Thank You For Being a Friend

Ahh, so many things to write! As most of you lovely readers have realized, I haven't posted in what seems like forever (let's be realistic, it's only been about 5 months. Stop being dramatic.). SO, since it's been that long I have so much tell you all that I can't fit it in just one blog. Let's just start off with a throw back to my childhood.

Growing up I had the pleasure of spending my afternoons playing with a plethora of toys, and spending my Friday nights with the Tanners, and (later on) Cory Matthews. Saturday mornings I woke up early to draw with Captain Bob, and then drew chalk masterpieces and played Skip-It. Well, more like cheated by doing one skip backwards and and proudly displaying the Skip-It counter at 999 (don't act like you didn't do this).

Quite recently I've introduced a lot of these things to Brianna, and by introduced I mean we've literally sat in front of the television watching early 90's commercials and shows for hours. While she's taken a strong liking to Double Dare, and Legends of the Hidden Temple (AS SHE SHOULD), she's a bit confused on the commercials. I mean, she gets that they aired when I was a child. She understands that that means they're dinosaur ancient. But for some reason she never stops asking "Mommy! Can you buy that toy for my birthday?!?!". And even when I follow it up with a quick 'Sorry, they don't make that anymore', it's always followed by one word. Why. WHY. I think this might be the one word I hate the most. By the time I start to answer her question, we've already moved on to the next commercial, which is most likely a food item that was discontinued by the time I was 7. Now I owe her a bunch of PB Crisps, Magic Middles, and Amazing Fruit, and even worse, now I feel like crying because I remember how delicious they were and I can NEVER HAVE THEM AGAIN. Why are we watching this again?

Oh yes. Because all of it is amazing.

Even now, at 27, I still watch every episode of Golden Girls that plays on tv. It's absolutely one of my favorite shows. Lately Brianna has been interested in it, and looked pretty confused. I knew what question was coming. It was a question that probably all of us had when we were younger.

B: Mommy, is that a man dressed up as a woman?

She was talking about Bea Arthur. I was trying to contain my laughter.

Me: No, that's really a woman.
B: Oh. Because she sounds like the Mom from Hairspray.

Now, if you haven't seen Hairspray then you're probably not privy to the fact the JOHN TRAVOLTA plays the Mom. Yes. John Travolta.

Not related.

Once that was entirely taken care of and Brianna understood that Bea Arthur was, in fact, a woman (and that I was really, REALLY, certain), we finished the episode and went about our business. I'm fairly certain that she didn't believe me and thinks that Dorothy was played by a fashionable crossdresser. 


Since her 90's overload introduction, Mr. Feeny now gives Brianna a lesson before she goes to school, and at night she falls asleep to the sweet sound of Jesse and the Rippers. She is the proud owner of a Skip-It (OKAY, It;s a generic one, but whatever), and spends most of her afternoons drawing masterpieces. I've done it. I've successfully created a perfect replica of myself.

Well, not exactly.

You see, Brianna is, well, Brianna. She's silly, and clumsy, and is often hurting herself in the process of whatever she is doing. She thinks she's paying attention to things, but I'm pretty sure her mind is already on what she's going to be doing next. Which is all fine and dandy, unless you're doing Skip-It. There are not enough fingers on both of my hands to count how many Skip-It related accidents we've had at the Conway household. She loves the thing, but I cringe every time I see it.

Skip-your-face-right-into-the-pavement

Even though she loves being outside, she's a pretty big fan of electronics. It's so crazy to see children nowadays glued to ipads, ipods, kindles and xbox's, and realize that everything we use to play with is now contained on one single device. I realized the other day just how much actual toys are being forgotten when I showed Brianna this picture:

To you and me, this looks like that little game that we would spend hours playing because that one freaking ring would not get on the post, and then throw in a fit of rage. To Brianna this looked so foreign that she responded to it with asking me "Do you play it on a device?". Head. Desk. I was baffled. I can't even begin to imagine what it will be like when she has kids. The devices will probably be inside their heads. Hah.

All in all I feel pretty good about the 90's teaching my child how to play with toys, and all those life lessons she's learning. I can sleep soundly knowing that she'll never read a 'buy now, pay later' sign and accidentally steal a sweater, or think that caffeine pills are the way to get some serious studying done. Let's just hope she doesn't start dressing the part.