G’s voice is distinctive, at least to me.   Kids voices have thus far sounded very similar to me, but I have never really paid attention before.   Now i can pick G out of a crowd, or hear her call me over the din when my back is turned and I am signing her out of daycare.   Today at the gym I walked by the door to get her shoes and heard “DADDY!” behind me and knew she was ready for me.   Its pretty cool.

I’ve discovered the nuances in her voice, her intonation, the speed with which she responds and how her   tone indicates her mood.   Sometimes she is figuring things out as she speaks them and I have to let her go slow, sometimes the best thing to do is cut her off and make a suggestion while its at the top of her mental geyser.   I don’t think any of this is much different than the signals she’s always given out, but its nice to have a more nuanced dialog, and not have to face her to figure out my next move.

It does highlight the meaning of listening to someone.

The flip side is her complaining – i know exactly what it means, how its going to make my ears bleed, and how long its going to last.   Sometimes she gets cranky and you can offer her something and its diametrical opposite and still get the same nails-on-chalkboard screech from her, which really just means its time to ignore her or hug her or make her sleep, depending on how many reps she can do.   I cringe sometimes before a peep escapes her, anticipating the unpleasantness.

Its just like Jo.

Most of G’s shows are pretty good. Dora, Diego and Little Einsteins are good influences.   The themes are noble, the plots full of lessons and good behavior, and the dialog teaches her new vocabulary.   She learns about sharing, how to buy groceries in Mexico, and Igor Stravinsky.   She learns how to strive to excel. G constantly surprises me with new words or questions from her good shows.   We’ll be playing and she’ll go from wanting to fly like an eagle to swimming like a humpback whale; she’ll want to protect her toys from Swiper; she wants to help animals in trouble.

Then there is Max and Ruby.

Let me give you the premise – an incredibly average older sister and her almost-retarded younger brother, they go about simple daily tasks which she can barely complete and he constantly fucks up by doing something almost-retarded like stuffing the circuit breaker box full of gummy worms. No language skills, no problem solving, just a long slow-paced cartoon version of an incredibly bad sitcom where everything gets screwed up each episode.   Its lack of ambition is like quick-sand.   A short-lived comedy series called The State once did a spoof of a sitcom character who’s tag-line was “I’m gonna dip my balls in it!”   This is the kids’ version.   Max is described as being a 3-yr old, and I guess I should take pride in the fact that G is far more advanced than him, cause he never speaks or reasons or expresses much in the way of an emotion.   Not once have I heard G apply a single thing from the show – its simple stupid mindless bad tv.

The worst part is the main characters themselves – they are rabbits, but incredibly fat rabbits.   And they move incredibly slow.   The look like incredibly overweight fat kids.   Fat, slow RABBITS!!!!   Its bad enough that there is an epidemic of fat children with diabetes, but to glorify them is sadistic.

One of the most enduring benefits of going to Princeton was all the people I was surrounded with.   You couldn’t help but grow by osmosis when everyone in every class and at every meal was a pretty bright person.   The roommate of a girl I dated was related to the guy who invented the atomic bomb!   All my and Beckie’s school friends at our wedding were either doctors, doctorates, or computer programmers, and married to lawyers or financial analysts or other doctors.   I have that same synergy with a lot of my coworkers at Ticketmater, who across the board are damn capable people who push me to maintain my position by pushing myself.   There is no denying how you play at the level of the people around you.   So, as a good parent should I not let her watch this show?   I keep hoping its a phase and she’ll get bored with it.