12 posts tagged “ally”

Took the girls to radnor lake this weekend to enjoy the fall colors and natural cool temperatures.  We did a hike of around 2.5 miles and took some pictures.

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So Ashli was watching Terminator:TSCC with me on Friday.  Her new favorite song is Donald where's your trousers.  She made me print off the lyrics and she already has them memorized.  She is teaching Ally too. 

Last night I got two stripes on my belt.  I now out rank my four year old daughter, Ally.  The two stripes I have let me know that it won't be long before I test to get my green belt.  Unfortunatly, Ashli is really close to getting her blue belt. So I will have to work twice as hard as her to catch her. 

Hey Ashli,  you hear that?  Those are footsteps.  My footsteps.  Are they getting closer? 

Family Math Night is a school function at my daughter's school where the whole family can come together and have fun doing math.  This is actually very popular at this school.  It doesn't differ much from Family Meth Night at the school across town.  Well, except for the educational value of the event. 

They actually have Elementary Ed. students come over from the university (MTSU) that is located directly across the street.  It is part of one of their classes to make a game out of math and present it at Family Math Night.  I think dropouts and PoliSci people run Family Meth Night.  There were at least 12 game stations for each grade level.  The 2nd grade stuff was too easy for Ashli so we moved on to the 3rd grade where things got challenging.  Ally had fun in the Kindergarten area.

Apparently there is a prerequsite to getting in the Elem. Ed. program at MTSU.  You have to be A) female, B) young, C) very attractive.  It made escorting the girls around to all the booths an enjoyable experience for all. 

I don't think letting these students run the program at Ashli's school is fair though.  They probably walked away from the night thinking kids are smart and like to learn.  If this had been held at a normal school, I don't think turnout would have been as good. 

Family Meth night ran much longer but was eventually broken up by the police. 

Last Wednesday, I took the kids to see Iron Man.  We got to the theatre and sat down with about 10 other people.  The movie was showing every 30 minutes so people had a huge choice of times to see it.  It was also 3:30 on a Wednesday.  The movie was good and all except one scene toward the beginning with a reporter was appropriate for the kids.  It held Ashli's(7) attention all the way through, but Ally(3) just couldn't follow the movie completely.  They both loved the movie and I enjoyed it as well.  Someone told me it was better than Spiderman 2 and that is setting the bar way high.  It was not better, but was still very good. 

On the way home from the movie, Ashli was looking out the window and being very quiet.  I knew exactly what she was thinking.  I asked her, "What are you thinking about back there, how to create an Iron Man suite?"  She lit up and said, "Yeah."  Ally made up and Iron man dance where she shuffles her feet and then kicks.  They both run around playing Iron man now. 

With all the movies coming up, I think I will go broke.  They both want to see Prince Caspian, Indiana (or Indian according to Ally) Jones, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and The Incredible Hulk. 

I let my children watch Hannah Montana, no, I watch Hannah Montana with my kids.  It is something that I never thought I would do until this school year.  We monitor what our kids watch.  My children do not watch spongebob, for example.  Actually, my kids were almost completely limited to PBS and what they see outside of our home (we can't really control that, and yes they have seen spongebob outside of our house).

I am not even sure how Hannah entered into our living room for the first time or where initial exposure took place.  I

Hannah Montana - One in a Million

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know that I was picking Ashli up from a sleepover the first time I saw a Zack and Cody episode and that we don't watch that show.  Some parents just let Disney Channel, Nick, or CN run constantly in their homes and trust the content.  I can not in good faith do this.  I don't supervise everything my children watch but I do try and exercise some jurisdiction especially for 7y/o Ashli.

Hannah made it on to our TV somehow and I have to say that I am completely suprised.  The show harkens back to

my youth and reminds me of shows like Growing Pains, Who's the Boss, Silver Spoons, Different Strokes, and Punky Brewster.  Every episode seems to have a lesson, and I play a game with Ashli to see if she can find it.  For example, Last night Miley lied to her friend Lilly about a party.  Miley, as a consequence didn't have fun at the party and had to go to great lengths to keep the fact that she went a secret.  Lilly in the end finds out and Miley realizes that she should have just told the truth in the first place.  The episode even hits on being loyal to your friends. 

Sure the show has some campiness.  It isn't really educational either.  It is fun for the girls and they love singing along to the songs.  As far as rolemodels go, Ashli could do far worse than Miley Sirus and probably couldn't do much better(at least as far as the teen girl rolemodel arena goes). 

My wife is upset because Ashli has officially categorized herself as a “Tomboy.”  I thought it was cute when she said it, but my wife completely freaked out.  She is afraid that being a tomboy will damage her socially for the rest of her life.  I am getting a lot of the blame for this as well.  My wife states that she was a Girly-Girl up until she was four and my wife started working nights and I had the kids alone during the evenings.  My wife has told me that I am not a good influence on them (yes, it does make me mad). 

I don’t see anything wrong with tomboys.  It could be a phase, or it could be that she just likes to be more rough and tumble.  Either way is fine with me.  As a father, the girly-girls are cute and cuddly, but a father doesn’t really bond with that type of girl.  The girly-girl, in my opinion, is more prone to Freudian or Oedipal thought processes because they feel that they are the princess and need a prince to save them.  At pre adolescence, that prince is often the father.  Yuck!  Ashli, doesn’t need saving; she wants to be the hero and do the saving. 

It isn’t as though she is an all out tomboy either.  She has grown to not like pink so much and she hates the Disney Princesses, but she still likes Hello Kitty and littlest pet shop and pretty much anything else that is cute.  She still wears dresses and skirts, but she does so while riding bikes or doing the monkey bars.  She loves playing catch with me.  She loves all animals, even reptiles and bugs.  Her favorite TV shows are Pokemon, Teen Titans, and Dr. Who (she has watched blink about 500 times).  She has made it clear that we are not to get her Barbie dolls for Christmas.  She wants a DS with Zelda.

I can’t seem to comfort my wife on this one.  I don’t understand where her fear is coming from.  I don’t think that I am even the right sex to understand where the fear is coming from.  I understand that she wants a girly-girl to dress up and make look pretty and that Ashli often has messed up hair from running and playing.  But, Ashli still loves to dress up and look pretty.  Maybe culturally I am unable to understand her fear.  I don’t know how tomboys are treated in Korea or if she even understands what the term implies.  I think she might consider it to mean transgendered.  That worries her.  She wants normal kids that grow up to be normal (yet exceptionally smart, beautiful, and successful) adults.  I think tomboys are normal and she does not.

When my wife told Ashli that she had to change, Ashli rebelled.  Ashli said that it was who she was and she couldn’t and didn’t want to change.  This turned into a shouting match between the two of them about being who you are.  Of course, my wife was mad at me for this.  I don’t do all that phony self esteem crap they sell in schools about being perfect just the way you are, but I do tell them that it is okay to be different from other kids.  I mean, they are half Korean, so they are always going to be different from other kids in school.  I have to teach them to be proud of their differences and not worry about what other people might say. 

I think my wife is taking the wrong track.  Instead of discouraging being a tomboy, she should encourage girly-girl behavior.  It would be as easy as having a make up party, or having her put on a fashion show.  I am sure there are other things she could do too.  My wife says I need to change the way I am around her to get her to change and that I shouldn’t be so male with her.  But, when Ashli has played dolls or Polly pocket with me in the past, I got noticeably bored really fast.  On the other hand when we wrestle in the living room it can go on for hours.  My wife doesn’t really play with the girls.  She is more concerned about education, so she does a lot of work with them.  If they want to play they have to do it on their own.

My wife doesn’t see it yet because she is so young, but Ally is following directly in Ashli’s footsteps.  She wants to be like her big sister.  She gets played with in a rough and tumble manner and watches her sisters Tae Kwon Do class.  If Ashli is wrestling with me, Ally jumps right in too.  Ally still loves princesses and pink, but how long before Ashli’s distaste for them rubs off.  Yes in a soon to be future, we have two tomboys and then my wife will really go crazy.

So Saturday, we had to go buy a new Violin for Ashli.  She needed a 1/4 instead of her current 1/8.  My little girl is growing up.  Her teacher recommended a place on the other side of Nashville called, appropriately enough, The Violin Shop.  Ashli's teacher had spoken with the proprietor and there was a violin that was recommended for $250.  I know, right.  That is a lot for a 6 year old little girl.  I thought it was a lot until we got into the shop and saw what they offered.  They had to go into the back and dig around to find the $250 model.  The ones hanging in the shop ranged from $2k up to $20k.   As long as we go back there for our next purchase and she doesn't break the violin, we are guaranteed $250 in equity towards the purchase of a new violin with trade in.  I imagine when she moves to half size we will be buy a model around 5 or 6 hundred dollars.  That shouldn't be for several years though.  The staff was nice and the shop was really nice.  If you are in the market for a Violin, I would go.

Saturday Night we went to an event put on by The Korean Episcopal Church's youth group.  They turned the fellowship hall of the church into a Korean cafe and sold noodles, Kim-bop, and some desserts.  They played dance music, had a talent competition, and talked about the homeless.  All the money they raised went to the local homeless shelter.  They invited the youth groups of several other Korean churches as well.  The talent show was the highlight of the evening.  Competing in the competition was a quartet playing Cannon by Pachabel,  a duo of boys doing some Korean song that I am not familiar with, a duet to some high school musical 2 songs, three girls channeling the supremes, and two guys and three girls reenacting the live performance of Korean girl band The Wonder Girls doing Tell Me. 

Wonder Girls- Tell Me - LIVE KBS Comeback Special 2007.9.07

We were at Mcdonald's yesterday and Ally was in the play area acting all silly.  She got in the suspended globe

Pokeball

and started banging on the glass.  She was hollering for me.  When I look up she says.  I am in a pokeball.  I almost cried.  She was right; It looked exactly like a pokeball. 

Ally, I choose you!

Two girls, one six and the other three.  They are standing in a Best Buy.  The both have guitar hero guitars strapped on.  Iron Man by Black Sabath is blaring. 

Yeah my girls rock!

Too bad I dont have a picture, but I am the male parental unit.  The female parental unit wouldn't have let them play (or attempt to play).