The initial wonder of riding the bus has worn off on Kenz. Now she cries as we bring her out there. She is a pretty good soldier for her mother, but Kenz knows I'm a sucker, so when I bring her out to the bus stop, she turns on the tears and reduces me to putty in hand.
"If you're a big girl and stop crying, I'll get a treat after practice today," I told her last week all the while thinking bad parent, bad parent, bad parent! No wonder the kids are the way they are today. It's because of us! Don't give in to her! She has to get used to this. Suck it up.
"What kind of treat, Daddy?" she cat calls as the tears stop. Yeah, I'm a sucker. But she's not crying!
I can't remember what treat I got her last week, but before we went out to the bus stop yesterday, I had a talk with her. I explained that if she was a big girl and didn't cry, I'd bring her my Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow action figures from my classroom. Well, this went over perfectly as she is obsessed with Snake Eyes now that she chose that GI Joe costume for Halloween.
And it worked. No tears were shed, and she was a big girl.
So as I packed up after school, I rummaged through one of the storage closets in my room and found the action figures. To say Kenz was pleased when I gave them to her would be a colossal understatement. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of giving them both to her and neglected to give one to Cash!
Try as I did, there was no way Kenz was forking over one of those guys to her little brother. But he was busy dancing to Mom's iPhone, so he got over it pretty quickly.
Later as Kenz and I ran to pick up a pizza, I mentioned to her that I still had the GI Joe comic book that came with those action figures. So after supper we rummaged around and eventually found it. Since the issue focuses on Snake Eyes, who never speaks in any of the GI Joe episodes or comic book issues, this particular issue has no words.
I thought this would be perfect for Kenz. Wrong.
"Dad, read it to me," she said as she grabbed the comic book, her action figures, her blanket, and a sippy cup in her hands and climbed into my lap.
"Well, dear," I explained. "It doesn't have any words."
"That's okay, Dad," Kenz explained. "Just read it anyway."
Now, how can I argue with that?
So I explained what was happening.
Then the questions began . . . who's Cobra? Why does that girl (Scarlett) have a bandage on her cheek (truth be told in all the times I read the comic, I never even noticed that blasted bandage!)? Where is Snake Eye's sword? Why is he blue in the comic but my costume is black? Why do he and Storm Shadow fight? Who are those other ninjas? And on and on and on!
Finally, all the questions wore Kenz out and she declared she was ready for bed. Though she still had the comic book clutched tightly.
"I'm going to bring this to Glenda's tomorrow," she said, holding up the comic book. "I want everyone to see it!"
With that, she scampered upstairs.
When I got up there she explained to me that she was going to have the comic right next to her as she slept (she is sleeping in our room since Gail is staying with us and is using Kenzie's room).
So this morning when I got up at 4:50, I made the mistake of almost stepping on the comic as I made my way to the bathroom.
"Dad!" I heard Kenzie say. "You almost stepped on my GI Joe comic. I'm keeping it safe right here for when I go to Glenda's today."
Who would have thought a stupid old comic that I haven't thought about in 2 years would be such a hit?
Now I just have to think up something to bribe her with tomorrow when she has to ride the bus to pre-school again!
That's no easy task either as she has worked her way through my Godzilla (you should hear her belt out the theme song to the old '70's cartoon: "Up from the depths! Thirty stories high. He breathes fire. His head in the sky. Godzilla! Godzilla! And . . . Godzuuki."), Jonny Quest, Scooby Doo (all the old classic ones, plus "What's New Scooby Doo" and now the current "Scooby Doo: Mystery Inc.,"), and now GI Joe. Well, maybe I can bribe her with some episodes of The Transformers!
But what about next week?
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