Sometimes Your Kids Surprise You

We had a fun trip at a lake in NM to celebrate Grannie's 80th birthday.  With so many descendants who love her and also came to celebrate, it was inevitable that one of those descendants would bring the stomach flu and then pass it around to all the other relatives.  Marielle got it on day four and we decided to rent a movie to pass the time in the hotel room.  We got Mr. Popper's Penguins because a friend of mine had recommended it and I wanted to enjoy the movie too.  About 1/2 way through the movie, Marielle asked if we could turn it off.  "I think this movie is for older kids."  I'm thinking, you'd rather stare at the ceiling while nauseated than watch this movie? Okey, dokey, we turned it off and finished it that night after the kids were asleep.

Fast forward two days later to another hotel room on our way home from the trip.  The Man from Snowy River was playing on one of the cable channels.  Marielle was enthralled. She nearly cried when we told her she couldn't finish watching because we needed to get on the road.  We promised to rent it from the library when we got home.  Not sure what she saw in the movie: accents that make it difficult to understand dialogue? unsettling images of wild horses' eyes zoomed in for effect? girls in long dresses?  Who knows, but she loved it.  Take that Mr. Popper's Penguins and all your fancy cgi.

The other surprise came from Rex.  For weeks, possibly months, I've been mentally gearing myself up for his rejection of all things nursery. I don't want the ordeal of crying as we drop him off each week, so I thought we wouldn't push nursery.  After all, this is Rex, our most intense child and we keep things his style as much as possible. We'd just take it slow, go now and then to have fun with the toys.  But today was day one and he stayed the whole time and never once cried once for mom or dad.  Go figure.  I'm happy, but surprised that the kids I thought I knew so well, proved me wrong.