A cute kid story, a thought about princesses, and a status update

What does the fourth day of fall have to do with music? Absolutely nothing. Neither does this next story, except I think it's funny. And so you get a cute kid story with your music. Do with them as you will. (just don't leave us for long.)

And yes, there's a status update at the end. And no, it's not "we did nothing."

My (erica) son Jacob is five and a total social butterfly. When he turned 2, he could only say 8 words and we had him evaluated for special needs (which is really, really heartwrenching when you're an early childhood special education teacher, let me tell you!). He still doesn't have all his sounds and his memory for words is a little, well, short [i.e. almost nonexistent] - it takes him awhile to learn new vocabulary words, his articulation is a bit muffled, and names don't like to stick. He calls one girl in his class "the naughty girl with polka-dots on her face).

But man, he loves people. And he loves to talk (when he can get his point across). And, um, well, he loves girls most of all. Case in point:

Last Friday, his kindergarten teacher was talking about things that grow up. People, plants, animals - everything gets big eventually. So she asked them individually about what it means to get big. Which invariably led to answers of what they wanted to be when they grew up. Here were their answers (my classroom is across the hall, so I got to see where she wrote them down, so these are roughly correct):

Boy #1: Baseball player
Boy #2: Football player
Girl #1: Princess
Girl #2: God's Princess
Boy #3: Cop
Girl #3: Princess
Boy #4 (aka erica's son): Well, I guess if there are gonna' be this many princesses, I'd better be a prince!



So many to choose from...

So, seriously, what is it with the princesses? Is this what our girls are aspiring to? Because as a preschool teacher, yes, it's what every girl wants to be. No public service message here, necessarily. But why are so many beautiful girls becoming princesses by seemingly chance? Kiss a frog, sure, here's your crown. Take care of short men, sure, here's your crown. Fall asleep for years, sure, here's your crown. Also, your beautiful dresses, mani/pedi, flowers galore, and an adoring nation. Congratulations, you're perfect.

Okay, maybe a tiny public service message. But, um, no preaching. (erica takes a deep breath and moves on) (mostly because she's the one with the son who now wants to be a prince)

What else was I going to say today? Oh, yeah, statuses. Stati. What we did this week.

erica: I loaded my ms onto my Kindle. Heck, I critique everyone else's books on it, why not my own? And you know what - it totally worked. This rocks. I am having more fun editing now than I had. .  . well, ever. And that's saying a lot, because I really like to edit. (and I reserve the right to start most of my blog sentences with the word And. You know, to get it out of my system). I'm on chapter 8 of a 17 chapter ms. yes, it's the same one I've worked on for 2 years, but now I love it again. It even reads like a book. So exciting.

christy: Finished another full edit of her ms and is ready for round 2 of crit partners. Hopes to query soon. (she probably has more to say about this, so I'll let her. for now, let me say, she's really excited. she emailed me late last night to brag let me know!)

How about you? Any cute kid stories? Princess stories and/or bashing? (okay, I can't be the only princess basher out there, can I???) Status updates?

Check out these other members of WS4U! 

http://www.writersally.blogspot.com/
http://jc-martin.com/fighterwriter/
http://waibelworld.blogspot.com
http://NicoleZoltack.blogspot.com
http://susanfieldswriter.blogspot.com
http://skmayhew.blogspot.com/p/tuesday-wip-status.html
http://margoberendsen.blogspot.com
http://www.sherryauger.blogspot.com
http://www.susanoloier.blogspot.com--in/
http://carrieannebrownian.wordpress.com/