Yesterday, because he can refuse her nothing, Mallory's grandfather (Papa) bought her a real honest-to-goodness coconut at the grocery store. Mallory watched, fascinated, as he proceeded to pierce two of the holes in the coconut, drain the milk, and then whack the thing open with a hammer. (I admit that I was fascinated too...I've never seen a real coconut unwrapped, so the speak.) Then he cut off some of the flesh for her to eat. Now, this is a child who lately eats only four or five things (the kid standards -- pb&j, chicken nuggets, cinnamon toast, and ice cream) so I was surprised that she agreed to try it, and not surprised that she didn't like it much. I had a bite too -- it was not too bad, but obviously the sweetened stuff is much better. Especially when residing in my mom's Italian Cream Cake. Most interesting fact about the coconut -- the inside is cold to the touch. This ends your science lesson for the day.
After the taste test, Mallory picked up one half of the coconut and wondered aloud what to do with it next. "Plant it and grow a coconut tree," I said in jest, but you should never make a suggestion in jest to a 4-year-old, because we had to spend the next half hour finding just the right spot in the yard to bury the coconut, and then we had to cover it with special potting soil, and then we had to water it. Then Mallory said, "Now I need to sing to my tree!" and proceeded to croon a variation of the lullaby I used to sing to her (I'll leave it to you to decipher which parts she varied.):
Lullaby, lullaby, rockabye my sweet baby
It is time to go to sleep
Make away with your sweet dreams.
Coconut, coconut, it is time to grow big
Coconut, coconut, soon you will grow big.
Every day my kids do something that make me fall in love with them.
ART (Always Remember That) for the day:
I was not blessed with children who just, you know, go to bed. For both girls, bedtime has always been a long drawn out process of nursing and rubbing backs and singing and lying in the dark thinking to myself, "Why won't this kid just go to sleep already?" I think some would say I'm a softie on this issue (uh, my husband included) but oh well.
Anyway. When Mallory was around two there were occasionally nights when she just wouldn't settle down and I'd give up altogether. I'd say, "Mallory, are you not sleepy right now?" and she'd sit up, slide out of her bed, and run out of her room and straight down the hall to Chris's studio. She'd hold her arms up in a "what-can-you-do" kind of shrug and proclaim, "I not sleepy, Daddy! I not sleepy!"
Now Phoebe has nights when she just won't settle, and when I say to her, "Phoebe, are you not sleepy?" she slides out of bed and toddles down the hall to Chris's studio. Same path, same little waddle in her step. Except all she can say is "Diggum" or "Zhuh!" But she's getting there.
After the taste test, Mallory picked up one half of the coconut and wondered aloud what to do with it next. "Plant it and grow a coconut tree," I said in jest, but you should never make a suggestion in jest to a 4-year-old, because we had to spend the next half hour finding just the right spot in the yard to bury the coconut, and then we had to cover it with special potting soil, and then we had to water it. Then Mallory said, "Now I need to sing to my tree!" and proceeded to croon a variation of the lullaby I used to sing to her (I'll leave it to you to decipher which parts she varied.):
Lullaby, lullaby, rockabye my sweet baby
It is time to go to sleep
Make away with your sweet dreams.
Coconut, coconut, it is time to grow big
Coconut, coconut, soon you will grow big.
Every day my kids do something that make me fall in love with them.
ART (Always Remember That) for the day:
I was not blessed with children who just, you know, go to bed. For both girls, bedtime has always been a long drawn out process of nursing and rubbing backs and singing and lying in the dark thinking to myself, "Why won't this kid just go to sleep already?" I think some would say I'm a softie on this issue (uh, my husband included) but oh well.
Anyway. When Mallory was around two there were occasionally nights when she just wouldn't settle down and I'd give up altogether. I'd say, "Mallory, are you not sleepy right now?" and she'd sit up, slide out of her bed, and run out of her room and straight down the hall to Chris's studio. She'd hold her arms up in a "what-can-you-do" kind of shrug and proclaim, "I not sleepy, Daddy! I not sleepy!"
Now Phoebe has nights when she just won't settle, and when I say to her, "Phoebe, are you not sleepy?" she slides out of bed and toddles down the hall to Chris's studio. Same path, same little waddle in her step. Except all she can say is "Diggum" or "Zhuh!" But she's getting there.
Comments
And I love that Mallory sung to her coconut tree. I was expecting her to sing, "you put the lime in the coconut and you drink it all up..." :)