When your child wants to be a kitty, or dragon, or kitty dragon
0Not really. The kind of decisions she’s making include; what to wear in the morning, what kind of snack to eat at 10 a.m. or what kind of game to play carefully on daddy’s ‘puter. We also allowed her to pick her Halloween costume.
This has proved challenging, mainly because my wife decided to sew the costumes herself. Neither Leah choosing her costume or my wife making the costume is an issue, in itself, but together, the situation has become nearly-catastrophic.
Her first instinct was to go as a kitty cat and have her sister go as a chicken because, of course, that’s what Dora and Boots dress up as. So, we took down the specifics (“a black kitty,” “No white fur on my belly,” “a long tail,” and then ordered the material and sketched out some details to make her wish come true.
“Leah, are you excited to be a kitty cat for Halloween?” I asked her at the dinner table one night.
“I’m going to be a dragon.”
Huh? I looked at Andrea who was also huh-ing at Leah’s new suggestion.
“No, you said you wanted to be a kitty cat.”
“Charlotte is going to be a kitty cat and I’m going to be a dragon,” and then “raaaaaarrr,” as if to emphasize her point.
After convincing her that she could be a dragon for Christmas instead, we were able to talk her back around to the kitty idea. Fabric and sewing time aren’t cheap afterall and I really wanted to see my youngest lady dressed like a chicken.
Really, her flip-flopping just emphasizes one of the many fun, but challenging parts of raising a child over the age of two. Watching her become independent has been the single most gratifying part of fatherhood for me.
Knowing that she has the imagination to picture herself as a kitty, a dragon or even a kitty dragon makes me think she’s on the right track to being a wildly unique human, and there’s nothing more I could ask for.
