How much?

Looks like New York City is about to have preschools that cost $40K. The preschool cost will be higher than sending the kid to Harvard. And admissions might be easier to Harvard. If only Harvard didn't have the Potty Training rule next to the swim test, I'd be sending my kid there and skip preschool.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/nyregion/scraping-the-40000-ceiling-at-new-york-city-private-schools.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all

Winter Wither

Josie wakes up at 4 a.m. wanting to go outside and make snowmen. It's been in the 60s and 70s the last few weeks. There's no sign of snow for the next week. Hate to burst her bubble, but she's got a better chance of making a dirt man. This is going to be the winter that she won't remember.

That's how I think of it

So the new issue of Parenting touts how to make your child the next Steve Jobs.

Really? They want my child to inspire Chinese laborers to jump out of windows instead of making her electronic devices?

For Your Protection

Why any sensible person who wants to have kids get Lasik surgery? Do they not understand that their shatter proof glasses are their only line of defense against things your kids don't realize can blind you?

Bad Examples

I've been warned to not sing the following lines to the opening of Thomas the Tank Engine:

Thomas is going to burn in hell
for the secret he can't tell

don't need preschoolers repeating it.

Wha?

Even though the kid knows words, when she gets upset and excited, she'll just ball them all together and raise the volume to 11. It's rather cute to me since my days at the Cat's Cradle has damaged my hearing. But I've noticed other people get unnerved by her dB levels.

Can't you guess?

While we're shopping at Trader Joe's, the PA plays the unmistakable voice of Jimmy Somerville. So I ask Josie if the song is from the Bronski Beat, the Communards or Jimmy's solo recordings. She plays dumb.

Sometimes I feel like such a failure as a father.

The answer was "Tell Me Why" by Bronski Beat. How can she can't know that?

Joy of Napdrive

The kid and I hit the road for our afternoon drive that normally inspires naptime. Normally a single lap gets her to konk out and I can put her on her bed to sleep for a couple hours. This tripshe's extra noisy and animated in her childseat.

"I'm a kitty," she says. "Meow. Meow." She alternates with "I'm a doggy. Arf. Arf." She keeps this up until she says, "I'm Cinderella!"

I break my code of silence and bark out, "How about being Sleeping Beauty."

My suggestion is ignored. We do two laps of the neighborhood before I give up. There would be no naptime today.

Esoteric

The best place to test to see if your kid like odd foods is the free sample table at Trader Joe's. Can't believe the kid liked carrot juice. Although I'll test it a second time before buying a carton. When do they cycle through the samples?

The Tree

Slowly we're taking the tree down in the living room. It's a fake one so there's no real fire hazard. But I just sense we're losing control of The Santa fear in her. She doesn't seem too scared when we tell her that if she doesn't stop something there won't be any Christmas since it's a year away and that's eternity for a kid who can entertain herself by putting her finger in an internet connection for 10 minutes.