only hamsters are sexy

I visited Ruby's dance class one windy afternoon and thought the warm-up song blaring from the portable disc player was a little risque for seven to eleven year olds. The hit single in question was Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl."

Ruby asked me what 'risque' meant. I said it was more appropriate for older kids, like 'grown up stuff' that had to do with how people behave, like dress-up, but different, sort of burlesque.

She asked curiously about that word, too. I said it was like a show where characters act in funny ways, sometimes to laugh at the things they do or are, yet seriously take on certain subjects (again) more for adult concerns.

She said that was cool. It reminded us of a hamster she noticed at a party with a coller around its neck which had a name on it that she spelled for me but wasn't sure she was allowed to say out loud. The word is s-e-x-y.

I explained only hamsters can be sexy. At this, of course, she laughed.

pray for rain - and sun

Recently, Ruby and I went to church where, as far as transubstance is concerned, she remarked that the priest was making pancakes and fruit punch. I whispered to her that it was symbolically the body and blood of Jesus, his sacrifice at the Last Supper to remember him by.

I said, as we walked home beneath the swift clouds and through a steady rain with flowered and black umbrellas, that I would pray for Ruby to get better from her Pink Eye. She replied she would pray for my back to feel better, as it is 'out' and very painful.

She yelled at the sky to listen to her for me to get well. She asked if my back was fixed. I said prayers take time, you have to have patience. She said, "Why do we have to wait?" I told that's what we do, like for the sun to come again, to remember what happens before and what's next.

"anything described can be described some more" **

A section of Ruby's dictionary:

"Gumption" = "Tackle Daddy"

"Moxy" = "Throw Daddy out the window"

"Spirit" = "Feed Daddy to the ducks by the river"

"Daddy" = "Music freak who plays in the trees"

"Ruby" = "Princess and da bomb"

** The title of this post is from the "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly" song by Bob Dorough from Schoolhouse Rock.

That yellow chip and the teeth report

Last Sunday, at church, after I had received Communion, Ruby whispered to me, "What does that yellow chip taste like? Does it have a flavor?" As we knelt in our pew, I whispered back, "It tastes dry; it has a dry flavor." She guessed that was o.k., but not as good as a treat, even though too many treats are bad for you and your teeth.

Before we arrived at church, we talked about Jeremy, Ruby's hamster. His teeth were too long when she got him, so we've been making sure he has a variety of things to gnaw on to get them to the right length. Ruby says he has been doing a good job, "That's the teeth report."

we'd make nice pets

Last weekend, Ruby picked out her first pet, a hamster, longhaired and male. The store had one longhaired left, in the back, not in the usual place for display. Longhaired hamsters are supposed to have a better temperment.
I could not go into the back room because I have allergic asthma; the air was thick with the scent of fur, where they live, isolated.
So when Ruby found me in the aisles, she said, smiling excitedly and skipping along, "Come meet Jeremy."
Ruby, now, is always concerned for Jeremy, wants to make sure he's alright, checking on him and, when he gets to explore his surroundings, especially beyond his cage, treating him as tenderly as we would be treated, if we were in his position and loved.

it's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)

It really hit me when my family went to a theme park, the mass production of things to buy, the means by which they are created, what they are or may be, the foods manufactured to feed us, the labs where the ingredients are concocted, the methods of dealing with over-population, the waste and loss apparent from land-fills and oceans to the air we breathe and the health-related problems of our bodies, how it's connected.
And though it is, in some ways, fun and an escape from how we make a living to enjoy such diversions, it is costly in more ways than just getting a ticket and getting there.
When I ask my daughter if she had a good time and she says yes, the next topic will always be what her favorite part of it was. In that context, there is no worry, only fireworks.

tempus fugit

How things must pass...Ruby graduates from Kindergarten tomorrow and I will try to hold back inevitable tears of pride and joy at seeing my little girl make another step in this world that is the life we share, not caring if we stay dry in a thunderstorm and getting soaked because it's fun, like the other Saturday afternoon by the Delaware River...