Life with Lotus Maria and Lucian Stone

Lotus first day of kindergarten is rapidly approaching which, for the time being, I feel totally emotionally prepared for. I know this is just my way of blocking out the anxiety that in good time will hit me like a ton of bricks and the eventual waterfall of tears when I drop her off on her first day. In the mean time I have been concentrating on fun things like hanging out with our super awesome mentor family, who also happens to be my good friend Franki and reaching out to other incoming kindergarten families. The past Sunday we went to a casual playdate at the school for other in coming families and it was really wonderful. For some reason I was quite nervous about meeting other Crocker families, which was a bit ridiculous since everyone I had met up to this point was pretty cool and awfully nice, nonetheless it is my default to think the worst and then be pleasantly surprised.

At this particular playdate it was mostly girls and they were all great. Lotus made fast friends with several of them. In mere moments they were running around and climbing together. We couldn't stay long since Lotus and I had a hot date to go clothes shopping at H&M kids in The City and then meet up with our dear friend Nan to watch Ramona and Beezus.

The shopping experience couldn't have been more fun, and that again was a pleasant surprise. Lotus HATES tags in clothes and we had to work for week convincing her that if she wanted to go shopping we were going to have to try the clothes on WITH THE TAGS. It seems that stores do not want you ripping the price tags off of things before you have both committed to the item and completed the financial transaction. This was a lot to swallow for her and it took her awhile to agree to the terms of the shopping experience. She also has a very individual sense of style and I knew there was no way we could buy her a bunch of clothes with out her approval and I had eaten enough purchases that I knew we need to shop together if we were ever going to get her clothes she would actually wear with out a fight.

In the store she was in heaven. H&M had a full line of Hello Kitty clothing and she LOVES Hello Kitty. She picked out one of everything to try on and we survived the fitting room with out to much fuss. She did have a few moments where I could tell she desperately wanted to tear the tags out of the clothing, but through gritted teeth she persevered and got some awesome clothes. She even wanted a pair of pink Doc Marten knock offs and I couldn’t be more thrilled!!

Post shopping we got a much needed snack and met up with Nan for our movie adventure. This was also an area I was concerned with. The last movie I took her to the previews really unsettled her. It was too loud and the editing was too fast. We had to sit in the hallway until she felt safe enough to enter the movie theater. Since then we have had some movie success and movie failure. Nate took her to see a revival of Muppets Take Manhattan, which she loved, and Toy Story 3, which completely traumatized her. Neither of those had previews though. But on Sunday she came prepared. She brought her noise canceling earphones and a sweatshirt to cover her eyes. She occasionally peeked out to get bites of popcorn and Skittles, but mainly stayed under until the movie started. Which was good since there were some really awful previews. Apparently there is animated film coming out called Alpha and Omega all about the a female "Alpha" wolf and a male "Omega" wolf that are kidnapped from their Canadian homeland and taken to Wyoming to repopulate the wolf population. What?!!? How on earth is that appropriate for young kids? The preview was all double entendres about wolves mating. Nothing funnier for the preschoolers than jokes about wolf sex. Ugh... seriously can young boys stop making children's films.

That brings me to Ramona and Beezus. This was a totally adorable, though hardly perfect film, where the main character is this quirky, interesting and brave girl. And there are several other interesting female characters and an overall likeable family. And with all these positive attributes it has gotten virtually no publicity. I can only attribute that to the studio that released it feels that it's not worthy of any sort of marketing budget. There are so few children's or family films that have lead female characters that are not one dimensional princesses, much less interesting female characters (and don’t get me started on girls of color not being represented at all in the media) and it is so sad to see a film that the lead character could be any of the adorable in coming kindergarteners I meet at the playdate getting barely making any box office numbers, which only reiterates the studio perception that films for girls, or with girls in them don’t do well. Clearly this pisses me off and I came home ranting at Nate about the problems with “his” industry. See I quit several years ago, so somehow it’s his problem. He loves it went I preach about how evil animation is and that Pixar is totally complacent in gender inequality in their films. He listens all while looking around at our house that essentially Pixar bought. The bottom line is I suggest you all go see Ramona and Beezus.

Sorry I was on that soapbox so long I forgot to mention Lotus also loved the movie. She only got a bit antsy at one moment that is a bit emotional, but overall Ramona was her hero and she keeps talking about her adventures. We will be checking the books out of the library next week to keep Ramona in her life. Because if I can distract her from one second from the plethora of princesses that creep out from every crevice to tell her only worth is who she marries with a imaginative little girl who would prefer dirty elbows to perfect hair then I can rest a little easier.