The Verdict...

I hate to say it, but the verdict on Disney's "The Princess and the Frog" is a big thumbs down. Nevermind the racial stereotypes that are all over the place (white people are wealthy and run society, black people are stuck serving the white aristocracy, black people are less educated than white people, etc.), the movie was downright scary for any kid under that age of 10 or 12. Voodoo, ghosts, demons from hell (literally!), monsters trying to eat the main characters every other minute...the theater was filled with crying kids. After I got Miss M to calm down from the first scare, a second one came no less than 5 minutes later and she started crying "I want go home!" Poor baby. That was all I needed to hear. We left half way through. Luckily she's pretty resilient and we were close to Rockefeller Center so we went to see the big Christmas tree while we waited for the second part of the show to open: The Princess Ball.

This part was SO MUCH fun for her. Disney rented the Roseland Ballroom (around the corner from the theater) and had every princess Disney has ever created there in person for the kids to meet and get their pictures with. She was in AWE and her little mouth was wide open as she met Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and the gang. Was very cool and we got lost of pics.

Daddy had to get in on the action as well. Some of those princesses were pretty damn cute! I'm proud to say that the cutest one in my opinion looked nothing like Barbie as I've discussed in a previous post. Pocahontas won the Hot Princess Award and it was for more than her loin cloth. Beautiful long black hair, olive skin, brown eyes...everything Barbie is not. Who knows folks, maybe I'm growing! :) I didn't ask her for the number to her teepee though. Still seeing Hot Girl so kept my admiration to myself.

After that we jumped in a cab and went to see Santa at Macy's. Again, mouth open, total awe. Being three, she "gets" Christmas now...at least, that she's going to "get" on Christmas. Every morning she wakes up and runs to the tree looking for presents! Funny.

Overall, we had a terrific week and a half together. She's really taken with my family which I'm so happy about. Her mother's family is such a mess and mostly overseas. Having my family show her how families love and support eachother is important to me. It's one of the reasons I decided to divorce her mother: I didn't want Miss M to think that what was going on in our house was how things are supposed to be.

She talked about family all week and has been asking a ton of questions. It did bring up the "why aren't Mommy and Daddy together" subject. Not directly, but at drop off at her mother's she said "Daddy stay here!" and did the same last night when her mother dropped her off. Makes me sad but I guess that's the choice we've made. Lesser of two evils for sure.

It's nice to be back in the Blogworld. Ma and Pa Big City Dad have such an old computer that it was impossible for me to post or even read emails. I'm looking forward to seeing what my cyber friends have been up to.

Conversations with the Princess

First, I'd like to apologize to everyone who had trouble with my blog yesterday. I'm still tinkering with the format so it was up and down at times. I picked my host, blogspot, for the only reason that it came up first when I did my search. Being totally inexperienced at this, it seemed good enough to me so I went with it. Little did I know that some of you (QT ???) think b-spot SUX! Alas, unless any major issues come up, I'm here to stay. I hope you can endure the truly painful experience of dealing with my format. :-)

On to the business of the day. Since this blog is about my experience as a single daddy with Miss M, I thought it would be good to give you a sample of our every day conversations (both with and about Miss M) so that you can get a good idea of her amazingly HUGE personality:

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#1: Daddy with one of Miss M's daycare teachers on during my 1st pick up:

BCD: "Hi, I'm ****. I'm here to pick up my daughter."

Cutie Teacher: "Nice to meet you. Which one is yours?"

BCD: " *****. I think she's wearing a pink dress today" (is there any other kind?)

Cutie Teacher: "Oh! The crazy one! We LOVE her! Boy does she make class fun!"

I'm in for a lot of parent teacher conferences....

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#2: Nicknames - I have many nicknames for Miss M. She's apparently partial to some:

BCD: "Come on Sweet Pea, it's time to go to school."

Miss M (picture furrowed brow, very serious face): "Daddy, I not Sweet Pea. I Boo Boo Head!"

Well, excuse me.

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#3 Middle of the Night Negotiation - Miss M frequently shows up at my bedside in the middle of the night wanting to crawl in. I usually acquiesce being too lazy to go through the late night negotiation. This night, however, was right after her birthday and took some special thinking on her part...

Miss M (bedside with Doggie after softly stroking Daddy's hair until he wakes up): "Happy birthday Daddy! I Love You."

Think she got in my bed that night? Enough said, right?

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#4: Dinner Menu - It's always an adventure

BCD: "Boo Boo, do you want hot dogs and ketchup for dinner?" (her favorite)

Miss M: "Nooooo"

BCD: "Do you want dinosour chicken?" (Perdue baked breaded dinosour shapes, awesome.)

Miss M: "Nooooo"

BCD: "Do you want hamburgers and green beans?"

Miss M: "Nooooo"

BCD (running out of quick options): "Well baby, what do you want for dinner?"

Miss M: "I want OCTOPUS!"

We had just been to the NY Acquarium the weekend before...

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#5: I LOVE THIS ONE - On her birthday

BCD: "Boo Boo, how old are you today?"

Miss M (picture chubby little fingers doing their best): "I tree! How old Daddy?"

BCD: "How old do you think Daddy is?"

Miss M (pensive): "Hmmmm....Daddy five! How old Mommy?"

BCD (holding back a multitude of smarmy thoughts): "How old do you think Mommy is?"

Miss M (furrowed brow, then hugely excited): "Mmmmmm....Mommy OLD!!!"

I love her :)