown up corrected me. "Alice and this is Grace." Yes, I heard Alice. I was looking at a little blonde headed child with hair styled just like my own son's. And the said child was wearing a plain, grey sweatshirt. Similar to the sweatshirts I used to wear with hand me down camo pants with which I would put my long, brown hair up into a matching camo camp and ask if I could pass for a boy. So I heard the name Alice, yes, typically a girl name, but people, this is 2012 and no name is gender specific anymore.

"Are you two brother and sister?" I ask.

Grown up with them responds, "Oh, they are both girls."

Oh dear. I have not been quite this embarrassed since, working in retail, I thought that a customer with a new baby was the baby's grandmother and said so. Then, I was able to slip into the back room and hide in shame until she was gone. This time...uh....not so much.

The mother was quite kind explaining that Alice has two older brothers with short hair and she, herself, with short hair had to finally give in to her small daughter's pleas for short hair like everyone else. I get that. I have a son who often comes to the dinner table in a dress and demands that we call him Eleanor. But there are lessons to be learned here.

1. Alice is still just a girl name

2. If your daughter looks like a boy, people will think she is a boy.

3. Don't let your children eat donuts. Had stayed strong in my beliefs, none of this would have happened.

Pussy

Yeah, you read that title right. Joey is OB-SESSED with Puss in Boots right now. To the point where he wakes up in the morning brandishing his imaginary sword and straightens the fake feather on his non-existent hat. And he rides off on his horse, Pussy.

Joey is also a little obsessed with The Chipmunks, so in an effort to not have him running into school and announcing to all the other 3 and 4 year olds that he is "riding Pussy," I tried to have him rename imaginary horse, Simon.

"Joey, why don't you name your horse Simon?"

"Oh! Mommy, I love Simon."

"Good. So what is your horse's name?"

"Pussy."

I'm very concerned for when he becomes a teenager.