Tiny babies and naked princesses

Squeaker is going through a really funny stage now. He's completely obsessed with the fact that he used to be a tiny baby. He talks incessantly about it -- "Squeaker tiny baby!" -- asking us to hold the tiny baby (i.e., pick him up and cradle him like he was a baby), feed the tiny baby some milk, etc. And of course this all comes along with lots and lots of baby talk and wah-wah-wah-ing, which is a bit too close to plain old whining for my comfort level. It's sweet to see him get all nostalgic for his babyhood, but the Mister and I won't be too too sad when we reach the end of the baby talk phase. (Particularly since the child knows all of his alphabet letters, upper and lower case, and speaks in perfectly-clear full sentences when he wants to. For instance -- "Go away Mommy and don't bother me!")

He's also grasped the concept that he came out of S's tummy, and nearly every night before bed, he prompts us to tell him the story of how we met him. "And out of S's tummy! And Mommy-Daddy said YES! And there was snow!" It's completely awesome to see how excited he is every time we tell it.

He hasn't quite figured out how exactly babies are born. "Come out of S's tummy! And Mommy's tummy! And Daddy's tummy!" Um, no, sweetie, just S's tummy. "And Mommy's tummy and Daddy's tummy! And Nonnie's tummy!" Hmmm. So today I started telling him that he only came out of S's tummy and the way that we know this is that he has such beautiful brown skin and curly dark hair and brown eyes. Mommy and Daddy don't have those things, but S does, and she gave them to him as presents. "Presents! Beautiful skin and presents!" This concept he understands. We'll see if it sticks.

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Mixed up with all this is his ongoing request for a sister (no, we don't know the gender of this embryo yet, but he's fixated on having a sister), and his understanding that any sibling that comes along will also be a tiny baby. "Tiny baby come to Squeaker's house. Mommy get it. Takes awhile!"

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He's also into pretending he's a princess. We don't have any dress-up clothes for him, but he twirls around happily and is delighted with a princess book that his nanny checked out from the library. The Mister (who sometimes wishes he were born in the early 1900s) was not so comfortable with this and started correcting him -- "Princesses are girls; you can be an effeminate prince if you want!" Meanwhile, I nearly got a minor in women's studies, so I'm shushing the Mister and telling Squeaker he can have as much princess time as he wants, if it makes him happy. Gender roles be damned!

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And speaking of differences in parenting styles, our neighborhood is getting an eyeful of the parenting style of the woman who lives next door. Her 3-year-old daughter spends an inordinate amount of time without a stitch of clothing on, which is totally totally totally fine, except that the mom lets the little girl wander up and down the sidewalk completely unsupervised. Constantly. For long periods of time. And the child, who is very much a Woodstock-type hippy toddler, will talk to anyone. No fear. So this morning, the Mister came in from walking the dog and told me that our single male neighbor was out weeding his yard and very uncomfortably responding to the incessant questions of this little waif, who was standing there -- sans parent -- wearing only a tank top. Don't get me wrong, the people on our block are all great and very laid back, and everyone is watching out for this child. It's just ... a little scary, I guess. My personal upbringing was very much in the Buddhist/nudist/vegetarian/back-to-the-woods style, and I have no problem with little kids running around buck-nekked, particularly at the toddler stage. But!!!! If I were the mother of an always-wants-to-be-naked girlchild, I'd try to confine her nudity to the safety of our own yard and keep an eye on her -- and maybe a pair of shorts -- when she was out and about chatting with the neighbors. I'm just sayin'.

Comments

[Aegina]

Beautiful Squeaker stories!

And as the mother of a nudist, I consider myself lucky to live in an urban area, where my daughter can be forbidden to leave the apartment without donning clothes (which doesn't prevent her singing to an imaginary audience that lives behind the living room mirror, "Look at my butt! Look at my style!")

[Calliope]

I love Squeaker's owning of his story- LOVE It. Seriously. It reminds me that for every parent that is talking to their child this honestly & lovingly there are sadly parents that are skirting around and avoiding the issues and these will be the kids that grow up to write the effing articles in the newspaper that will get forwarded to us...ahem...I digress.

The nudity stuff is complicated - I don't even know how to get my mind around that. I'm totally cool with W being all in his nothingness in a safe place, but the world is fucked up sometimes.

[luna]

I love to see how they grasp little bits of their stories, even at this tender young age. baby J repeats things too, but at age 2 it's so hard to know what she really gets, what it means to her, if anything. still it makes you realize what an important role we have in imparting the story with such love and care.

yeah, the nudity thing in public places, in days like these. you'd think parents would put a little more thought into it. a few parents I know have an anything-goes rule for the back yard, but clothes on in front.

[luna]

oh yeah, and I meant to say baby J is also going through a tiny baby faze. some days she wants to be a 'big girl' or a 'little girl' but recently she said she still wanted to be a baby. last night before her 2nd birthday, I told her how I used to hold her and rock her to sleep when she was just a tiny baby and she said she wanted more of that. plus, only babies throw things, so you know she still wants to be a baby...

[Aegina]

Just occurred to me walking home just now that you may have some more explaining to do when a baby comes from Mommy's tummy with beautiful dark skin.... Isn't life wonderful and complicated? :-)

[Sharla]

I am the mother of a nudist, but I contain her nudity to the house! I am also the mother of a son who likes all things pink and dress up, but is also an athlete and boy-boy, so my husband is hoping that those things win out over the liking to carry purses!!!