Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2-Don't Look Too Deep
We had seen, granddaughter and myself, the first Meatballs movie, of course. It too was a cute walk into fantasy and animation so I figured we'd go see the follow-up movie and it was great fun.
If totally unbelievable.
Seems some evil corporation wants to steal Flint Lockwood's out-of-control food making machine and the inhabitants of Swallow Falls had to return to save the world from the island full of mutant leftovers. Flint was also recruited by his hero, an evil scientist who wanted to capture Flint's errant machine and use it to enrich his own coffers.
The characters in this story, a big black police fellow modeled after Mr. T., a diaper-clad former town strong man, Flint's curmudgeon Dad and, of course, Flint's love interest, Sam Sparks, all get together to save the world and the fun begins.
This movie was not meant to be believed, I understand this. This movie was created following a child's movie pro forma but there's nothing wrong with this.
There's an innocent love interest, a personal conflict, a major story line and the interaction of the clever characters.
NO WAIT!
There's the animation and that's why one should see this movie. Because if you're looking for deep, well it ain't here. And let's not forget the food jokes that lend themselves so well. The famous "There's a LEEK in the boat" was used twice and one character was charged with cutting through a fence of staunch cheese strings. This was, of course, "cutting the cheese" and we had a couple jokes about this.
Frankly I enjoyed every minute of this movie and so did granddaughter. The food part of the story line lends itself quite well with the animation and really, we just want to munch popcorn and enjoy an hour or so of entertaining animation.
It was my DAUGHTER who requested we go see the movie "The Smurfs 2". Now if my daughter were around ten years old, that would not be all that odd. My daughter is, well she's over 35, let's leave it at that. HER daughter, my granddaughter naturally, is nine years old and she was, of course, delighted at the prospect of seeing this Smurf movie with her grandmother and mother.
Oh yes I do recall my daughter watching Smurf cartoons during her formative years. I never much paid attention to the cartoon because, frankly, I thought a cartoon about little blue people to be quite dumb.
But the 36-year old daughter wanted to see the Smurf movie and granddaughter was happy to tag along.
The movie was okay, hardly any paragon of animation that Disney or Pixar would put out.
There was one major problem with this movie and heed the laments of one viewer who had no idea what the Smurfs were all about or what quite a few of the characters in this film had to do with the price of eggs in China.
First, why do the Smurfs live in mushrooms? Second, is Smurfette the only female Smurf? If so, how did the other Smurfs get here? Are Smurfs hatched or something?
Gargamel is, of course, the Smurf villain, along with his nasty cat. Why? Did Gargamel somehow create the Smurfs as the storyline of the movie seems to indicate.
For evil Gargamel kidnaps Smurfette to steal her "essence" and create more blue people, only Gargamel wants his new Smurfs to be bad Smurfs. The viewer is to understand that Smurfette was also a creation of Gargamel but an originally evil Smurfette was brought over to the light side by Grandpa Smurf.
The really bizarre part of this movie, at least to THIS Blogger Reviewer, is the entrance of human characters into this movie.
Neil Patrick Harrison plays a character that seems to be known by the Smurfs though the movie story does not really tell how this human family (including his wife and step-father and kid named, of all things, "Blue") is known by the Smurfs.
I ASSumed that this family was part of the first Smurf's movie but I still don't know why they were in this movie save to move the storyline along.
Part of the movie storyline was advanced by this human family in that Harrison's character had a wild and wooly stepfather who interacted with Harrison's character to bring it despair, exasperation and eventually, love and a lesson learned.
It's not that this movie was disappointing in terms of entertainment. But it's hardly rocket science or even for children much above the age of 10.
Daughter liked it, granddaughter liked it, hell I liked it.
Maybe they should have hired me to write the screenplay. I'd for sure have included a small scene explaining the human family and why that little boy was named Blue.
I had to smile when I came across the above cartoon. It has nothing to do with the Pixar movie "Monsters University" but it does encapsulate all that is important and dear to the monsters of our world.
Now at first I was given great pause at the notion of a movie about monsters and how scary they can be-for children!
It's been a bit since I've been a young child and I recall being scared of monsters and there were times when one was in my room, I was sure.
Evidently monsters are all the rage for the young, like my granddaughter, and the young at heart, like her Mom-Mom. I even bought granddaughter some sort of fashion game based on Monster University and who knew that monsters were so fashionable?
It is, of course, just more merchandising that is so prevalent with movies nowadays. Seems like every time I take granddaughter to a movie than after to the nearby Play McDonalds that will then feature an icon of the movie we'd just seen in their kids Happy Meal.
I must say that I did greatly enjoy Monsters University for its cleverness of animation and rather sweet story. Even though it is about a contest for which Monster University attendees enter to see which monster student is the scariest.
If nothing else, Monster U is an experience in animation. The characters are clever and well-designed.
The story line is okay, predictable some might argue. Seems even monsters can have a nerd population and even monster nerds can ban together and beat out the cool kids.
This is the essential story line of Monster U and it is timeless, if not terribly original.
Mike Wazowski and James P. Sullivan are an inseparable pair, but that wasn’t always the case. From the moment these two mismatched monsters met they couldn’t stand each other. “Monsters University” unlocks the door to how Mike and Sulley overcame their differences and became the best of friends.
Cast: Billy Crvstal.iohn Goodman. Steve Buscenii Helen Mirren. Peter Sohn. Joel Murray Director: Dan Scanlori
Despicable Me 2-Gru's Baaaaack! It's Just a Great and Funny Story.
The story of Gru, the former supervillain turned loving Dad is a sweet one, quite a good plot for small children.
Gru-whose former mission in the first version of "Despicable Me" was all things evil- became an adoptive father of three adorable animated daughters . In "Despicable Me 2" Gru is in the jam-making business.
We have of course the many minions that Gru supervises and that help watch the children. Add to the cast is Lucy Wilde, an agent of the Anti-Villain League and who would become a source of romantic attraction for Gru.
Follows was a plot that was, so it was okay. A former villain long believed to be dead, somehow managed to steal a secret Arctic Laboratory -Gru himself managed to steal the freaking moon in Despicable Me 1- and Gru identifies the perp as a former villain long believed dead.
The super villain is known as El Macho and it is his son involved in all the nefarious plots to destroy the world.
AVL agent Lucy Wilde, meanwhile, grows on Gru and viewers watch as Gru struggles with inexperience in romance and what appears to be a wrong direction in his former area of expertise which would be villainy.
El Macho's teenage son takes a shine to Gru's oldest daughter and with all the plot lines established the movie goes off into a whirlwind of a father overseeing his daughter's first romance, a father diving into romance for the first time, a father and former villain struggling to catch current villains that don't exist according to the anti-villain league.
I'd give this movie a B+.
There were some fart jokes.
I don't especially like fart jokes but they were few and quick, a bow to the childish audience the producers no doubt believed would appeal to children.
It's a funny movie and very entertaining.
We had to choose between going to see some kind of "Monster" movie or this one. Kaitlyn chose this one and she didn't regret it.
Gru's voice was Steve Carell and Kristin Wiig was Lucy.
"Epic" by Blue Sky Studios was, well it was okay. It kept my granddaughter mesmerized for an hour and a half and I was entertained as well.
There's a bad guy, a good guy, a hint of romance and a happy ending. All requirements of a good animated film oriented towards children.
The movie does not stand out amongst the best animated film I've seen. I wouldn't call it the worst either.
It was an entertaining film with great animation and a fairly decent story line.
Mary Katherine, known as M.K. at the beginning of the movie as she has shrugged her familial roots. She returns home to visit her father, who is a bit of a nut, designing all kinds of inventions and devoted to discovering a tiny civilization in the forest. The civilization consists of tiny warrior leafman, talking snails, bad organisms like Boggans who makes the forest rot.
The queen of the forest, it would turn out, needed to designate and deliver to safety a new queen who would protect the forest from putrefaction.
M.K. somehow gets reduced to size and becomes part of an adventurous effort to deliver a new queen safely. All with the help of the handsome leafman, of course, and there was a spark of a romance.
M.K. returns to her normal life with a new respect and admiration for her goofy father who himself becomes part of the adventure, indeed he becomes a hero.
There's a lot of hidden meaning in this movie but it's not worth deep discussion I suppose.
There's nature, with the forest queen symbolizes Mother Nature. Boggans represent the rot that exists in all forests, indeed is part of the delicate eco-system.
It's when the rot gets out of hand when there are problems. All of nature is give and take, yin and yang, good and evil.
But let's not go there. This is an enjoyable animated movie bound to nudge little minds to thought.
Nothing wrong with that.
VOICES:
Troy Evans ... Thistle Jinn (voice)
Colin Farrell ... Ronin (voice)
Jason Fricchione ... Bufo's Goon (voice)
Judah Friedlander ... Taxi Driver (voice)
Helen Hong ... Thistle Lady (voice)
Josh Hutcherson ... Nod (voice)
Kelly Keaton ... Berry Lady (voice)
Emma Kenney ... Marigold Girl (voice)
Kyle Kinane ... Biker Dude (voice)
Beyoncé Knowles ... Queen Tara (voice)
Anthony Lumia ... Fruit Fly (Young) (voice)
So granddaughter and daughter plan a visit for a weekend and that always requires an afternoon at the movies.
"Finding Nemo" is playing at the Midway," I tell daughter.
"Oh I'd love to watch Finding Nemo in 3D. That is one of my all-time favorite movies and Kaitlyn loved it. But to see it in 3d would be great."
Well I was surprised.
First, I thought Finding Nemo was a new movie but when daughter mentioned that it had been released before I recalled seeing the movie before myself.
I realized that I too had seen the movie before but yeah, seeing it in 3d would be cool. Kaitlyn was okay with the idea as movie visits always warrant a visit to Play McDonalds.
Popcorn and cokes in hand, we watched the movie and after only ten minutes into the movie I realized that I had never seen this entire movie before.
I had seen pictures of Nemo, of course, what with that Disney type character being practically a cultural icon. I just ASSumed I'd seen it before.
"Finding Nemo" is a cute story about a little clown fish who somehow ended up in an aquarium of some dentist. It's a typical Disney type of animated film, good parts, scary parts, happy endings.
The funniest part was the shark who was politically corrected into NOT eating fish. The fish, so his new brainwashed self asserted, were his friends.
First billed stars :
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Albert Brooks... Marlin (voice)
Ellen DeGeneres... Dory (voice)
Alexander Gould ... Nemo (voice)
Willem Dafoe ... Gill (voice)
Brad Garrett ... Bloat (voice)
Allison Janney ... Peach (voice)
As I understand it this movie was released in 2003. Goodness that's almost ten years ago!
I only wryly noticed one thing about this movie. Like so many animated movies, there seems to be an attempt to in some manner or fashion to try and make the animated character look like someone. Most times the animators add a physical characteristic of the voice's owner that is hard to miss. In the case of Dory, the fish who helped Nemo's father find him, I could see Ellen DeGeneres from miles away. The fish has that little dimple thing at the side of its mouth plus the chiclet front teeth so like Ellen.
As for the 3d….well this effect always adds to movie viewing pleasure. But to be honest I never much paid attention to the 3d effects. Since this was the first time I'd seen the story I was mesmerized by the tale as much as pretty screen effects.
I was a bit skeptical about this movie although I totally adore Dr. Seuss.How well I remember reading his books when I was in the third grade, how I loved his play on words, how I adored the pictures.
Still there are those among us who wrest all that we once held sacred and use it for advancing their own agendas.
I feared it would a movie about global warming or some stupid liberal thing and I wanted to avoid exposing my granddaughter to this kind of propaganda as long as possible.On a more acceptable, but still wary, note, I also feared the movie would be delivering a message about the fiction of "green jobs" or the nonsensical horror of using fossil fuels to power our lives.
The movie did, to my great relief, deliver a message of kindness to our environment and examples of the consequences cruelty of our natural world might bring.
I might be of Conservative idealogy but no mind that the liberals like to depict Conservatives as mindless of our world, I am a trained Backyard Wildlife Habitat Steward with a yard certified as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.
Indeed I am very conscious of my environment, every year creating a grand compost pile of my yard leaves, adding vegetable peels and such all season until a dark earth is formed that I then spread over my happy gardens.I provide food, shelter and places to nest for the bird fellows and I live by a rule of thumb to recycle EVERYTHING, at least once.
Thus I am not averse to teaching the environment and love of same to granddaughter.But I don't want her to hear claptrap about global warming or any lesson that it's somehow against natural law for humankind to use the bounties of nature.
Human beings are creatures of God, as are the insects, birds and other mammals of the planet.Destroying the surround is against every natural law that can be conceived.Without the earth and its bounty all animal life would cease. I get this, all animals get this on some level.
The story of the Lorax involves a pretty community that hasn't seen a genuine tree in many, many years.As the story unfolds, we learn that a somewhat selfish entrepreneur destroyed all the trees in the surround.No trees, no oxygen released as is the natural pattern of the plants.The plants also absorb our exhaled carbondioxide.The disappearance of the trees, though replaced by newer plastic models, some with remote control, makes the air a bit crappy.Enter another entrepreneur who makes a fortune in Thneedsville selling fine bottled air.
I didn't have a single problem with the movie's message although really, it would be an almost impossible result to remove all the trees from the surround.Trees have seeds, they grow AFTER they are chopped down, they do a fine job of spreading their seed and pollen, indeed.Still and so, the world would be sad and unstable if a large generation of trees were suddenly yanked from the earth.Sure they'dgrow back, unlike the depiction in the movie of a dead forest that never re-generates.But plenty of damage would be done;birds and other animals depending on the trees would move away.
The problem with the movie that I DID have was that there was not enough music.The music that was featured in the movie was quite good, especially the song of the movie climax "Let It Grow".I expect to hear that song at next year's Academy Awards.The song was sang at the movie's ending but by me it could have been presented in a much grander fashion and lasted a bit longer.I think it should have beenpresented like the scene in "The Grinch That Stole Christmas" when, at the end, all the village people sang the song, the grinch joined in.In that movie, the grand finale song become very much a part of the experience of the movie.I felt a bit let down with that finale in "The Lorax". It needed to be way longer and grander.
But if the only problem you have with a movie is not having more of a good thing, that should say it all."The Lorax" is a movie telling a good, believable story.We have some famous narrators in the movie such as Betty White and Taylor Swift.
I never did much think it mattered all that much who was the voice of the characters but I'll mention it.
On and off and on again rain has turned my world into a wet wonderland.
I love rain and I know it'll be 110 degrees way too soon, so these last few summer storms have been wonderful for me. One day we couldn't get our mail because the mailbox stood in the middle of a small lake. The deck in the backyard was surrounded, too, and when Guia tried to run around it, she found herself hock-deep in marsh. Our lawn is suddenly green and lush.
In the reflected grey of a cloud-covered afternoon, the neighbor's flooded field looks like newly poured asphalt. The drive to El Dorado Hills is full of overnight rivers and pass-the-night ponds where ducks and even a few geese play. The cattle gather tight-packed under the trees, tails facing the wind. None of them notice me.
The afternoon clears and the sparkle of sun on roadside water is blinding, winking at me as I drive home. A hopeful crow searches a sodden pasture for nest-building twigs and a red-tailed hawk pounces on something in the grass - perhaps a mouse whose home has flooded. Sorrow amid the joy. Along with the aquarium, just more proof the many days of rain don't make it a wet wonderland for everyone . . .
The weekend was wet on Saturday and pretty dry on Sunday, so Harry and I decided to do a water change on the aquarium. The fish and shrimp (and snails; where do those come from, anyway?) have been doing pretty well, although our nitrate levels are a bit high. Consequently we're fighting an algae infestation, but we'll have that under control soon.
Harry had bought a bigger machine to make good water; this one has standard hose flow and we can hook it up to a faucet with hot and cold water so we can put the right temperature water in the first time. I think it's a reverse osmosis machine, but I'm really unclear on the difference between that and a de-ionizer.
Harry hooked it up to the garage sink and it promptly sprayed water everywhere. The fittings were a bit leaky. We captured some of the water fountaining from it and tested - good ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and one hardness test but it flunked the other hardness test. Harry got some other fittings and reconnected everything so we could move it into the house without washing the walls when we changed the aquarium water. That done, he put it into the hall bathroom - no leaks. We tested the water again and all levels were good.
A length of hose helped us drain old aquarium water into the kitchen sink, and then we carefully modulated the temperature of the machine water to keep it close to the 79.5 the fish are used to. All good, we filled the tank back up. When I flipped the pumps back on, I noticed one Congo tetra wasn't swimming so well. The other fish were racing around the tank.
Since the timing was "dawn" for them, this wasn't a good sign. A quick test showed the pH had dropped to 6.0 (or less; that's as far down as the test goes). As Harry and I shut down the pumps and did an emergency drain of some of the aquarium water, more and more of the fish succumbed to the sudden change in levels. All were toward the top of the tank, many being pushed around by the current without any sense of balance or up or down. It looked like we'd managed to take a pretty nice day and kill every fish in the tank.
One of the big shrimp tottered out onto the golf course and fell over. Make that "kill everything in the tank."
I managed to suck two of the disoriented fish into the draining hose. I felt terrible about it, but my focus was on saving as many as possible and they weren't swimming away like normal when warned from the hose. It didn't look good; my heart sank as we stopped the drain and switched to putting our crappy tap water back in. We knew it would bring the hardness problem back, but the suddenly low pH would certainly kill everything.
Adjusting the tap water to keep temperature as consistent as possible, we replaced about half of the water we'd originally removed and refilled. As the water level came up, some fish began to look better.
By the time we were done, all but a few fish were doing okay, and the shrimp on the golf course had gotten up and gone back into the bushes. That night, all the fish were doing well enough to eat when I fed them. Both big shrimp were out and about, too.
We had three known casualties, but I'm sure there were others whose bodies I'll never find. Apparently the water poltergeist curse is still in effect in alaHouse . . . but I do wish H-2-Uh-Oh would stay away from my aquarium.
If you’re a Conservative, If you’re a Tea Partier, here’s a book that you have GOT to read.
FreeRepublic regular Gary Bray penned the book “Brayn Food”, subtitled “For the Tea Patriot Hungry for The Truth”.
It’s a little Coulter, a little Levin, a lot Gary Bray, who finally took to publishing his whimsical, thoughtful and very true thoughts in a book that the world, even liberals, can finally “get it”.
Guest Writer Michelle tells of aquarium conversion, the good, the bad, the ugly, the heartbreak and pain.
Here’s a review of the latest hit movie of the summer of 2010. It’s “Despicable Me” and it’s perfect for a 6 year old granddaughter. We’ve got stolen moons, cute orphans, nasty turning nice and, of course, a happy ending.
It’s stereotypical but it’s good for a rainy or extremely hot summer matinee.
There were political rallies, visits to the beach, a hot afternoon movie matinee and I’m not making this up, one very unusual but very much enjoyed magic show.
Kaitlyn visits Mom-Mom and we’ve got pics and videos of it all.
Plus WE’RE IN THE DELAWARE NEWSPAPERS!!
Pic of the Day
Senior Cell phone
Summer Movies, the Delaware Seashore, a Magic Show and a Political Rally…Kaitlyn Visits Mom-Mom in July 2010
It was a very hot weekend beginning on Friday 7/16/10 when Kaitlyn came to visit Mom-Mom for four days in the middle of an exceptionally hot July.
We began the weekend by attending a political rally, a so-called “Conservative Coalition” organized on the fly here in the swamps of Delaware.
Christine O’Donnell, pictured below with Kaitlyn, is running for the seat being vacated by the vice-President America so adores, Joe Biden. She is running AGAINST the GOP nominee, Mike Castle, who is vacating his elected position as Delaware’s only Representative in the House.
Lots of other political folk there as one might imagine, including former Governor of Virginia, George Allen. Kaitlyn’s in pic with the lot of them. Some of these nobodies gets to be President some day, I figure the pics will be worth big bucks, insert smile here.
Below, a short video of Kaitlyn on the Moon Bounce at the Coalition.
Seriously. An Irish restaurant. We've got three of them down around our parts in Southern Delaware.
Here's a review of "Irish Eyes", a culinary adventure into cholesterol and prepared food that would have New York Mayor Nanny Bloomberg shutting the place down and arresting the cooks for attempted murder.
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The good news is: Kaitlyn is very well-behaved child.
The bad news is: Kaitlyn is a very well-behaved child.
She spent a long weekend with Mom-Mom in 2010, this year of our Lord. We searched for Easter Eggs, met Mr. Easter bunny, and Mrs, dyed Easter eggs, and saw a great movie.
Yet what is it about this very remarkably well-behaved child that so bothers her Mom-Mom?
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We're gonna have Vikings and Dragons from now through next Christmas as the merchandisers rush to cash in on Pixar's latest offering: "How to Train Your Dragon".
It's a great movie, if formulaic. Kids from four to fourteen will love it, as will their adult companions for its action, 3-D effects and colorful characters.
A review and a few complaints.
Pic of the Day
”How To Train Your Dragon”-3D and Endless Merchandising
It’s not that I have any problem with merchandising a movie. I’ve long ago become accustomed to such as little toys associated with a movie being included as part of McDonald’s Happy Meals. In fact, I offer it as a point of excitement as I always take granddaughter to a nearby play McDonalds after we go to the movies and before I place the order I drum up Kaitlyn’s excitement by the promise of a toy in her meal that applies to the movie we’d just seen.
Indeed it was the same this past weekend when we’d both seen the movie “How To Train Your Dragon” and indeed included in Kaitlyn’s Happy Meal was a little figurine of lead character Hiccup’s obligatory love interest, Astrid, riding one of the movie’s many…well dragons.
It’s just that this movie is merchandised bejeesus to the point of complete distraction. Vikings and dragons can be purchased in abundance at Walmart or other retailers near you. There’s the McDonalds connection, ever present. We’ve got Vikings and dragons everywhere and Lord knows when it will all fade away. When Pixar has another movie to merchandise or when dragon rides are finally installed in Disney World no doubt.
“How To Train Your Dragon” is the stuff of movie formulas for kids ranging from age 5 thru early teens. First you must have a lovable but pathetic sort of main character that early on must prove something to himself if not the entire world. Second this character must have some sort of love interest, but keep it clean, just a crush sort of thing, perhaps a chaste kiss at the end. Third, there must be some adventure that kids will like with their budding imaginations and what better to meet this criteria than dragons? Every little kid imagines dragons all about, under the bed, perhaps right outside the window.
If I sound jaded please indulge. This was a very enjoyable movie, it had a splendid, if somewhat convoluted story, you had the Vikings all involved and these fellows made great 3D images alongside the fire-breathing dragons.
It’s just that with granddaughter I’ve been to many of these sorts of movies and so far the winner is “UP” but that’s just me.
I’d give this movie an A- if not a solid A for the storyline, adventure, graphics and the 3D is always a great way to watch a movie. Granddaughter adores 3D movies.
But let’s not kid ourselves that this movie is cinema of a mighty intellectual caliber. Still, movie genres, even the formulaic, can be done badly but “How To Train Your Dragon” was done wonderfully.
A few nitpicks: The main dragon character, intriguingly named “Toothless”, really didn’t look all that scary. In fact, he looked like a pet dog. This sort of dragon was characterized in the movie as the most vicious kind of all but those big puppy-dragon eyes and humorous name was a bit incongruous with this depiction.
In addition, the plot line about the dragons’ lair and why they had to raid the Vikings’ livestock was very unclear to me. There was a big bogeyman dragon but the relationship of that dragon to the other dragons was a bit fuzzy. Was it the Queen of all dragons or was it the slaveholder of all the dragons?
Not that 6-year-old granddaughter questioned any of this and she fell in love with Toothless, something I suspect the animators intended.
Thus to those readers with kids do not fear that the vague storylines will distract from the young human’s enjoyment of the film one bit.
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Easter 2010 Visit to Mom-Mom’s…- A Most Well Behaved Child
There’s good news and there’s bad news concerning granddaughter’s most recent visit during her school spring vacation break of 2010.
The good news is that she is a remarkably well-behaved child.
The bad news is that she is a remarkably well-behaved child.
Husband has a nephew a couple of years older than Kaitlyn. He’s a handsome young man but as legend would have it, he’s a bit of a handful.
First, he’s a little boy and no matter what the Fema-Nazis might tell you, there’s major differences in the behaviors of little boys versus little girls. But even allowing for this, it seems to me that husband’s nephew is nowhere near as well-behaved as Kaitlyn.
Husband tends to look upon his nephew’s childish exploits with a wink and a nod, smiling a big one as he iterates yet another bit of mischief on behalf of errant nephew. I must smile too because frankly I’ve yet to hear of any of the boy’s actions that are beyond the pale of normal but he does get into trouble in such a fashion that would have the perfectly behaved Kaitlyn sobbing in shame deep into the night.
I love Kaitlyn, but of course. And of course I am proud of how well-behaved she is. Yet I worry. I think Kaitlyn could use perhaps a soupcon of husband’s rascally nephew’s mischieviousness. This country was not founded on the meek of soul is what I’m saying here and there’ve been times when I wanted to slap Kaitlyn alongside the head that she defend herself what say you? At her recent birthday party, there was another kid all opening KAITLYN’S gifts and I had to stop the kid from doing this while Kaitlyn just sat by and let the little monster open her gifts.
Kaitlyn makes a full blown career out of getting “perfect kid of the day/week/month/year” awards. She never gets the purple tag, purple being the color of the bad kids. I’m thinking husband’s nephew has one or two of these. She has bookmarks for God’s sake that fall out of her books that are prizes for being most well-behaved, sweetest, lovliest, insert nice adjective here child of the hour.
Again, I love the child. I can take her anywhere and never have to worry about ill-behavior. Folks all around her remark on how well-behaved she is, and she is.
Yet I recall the incident of the little boy at bible school. Seems the children attending the summer bible school were to perform a skit of some sort for the parents. As part of the skit, the children were to exit, or enter I’m not sure, the stage, with a pre-assigned partner, of the opposite sex I think but again am not sure. The young tot assigned to walk with Kaitlyn stopped right during the live presentation and for some reason refused to walk with Kaitlyn as scripted and practiced. Kaitlyn broke down in tears at the slight and humiliation. The bible school teachers rushed to the stage and tried to comfort Kaitlyn while dealing with the oddball little brat boy who refused to walk with my granddaughter. At some point Kaitlyn was comforted enough to walk the stage without that kid with no taste.
When I found about this incident I told Kaitlyn, with my tongue in cheek, that she should have called me up and I’d have gone right down there and punched that kid right in the nose.
“Un-nuh,” Kaitlyn said to that suggestion. For it would be bad behavior to punch the little kid in the nose though Mom-Mom would wipe the floor with him in a New York second.
Now I’m not saying that husband’s rascally nephew would punch another child in the nose who would suddenly refuse to walk the stage with him as planned, practiced and assigned. But I’m thinking he wouldn’t stand up on the stage and break down in tears either. I’m thinking young nephew would probably spend one, maybe two seconds trying to cajole a reluctant child who would not walk with him. Then, as I envision it, young nephew would take on a big smile and walk across the damn stage all by himself, indeed, and likely with a spring in his step and an air of importance that he should be so special as to not need another child alongside to share the spotlight.
Heh.
At any rate, lest God strike me dead for sounding in any way that I regret having such a well-behaved granddaughter, let me shut up right now.
I marveled constantly at Kaitlyn’s wonderful behavior. During those times when Mom-Mom told her to go entertain herself she dutifully sat at her little table and chair and worked diligently on creating wonderful drawings with cheap paper and crayons. When I plopped her in the bathtub she played for so long I had to go in and pull her out complete with her fingers shriveled up and wrinkled as if she were 90. When we were at the church and as the choir practiced before mass begins, and well before she would be called to the Little Apostle Sunday School, she took an offered piece of music as we tuned up and yes she did, the child stood and sang along with the rest of us and further, after we were done our practice round Kaitlyn continued, “reading” the music and not doing half bad. She raised her voice when the notes went high and lowered it as the notes went down and soon the entire choir was giggling at this next American Idol wannabe.
In the movie she only once, and toward the end and with reluctance, asked to go pee and I appealed to her to stay for just the remaining fifteen minutes left to go in the movie. I know she had to go as I did too and I knew that she really didn’t want to have to leave just then but she had to be uncomfortable. At any rate she managed to sit still until the movie was over then we both ran to the rest room.
She sits quietly in the car, always hooking up her seatbelt before the car should move. She exits the car safely and promptly places both hands on the doors of the vehicle, a rule insisted upon by yon Mom-Mom who wishes to avoid the child suddenly bolting into the driving area from between parked cars, an action difficult to do if both hands are placed steadfast on the parked car’s door. She watches her DVD at night while Mom-Mom watches the big TV and she goes to sleep as she is told.
She doesn’t whine and complain when she is told an activity is finished. She fetches her shoes at the play McDonalds as I instruct. She puts her toys away as told.
Seriously. The kid is great. She tends to get a little melo-dramatic at times but she’s smart enough to know when she goes from believable to the stuff of the Lifetime Movie Network.
I think she needs just a bit more spunk is what I’m suggesting here. Maybe I’ll arrange for Kaitlyn to spend some time with that mischievious nephew.
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