Tragic Sandwich

Tag: Frozen

  • Rediscovering Disney: The Little Mermaid

    We’ve started trying to add to Baguette’s movie preferences. We had no luck with Cinderella (she only likes “The Work Song”) or Sleeping Beauty, and Lilo & Stitch got no reaction at all.

    We tried non-Disney (or at least previously-not-from Disney) with Star Wars,* which was of momentary interest–right up until the cantina scene, at which point she started shrieking.

    What is entering the rotation is The Little Mermaid. Baguette only watches about half of it, but that’s how she started watching Frozen, too. She asks for it by name (although the first time she did, when I asked her if she wanted to see Frozen, she said, “I want to see fish, please”). It’s a problematic movie, what with the stereotyped musical fish and the love-at-first-sight/hearing-without-any-real-knowledge-of-the-person.

    BUT.

    I’m actually less bothered by the movie than I expected to be. Because Ariel doesn’t know Eric, but he actually does have a lot of good qualities. True, he’s easily distracted and enchanted. He’s also brave, and a quick thinker. Ariel saves him, and he saves her as well. They’re mutually supportive.

    What I’m saying is, they could do a lot worse.

    That said?

    Photo from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Littlemermaid-disneyscreencaps.com-2976.jpg
    Photo from http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Littlemermaid-disneyscreencaps.com-2976.jpg

    That is a lot of Merpeople who sold their souls to Ursula. Now that he’s married off that headstrong youngest daughter, I think King Triton needs to take a hard look at reform.

    *There was a brief window in which the original trilogy was available on DVD as it aired in the theaters. These are the copies we own, because I want to make sure that Baguette knows not just that Han shot first, but that Han was the only one who fired a shot.

  • Lifelong Learning

    Baguette has a significant language delay. We do a lot of interpretation.

    NighYouRah

    She works so hard at communicating. I’m so impressed with her, and how diligent and persistent she is with any number of tasks. These are traits that are going to serve her well no matter what she chooses to do with her life.

    These traits are invaluable with ABA. She makes no secret of the moments when she is bored, or frustrated. There are plenty of times when she resists completing a task or participating in an activity (to the point of banshee screams). But there are so many other times when she will Just. Keep. Trying.

    She does this with speech, and I want to encourage her. So I try really hard not to tell her that she’s saying something incorrectly. Instead, I say things like this:

      “Mommy doesn’t know that one yet.”

      “Mommy still has to learn that.”

      “Maybe you and I can figure that out together.”

    Because I want to let her know that communication is a two-way street, and the burden isn’t entirely hers. I want to let her know that I’m still learning, too. I want to show her that adults also struggle. I want to let her know that it’s possible to share tasks and work together.

    Ultimately, I want to help her make herself understood to others. But first, I have to show her that I understand her. I have to show her that I’m going to work hard with her. I have to show her that I think hearing her, listening to her are worthwhile, even if it’s not immediately easy for me.

    Oh, and Nigh You Ra? She requested it for days. I asked her ABA providers and her teacher and Bestie’s mom and a co-worker with a daughter slightly younger than Baguette. And then (as you can see above) I turned to Twitter–and I was not surprised at all when the answer came from Cloud, with an assist from one of her daughters:

  • In Character

    Baguette fell in love with Frozen this summer. I know, that sentence looks funny–but if you keep in mind that August is when she starts telling us, “Want to go play in the snow,” it makes sense for her.

    It seemed like she identified with Anna, in no small part because every time she reenacted the first scene with Anna and Elsa, she made me be Elsa (probably a wise move, because I’m less crushable). So when we started collecting things for her to choose from for Halloween, we bought her Anna’s coronation gown.

    She could not have been less interested.

    But once she was done trick-or-treating (in her pajamas), she settled in to watch her favorite movie. And part way through, she looked over and spotted the Anna dress. It all clicked. She wanted to put it on.

    little girl dressed as Anna from Frozen

    Over the past several months, she’s worn that dress through quite a few Frozen viewings (yes, always over other clothes), acting out scenes in our living room as they play out on screen.

    Then, during Friday night’s screening, she started reciting Elsa’s lines and announced, “Want Elsa dress.” Well, if my girl is going to ask–with words!–for an Elsa dress, then an Elsa dress she shall have, and as quickly as humanly possible.

    As is often the case in our house, Amazon.com came to the rescue. So when she watched Frozen last night, she was dressed like this:

    little girl dressed as Elsa from Frozen

    But I did let her know that even queens have to help make their beds in the morning.

  • Ten Things About Me

    I totally stole this from Nina at Sleeping Should Be Easy. As you do.

    So here are 10 questions for you to answer on your blog(s), should you so choose.

    1. What’s the last movie you watched (in the theater or DVD)?
    2. What’s a random fact about you?
    3. Would you like to be famous? In what way?
    4. What are three things you can’t live without?
    5. What is the best thing to happen to you this past month?
    6. What is the biggest stress in your life right now?
    7. Tell me five things I’d see when I walk in your door.
    8. Did you—or do you—have a nickname? What’s the story behind it?
    9. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be?
    10. Why do you come to this blog?

    And here are my answers:

    1. What’s the last movie you watched (in the theater or DVD)? Frozen. I do have a four-year-old, after all. The last movie I saw in the theater was Star Trek Into Darkness, and WOW, was that was a disappointment.
    2. What’s a random fact about you? I have ancestors from a lot of places, but only the Celtic ones show.
    3. Would you like to be famous? In what way? Not famous enough to get doxxed, I can tell you that much.
    4. What are three things you can’t live without? Baguette, Mr. Sandwich, and butter.
    5. What is the best thing to happen to you this past month? Baguette moved into the bed in her room!!!!!!!
    6. What is the biggest stress in your life right now? Lack of time.
    7. Tell me five things I’d see when I walk in your door. A giant pile of mail, a lion chair/pillow, my bag, a camera on a tripod (we just finished taking our family picture for our holiday photo card).
    8. Did you—or do you—have a nickname? What’s the story behind it? As far as I know, I’ve never had much in the way of nicknames. I have no idea why not.
    9. If you could change anything about the way you were raised, what would it be? I very much appreciate the way my parents emphasized breadth of interests, but I wish I’d been taught how to focus on something beyond the task/project level.
    10. Why do you come to this blog? Because it wouldn’t be here without me? I’m guessing this one is more for you.

  • Friday 5: September 26, 2014

    Thoughts from my week (or two):

    1) I’m a little concerned about the nature of Baguette’s relationship with Bert from Sesame Street. She keeps kissing him and then feeding him to her dragon.

    2) While I think she has a point about the animation style, based on her criticism of the plot and themes, I’m going to assume that Mayim Bialik has not actually seen “Frozen.”

    3) Speaking of “Frozen,” there are lots of ways to interpret that movie. Personally, I see it as a sharp criticism of helicopter parenting.

    4) We went to visit my dad and stepmom this weekend, and on the drive back, Baguette let us sing with her. While we have found the Busy Beavers “Color Songs Collection Volume 1” to be maddening, we are delighted that she was willing for us to join in–even choosing which colors she wanted us to sing about.

    5) This fall, I really want to get better at meal planning, and I want to use the slow-cooker more. Which means I probably ought to clean off the kitchen counter. Hey, time for a Leaf Bag List. Maybe I’ll get to that soon.

    the number five

  • Rediscovering Disney

    We’ve started showing Baguette some other Disney movies, both to broaden her exposure and to save our sanity. Last night’s movie was “Cinderella.” I’d forgotten how sidekick-heavy that movie is.

    Tonight’s movie? “Sleeping Beauty.”

    Here’s what I noticed (beside the fact that Briar Rose looks really alarmed in that thumbnail):

    • This movie is not so sidekick-heavy, but there sure is a lot of narration.
    • Maleficent’s horns are much shorter in this movie.
    • I wish more forests looked like this. I’d be much more enthusiastic about forests if they did.
    • Samson is clearly the prototype for the horses from Tangled and Frozen. Samson is the Ur-Horse.
    • Even with magic, that cake still isn’t baked.
    • Briar Rose has a really nice bed for a peasant girl.
    • “Now, now, Father, you’re living in the past. This is the fourteenth century.” is still my favorite line from a Disney movie. But you know what that means:
    • Plague’s coming!
    • There really aren’t that many songs in this movie, are there?
    • Maleficent shows Prince Philip the vision of Aurora and refers to her as the “peasant girl who won the heart of our prince just yesterday.” But I’m pretty sure it was this morning. Maleficent has no sense of time.
    • Also, if Maleficent is so powerful, why isn’t her castle in better shape?
    • “O Sword of Truth, fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure” is the incantation I’m going to use if I ever have to combat evil. Combat it with a sword, I mean.
    • I am absolutely sure that Aurora’s dress originally was blue when the movie ended, and that the final change to pink is a result of Disney Princess-ification, because Cinderella’s dress is blue. I don’t like that.

  • On Gifts

    birthday presents

    Baguette loves gifts, and she gets a lot of them. Mr. Sandwich and I are constantly buying her books, and she had grandparents on both sides who are always on the lookout for toys and games that will capture her interest.

    What we’ve learned, though, is that giving Baguette something, and having her get it–well, those are two different things, and they happen in very different time frames.

    For her birthday, in April, one pair of grandparents gave her a Monsters University Scare Factory and a Rescue City Center set. She started playing with it last week. This is August.

    This week, four new Wibbly Pig books arrived in the mail. I suspect it will take us several weeks to get all of them into rotation, and Baguette loves Wibbly Pig.

    We’ve seen this before, and we expect it. Baguette needs time to warm up to toys and books. She needs to decide how she wants to play with them. We’ve tried showing her, and it just doesn’t seem to work–but eventually she’ll figure it out and incorporate it into her play.

    And while she’ll lose interest in a particular toy, the odds are pretty good that she’ll come back to it, months or a year later. You never know when that set of stacking rings is going to re-emerge.

    I also understand, though, that as a gift-giver, people want a reaction. They want to see that they did actually pick the right gift, that they’ve brought happiness to the recipient. It’s hard to give something and feel like it didn’t even register. (We do have her say “Thank you,” but some enthusiasm is usually nice.)

    Every once in a while, though, that magic moment happens. When Baguette was two and a half, we had a playdate. The other little girl had a Rockin’ Elmo that Baguette just loved. So I told my dad about it, and he bought it for her as a Christmas gift. And when she unwrapped it, and it started to sing and move, she was in raptures–delighted shrieks, beaming smiles, the works.

    We got to see it again last weekend, at Mr. Sandwich’s 25-year high school reunion. It was at a restaurant, so we got a table and ate dinner there. That gave Baguette time to settle into the space and enjoy herself. Then we went out on the patio and mingled with the rest of the alumni.

    One of his classmates, having heard about Baguette’s love of “Frozen,” brought her a set of character finger puppets. Baguette lit up and gave dazzling smiles. She even stopped eating her Pirates’ Booty for a moment (and let me tell you, it is hard to get her to respond to anything when she is eating).

    And those finger puppets? On a nightly basis, in tiny, high-pitched voices, they act out this exchange from “In Summer”:

    Kristoff: I’m gonna tell him.
    Anna: Don’t you dare!

  • Friday Five: August 15, 2014

    Five things from the past week:

    1) I am so relieved that someone came up with a better method of handling the situation in Ferguson. Who would have imagined that treating people like people could work? But is there still a no-fly zone over the region?

    2) We went to Mr. Sandwich’s class reunion this weekend, and one of his friends brought Baguette a set of Frozen finger puppets. She loved them immediately, and showed it, and now I need to write a post about Baguette and gifts.

    3) Last night Baguette had a night terror. Or a nightmare. Or she instantaneously developed a fear of the dark. We’re not really sure what happened, but all of a sudden she started crying and would not calm down unless the light was on.

    4) I am so tired.

    5) I have a lot of trouble figuring out what to eat. I do not know what’s going on there.

    five

  • Music to My Ears

    Baguette has a phenomenal memory, and she remembers songs and TV episodes and books with no trouble at all. One day she’ll suddenly recite part of a Sesame Street episode that she hasn’t seen in months, and act it out with character dolls.

    Just recently–and I mean just in the last two weeks, she’s gone beyond reciting, and has started singing. For the most part, she’s been singing the songs from one of her apps. But last night, as we were playing in the front yard, I heard her sing “Let it go, let it go.”

    We’re late to the Frozen party. All of her classmates were completely immersed in it for months, and she showed no interest. We bought the DVD, and she paid not the slightest attention (Mr. Sandwich and I both enjoyed it, although we’d rate Tangled higher in a number of ways).

    But last night, she started singing. And when I joined in, she snapped her head around with a smile. So after her bath, I pulled up the video on my laptop, and she stopped asking for her iPad and sprinted across the room to watch it with me. Twice.

    I know the rest of the world either still loves this song, or is sick to death of it. And I get that. But you know how your kid does really irritating things, like ask “Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?” Ours doesn’t.

    She can sing, though. And I don’t want her to stop.