Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Stupid is a Bad Word

As you may have noticed, the Babe is quite vocal, rarely shy, and as some might say, precocious.  About a week after her visit to the eye doctor, we received a nice letter in the mail from their office.  No, it wasn't a bill or a prescription.  Apparently, my child was chosen as the "patient of the week".  Based on the letter, they sit and discuss the week's patients, and based on everyone's feedback, pick a patient that they all enjoyed or thought fondly of.  Considering she had them all laughing at what she had to say (and borderline embarrassing me), I am not surprised.  It was a nice gesture.

As for other recent events, the Babe attended her very first kid's birthday party.  My sister held my niece's party at a dance studio, and did not bring in any food until after we left.  All the kids washed hands before the class, too.  The Babe had fun dancing with her cousin, although wasn't entirely willing to share the spotlight.  There was a touch of jealousy that she was not the birthday girl.  The Babe was entertaining though.  This particular studio had an observation area with a window.  Unlike where the Babe goes for her own ballet classes, which has two-way mirrored windows (she can't see through unless up against the glass), this studio had regular glass.  That meant the Babe kept turning around to smile, wave, and/or give a thumbs-up gesture.  The rest of the little girls in the room were more intent on the lesson, rather than the audience.  The Babe definitely likes to perform.  She had fun, and we appreciated the effort my sister took to make sure it was safe for us to join in.

And lastly, we need to work on certain public skills of the Babe.  She needs to learn not to tell everyone our personal business, and secondly, not to correct adults.  Once again she wanted to tell random strangers about our new car, or that we don't celebrate Christmas, or even our phone number (this occurred when a person in a grocery store gave the clerk her phone number for her loyalty card, so the Babe volunteered it when we were getting checked out).  The most recent embarrassment though was while checking out at the photo department at Walgreens.  The young clerk was complaining to her customer, and said the system was sometimes "stupid".  The Babe immediately piped up to say, "stupid is a bad word".  Then, we were next and she made sure to lean up against the counter and tell the clerk again.  Yes, stupid is a bad word when you're 4 and you say that about friends or someone else just to say it.  So, to avoid a hurtful comment, we told her it was a bad word.  Except now everytime my husband or I refer to something as stupid, she corrects us.  And now that extends to strangers.  Something new to work on- little people should not correct adults.  I'm starting to sound like my grandfather, but apparently, he was right.