Twice Maked Potatoes

Kiddo is such an expressive little person.  She has her quirks and peccadilloes that make her so much her.  We went to the clinic this weekend for a follow up for Kiddo and, since we didn’t have homework, she wanted to bring paper and markers and pencils to draw and write with and that was fine with me.  As we were waiting, I wanted to send J a message and give her updates.  The look on her face is priceless here.  She went from Ugggg, DADA! to Are you sending pics to Mumma?  Then I got the smile.  The first pic though…. Just makes me laugh.  I can not only hear Kiddo giving me grief, but I can hear my sister and see her with this same expression of distain and WTF are you doing.  

Also, when it comes to expressions and faces… Here she is at BASIS with J on Sunday morning.  They open the campus for staff and family over the weekends, so sometimes Kiddo and J go to play or climb or run around or whatever.  The grounds were being watered and J knew I wouldn’t care if she was wet, so Kiddo got to run around and play in sprinklers and splash in mud and play.  Again, you can see the face.  How happy and filled with joy she is to just do something like run in sprinklers.  Somewhere in me, there is a jealous 6 year old… 8 year old… 12 year old… 18 year old… etc etc.  

You can also see the joy on her face after beating me at Connect4 yesterday.  J needed to get some of her course work finished and I wanted an afternoon coffee, so Kiddo and I headed out to Amazon and got a coffee (and a chocolate milk for her) and played some Uno and Connect4.  This game was a blast and she trapped me into a win.  Well played by her and she wanted a picture to show how close it was to being almost filled.  

Besides all of that, Kiddo and I have been hanging out more.  Not just spending time, but talking.  We don’t talk about anything important.  Mostly it’s Kiddo facts or just her telling me about life or school or the little things that are on her mind.  However, she has been experimenting with language recently.  Trying new phrases and words, or things that she heard in a podcast or elsewhere that she tries her hand at.  She was telling me about Poley and his trip to Doctor Fix It Up for a flu shot and he got constimated after his shot.  

Oh, constimated… is that serious?  

Yeah, Dada, it’s when you can’t poop.  

Do you mean Constipated?  

Oh, yeah!  Sorry, I don’t know all the words yet.  

Don’t worry, Kiddo… neither do I and I’m 46.

 

 I’ve also mentioned how she is enjoying the lore and story of God of War 2018 and Ragnorok.  I’m still running around Ragnorok to complete challenges and find stuff, but I’ve also restarted GoW2018 so she can see that story.  She is very interested in the main character’s son, named Atreus.  In the first game, he’s 9.  In Ragnorok, he’s 13.  So, she’s fascinated with this character and his lore, backstory, and outcome.  The other night, I was playing and she was helping me with a boss I had to fight.  In that fight, Atreus helped and was crucial at the end of the fight for firing an arrow to a rope that brought down the dragon so I could finish it off.  She told me that she knew Atreus would make the shot because she knows him through Ranza.  

Tell me about that, Kiddo.

Well, you know I’m Queen of Ranza.  Since that is the Land of Imagination, I know Atreus from there.  That’s how things work in Ranzian.  It’s physics.  Ranza Physics.

She was 100000% serious.  No hesitation.  No second guessing.  Ranza Physics.  

She’s just too much sometimes.  However, hearing her and the little things like that, thinking of the little things that J and I do and say that are our own, it makes me smile to think of what she will carry with her, even if she knows it’s incorrect or off base.

I don’t mean that as an insult.  I mean it as an endearment.  One of the things J and I laugh about, when J and I are sitting around and we contemplate a second glass of wine or a little pour of scotch, we remember something my Grammie said once.  She was sitting in the backyard in the sun and having a chill day and was offered a second drink.  Well, since she had been picked up and would be dropped back off and wasn’t driving, she could certainly have a second Margareta.  J was the one to drop it off to Grammie and she thanked her and then said “I hope you don’t mind me having a second and being a slush.”  Well, she was drinking a slushy type blended drink and meant to say lush, instead saying slush.  We laugh still and when we have the one extra drink at the end of the night, we're being slushes.

Or, a girlfriend from my late teens/twenties.  BSJ.  She was a sweet girl, but we were 19ish, so life happens.  Anyways, one night I was over to her house and was staying for dinner.  BSJ was super excited because her mom was making Twice Maked Potatoes.  

Twice what now?

You know, potatoes.  You make them.  Then you take the inside out and mix it with cheese and butter and bacon and stuff and then you make them again that way.

I can’t see twice baked potatoes and not smile with affection and fondness at BSJ and twice maked.

We wonder what she’ll hold onto or what will stay with her.  What little thing she will carry to adulthood that will make others smile and just love her.  Cuncumbers, Yew Nork, and little things like that.  Just last night, she got up to blow her nose.  She blew and then went to throw the tissue out.  She stopped half way and said, “I left the lights open because I’m going to blow again.”  Now, to most Americans that will sound weird, but in Thai, you open and close lights or TVs, etc.  Will she carry that to adulthood and make someone smile with that one day?   Who knows, but I’m sure she will have something.  

We are just excited to watch her grow and continue to be her.  What new interests or sayings will she pick up in Shanghai?  In a decade, what and where will we be and what will she be like and dress and talk?  How many languages will she have?  What will her style and approach to the world be like?  What will be her twice maked?  

Let’s go, Kiddo… a few more months until we get to summer and busy as that will be, we are still excited for all the fun things we get to do with you and see with you.  What little quirks will you pick up in a month in the States?  In China?  Or, in the next few years?  Let’s keep exploring and find out.  We love you.