Toddler Angst

During one visit to Papa and Nana’s house, Papa, Nana, Green Grandma, Bunny and I went out to eat at a buffet restaurant. Buffets are great when you have a growing child. There‘s many different foods to eat, and when the child is really young, buffets are usually free. Great stuff.

Bunny was just about a year old. She already had a large vocabulary at this point, but hadn’t made any sentences so far.

So, we’re sitting down to eat, and Bunny starts making this frustrated “eeeeeeeeeeeee!” sound, complete with a grumpy face. “Eeeeeeeeeeeee!” She’s wriggling in her chair, “eeeeeeeeeeeee!” completely flustered. “Eeeeeeeeeeeee!” It‘s like nails on a chalkboard. “Eeeeeeeeeeeee!”

Dining out with a toddler is frequently a challenge, but this was above and beyond. We’re all going nuts.

Bunny’s Nana is a social worker. She’s calm, cool, collected. She leaned over and said:

NANA: Use your words, Bunny.

So she does. Bunny channeled every bit of her frustration into words. It sounded like she was possessed by a legion of demons. Every word was slow and deliberate. And shouted at the top of her lungs.

BUNNY: GET! IT! OFF! ME!

We all stared at her for a moment with a mixture of surprise, horror, and awe. Nana was the first one to recover.

NANA: Get what off you , Bunny?
BUNNY: SHOE!

So we took off her shoes, and Bunny was content. We could finally eat in peace.

Bea is for Beatrix

Life with Bunny is never dull. We’re fortunate that Bunny goes to a very small school, and it’s in a multi-level classroom. Her class is K-3. Although she’s age-wise in kindergarten, she’s reading at fifth-grade level. Her comprehension is “only” at second-grade level, so the teacher’s working to get her comprehension up to her reading level.

All of which means Bunny was assigned the Beatrix Potter story, Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, for school the other day. We had to read it every day, to help with the comprehension. On this particular day, when we were done with the story, she had to write out the setting, the characters, the problem, and the solution.

Bunny was all done with the homework, when I realized that she hadn’t put the title or author on worksheet. I decided to fill it in for her. I turned the story face-down so she couldn’t see the title page.

MOMMY BUNNY: What’s the title of this story?
BUNNY: The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin.
MOMMY BUNNY: Right! And who’s the author? Do you remember?

Instead of saying "Beatrix Potter", without missing a beat, she said…

BUNNY: Bea Arthur!