"I am going to be an alientologist!"
and
"I wish I were a red neck."
What do those two unusual quotes have in common? Both came from my daughter today. Yep.
Dream Big! That's always a good idea. So, when my little girl tells me what she wants to be when she grows us, I try to encourage her. Normally she has ambitions to be a teacher, a doctor, a mother--all great plans. Well, I guess part of my job as a parent is to help them fulfill their dreams. Unless they are nightmares.
I suppose I should explain. It is true, my daughter does love unusual things--she has a personal relationship with the librarian who is constantly on the search for books about monsters, mummies, mythological creatures and anything else of the paranormal, abnormal nature for her pleasure reading. She's eight.
Well, last night we picked up a little hammer and chisel for her for a "dino dig" activity in her school class. She was so excited! To have seen her you'd have thought she had just inherited ownership of her own personal beauty salon run by vampires and werewolves!
"This is so cool!" She said. "I feel like a...what's it called? I'm going to be an alientologist!"
Awesome!
Well, I explained that I thought she meant paleontologist, and she agreed, but had to give it some thought. So did I. Alientologist sounds so much more fascinating, and so much more her.
Of course, that has nothing to do with red necks. Lest you think we have toyed with the idea of buying a monster truck, a shot gun, a box of dynamite, and a few American flag bandanas, we have not (at least not out loud). And as much as my little girl may faint dead away at the idea of driving a truck that is a monster, she really was just watching Duck Dynasty. Yes, you read that right. Last month my boys finally convinced the rest of us to try an episode, and, I fully admit, I'm kinda hooked.
So, we were watching Phil babysitting his grand-daughters. And as any good grandpa should, he took the girls out to repair the duck blind where they all got covered in mud. After squirting them all off with a hose, he proceeded to teach them how to gut a fish and fry it up in peanut oil. The dirtier and gooier they got, the more excited she got. Until she finally exclaimed, "I wish I were a red neck!"
Well, a girl can dream.
