panpakes and chrischris

I love the way 2 year olds talk. Sometimes it's super clear - so much so that you can't quite believe what you're hearing. Other times, they make the words their own. Little K wanted "panpakes" this morning. Y'know what the rest of us call them? yep - panpakes.

She's pretty excited about "Chris-chris" too. I usually try to repeat this one correctly to her - just think if she says it to someone else, they might think she's talking about her preschool boyfriend. (she might be, come to think of it...) She's super happy about Santa, and talks about him with the anticipation I didn't really think we'd see until next year.... until the part about sitting on his lap rears its ugly face. I fear we're destined to have pictures with Santa for her whole childhood with Daddy, or bigger K or Mom in the picture between child and Santa. I have a screaming picture of one of my children on Santa's lap. Cute as it is, I won't do that again.

Last year, one of the local newspapers ran a feature on scary Santas, complete with pictures of screaming kids. Scarred me. Scarred AND scared me. Some of these Santas were downright frightening to adults - why in the world would they be hired to don a Santa suit and scare the hell out of little kids? This isn't the article I read, but another one with the same theme. Can't find a link to the other one. But I was struck by the terror of the kids. If my little one wants to see Santa but needs a buffer - ok.

But back to the good stuff - "I like dis and I like dis and I like dis..." She can amuse herself with newspaper ads for a good 20 minutes. The toys she picks would be discarded in minutes, but she adores the pictures. Anything with Dora and Boots is a certain favorite. Doesn't matter what it is. But then, she likes the cars too. The only thing she skips is the dark pages where the "boy" stuff is. What kind of marketing is that? Boys get the dark pages, girls and babies get the bright pages... seems a little strange to me, but it's pretty darn consistent. So we like pretty much everything on the bright pages. It's all good. Gonna make shopping for Chrischris a snap this year.