How much is that doggie in the window?

That's one of Summy's songs -

How much is that doggie in the window
The one with the waggly tail
How much is that doggie in the window
I do hope that he is for sale

We went to the mall last weekend, and ofcourse we stopped outside the petstore, where four rabbits were eating, drinking, and sleeping in a display window. After observing them for a little while, Summy asked to go in and look at the puppies.

Have you ever seen the happy puppies in one of these pet stores? It is a nightmare. The pet store in our mall is especially notorious for selling pets from puppy mills, and for having sold sick puppies. I don't know about the truth behind any of those stories - but I do know what I see.

I see about fifteen puppies of different breeds, each (sometimes two of them) in a cage that seems about a foot square. Maybe the cages are bigger, but definitely not big enough for them to walk around in.

I see the floors of their cages, not solid floors, but mesh ones that cannot be very comfortable to stand, sit, or lie down on. I believe they do this for easy cleaning of the cages.

I see their puppy dog eyes eagerly waiting for a child to "try" one of them, so they can get out and play for a little while. (I have heard that they get to stay out of their cages and roam the store in the night - maybe, but they still spend the major part of the day in the cage).

I can never come out of this store not feeling depressed, and I don't understand the people who buy their dogs here. It is a prison for the innocent in the center of a mall in "the land of the free".

Summy said, "Mommy, I want to bring this puppy home.", pointing at a little one (her first request of the kind).

I want to bring him home too, Summy, I want to bring all of them home. But if we bring them home, more puppies will fill those cages. (Many people buy a puppy from these stores because they cannot bear to leave the puppy they fell in love behind in the cage).

The way to stop this cycle is to not buy pets from a pet store. If we want to rescue an animal, it will be best to adopt one from a shelter.

The Lonely Goatherd

Just putting down the lyrics to Summy's new favorite song from Sound of Music so I can learn them.

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Folks in a town that was quite remote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Lusty and clear from the goatherd's throat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[the Children:]
O ho lay dee odl lee o, o ho lay dee odl ay
O ho lay dee odl lee o, lay dee odl lee o lay

[Maria:]
A prince on the bridge of a castle moat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
[Kurt:]
Men on a road with a load to tote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[the Children:]
Men in the midst of a table d'hote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
[Maria:]
Men drinking beer with the foam afloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
[Brigitta:]
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria:]
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Maria and the Children:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria and the Children:]
Ummm (ummm) . . .
Odl lay ee (odl lay ee)
Odl lay hee hee (odl lay hee hee)
Odl lay ee . . .
. . . yodeling . . .

[Child:]
One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
[Maria:]
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hoo hoo
[Child:]
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
[Maria:]
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria:]
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hmm hmm
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria and the Children:]
Happy are they lay dee olay dee lee o . . .
. . . yodeling . . .
Soon the duet will become a trio
[Maria:]
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria and the Children:]
Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee
Odl lay odl lay, odl lay odl lee, odl lay odl lee
Odl lay odl lay odl lay

[the Children:]
HOO!

Can you say that again?

Yesterday, Summy took her little doll (the mommy from the doll house) to school. When I picked her up, I asked, "Do you want to bring the Mommy doll home?". She ignored me and went out the classroom. In the gym, she stopped to play with some toys, and I said "Is the Mommy in your cubby? Do you want to bring her home?" She giggled and made silly noises with a toy. As we walked out of the daycare center, I said, "Don't you want to get the Mommy?". She stopped to look at an ant on the driveway. She got in the car, buckled up, I got in the car, started it, and she said "Uh oh. I forgot the Mommy in my cubby. We need to go get it"

What would you do? I said No.

Summy said "But I want to get the Mommy."

"We can get her tomorrow. Mommy doll will enjoy some quiet time to herself (just like Mommy did on Mothers Day)."

"But I want the Mommy."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Mommy, turn around. I want to go pick up the Mommy."

On the way home, she said "I waaant to get the Mommy." thirty two times. I'm not exaggerating, I counted. After the thirty second time, luckily it seemed funny to me (these things seldom seem funny at the time), so I started to laugh. After trying to be extremely offended, Summy started to laugh too. After we both calmed down, she said "Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

I said, "Oh, You don't have to thank me for that, honeybunch."

"Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

"You're welcome, Summy."

"Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

"......."

"Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

(Thank you for the entertainment, Summy.)

Is she a terror or am I?

When I told Summy to brush her teeth and I heard her running the water in the sink, I knew nothing good was going on in there. But I was washing dishes and I left her be. Five minutes later, I went into the bathroom to check and was relieved to see no flooding, and no entire toilet paper rolls being unwound (ala Winkie) to try to sop up the flood.

Instead, she was washing her toothpaste tube under the running water. When she saw me, she panicked (poor little thing - am I such a monster?) and started to babble.

"Mommy, I'm not being naughty. The toothpaste was dirty so I was just washing it. I doing such a good job. I am grown up, I'm not naughty like babies anymore. I was just..." and so on.

Little sweetie pie.

Summy in Wonderland

"Watch your step as you climb out of your teacup"

"Please remain seated until the barn stops spinning and comes to a complete halt..."

"Keep your hands, feet and head inside your fish at all times."

All phrases you're unlikely to ever hear, except possibly when drunk, or...

when at Story Land!

That was where we went for our long weekend. Story Land is an amusement park especially geared toward the two-to-ten crowd. At Story Land, nobody bats an eyelid when ride operators say things like the above - the title was from a ride called "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party", the second from "The Crazy Barn", and the last from "The Flying Fish".

We spent a lot of time on the rides, sometimes almost a tenth as much time as we spent waiting in line to get on those rides! This was our third year at Storyland, and we decided that next year, we'd do something that involves less waiting and more doing.

But Summy had fun most of the time. She loved the crazy barn best (this barn shoots upward on a pole, then spins while going up and down like crazy). It seems she especially enjoys those rides that involve more people, when she can smile at and laugh and yell with them.

She is more adventurous than we are - she wanted to go in a really nauseating spinning turtle ride. Last year Kiran went with her, but this time he knew better. Last year, I was standing by as the kids came out of the ride crying, saying "That was awful", and gagging. So I wouldn't go in that ride either. She said, "Then I can do it all by myself." because she saw some of the big kids do it. I'm sure she can, but she'll have to wait.

She was sized up at all the rides - really. Many rides required kids to be atleast 36" tall, and she is about 36.5". She was not at all offended when people stopped her to measure her.

It is always nice to be in a place where everything is kid-friendly. For example, the bathroom policy - questions like "Is that lady going to potty for peepee or poopoo?" are ignored. The noise policy - yelling, screaming mandatory. And so on.

The food was "kid-friendly" too, meaning there there is a strictly enforced ban on vegetables (If you are caught smuggling veggies in in a picnic basket, you have to go on the spinning turtle ride. This explains why there is a line for this ride even though nobody seems to actually enjoy it). Once we saw a farmstand style snack kiosk with pictures of corn, carrots, and apples on the outside - but all the fruit in the menu was available only inside a pie or a pastry (absolutely no veggies, ofcourse!). We lived on ice cream, fried dough, and french fries the whole day. Summy was craving rice and vegetables by the time we were back home.

To really really make it kid-friendly, the gift store door has a sign that says, "Please finish eating your food or smoking your cigarettes before entering the store." That's right, you little rascally toddlers and preschoolers, put out your Marlboros before coming in. There was even a toddler sized ash tray to make it more convenient for the shorter smoker. Ha ha, no, I am 'kid'ding about the ash tray. But the sign on the door is real. It seemed incongruous in Story Land. If a grown-up even thought of going into the kiddie gift store with a lit up cigarette, should s/he be in Story Land in the first place?

We stayed until Summy was so tired that she was just going through the motions of getting on the rides. She even tried to lie down on the carousel horse. When we decided to leave, and she just went through the motion of saying "I want to stay. I don't want to go.", then cooperatively climbed into the car seat and was asleep half a second later.

The night before, we had stayed at an inn right by the Saco river. We went to look at the river which had crystal clear water, allowing us to see every grain of sand and every little pebble on the riverbed. In Dora speak, it was the "icy cold river". Summy had fun exclaiming "How can we get to the other side?", then pointing to the boat, just like Dora. (there was a stack of canoes, oars, and lifejackets right beside the river, that delighted her).





A nice holiday - now we are looking forward to the next one.

Everyday is a surprise

There are some things that we do daily, but it seems "we" are still not aware of that.

For instance, this morning.

Me: Summy, time to brush our teeth.

Summy: I brush my teeth already.

Me: That was yesterday.

Summy: (silence)

Me: Let's go brush our teeth.

Summy: (surprised) Again?