Life with a girl

Ella is just such a girl. I love it so much. There are at least 10 moments a day when something jumps out at me that reminds me of how feminine and "girly" she is. It warms my heart in all sorts of ways, but sometimes I forget how different it must be for Hal to interact with a little girl.

Like when we go to Toys 'R'Us and he says that none of the girl toys look like any fun, and then he goes over to the boy toys and determines that ALL of those toys look amazing and genius.

Or when Ella asks him to pretend play with her dolls, and he turns to me in complete frankness and sincerity and says, "I've never had to dialogue before. How do I "be" Buzz Lightyear?"

Or two nights ago when I bought Ella (Ipad and technology pro) a Strawberry Shortcake app, in which you have to sort all the different fruits into their corresponding blenders so that they can be blended into smoothies. Duh--obviously this is how the game goes because every girl knows that Strawberry Shortcake runs a smoothie bar/bakery. Well, then the game goes up a level and you have to sort out the sour berries and throw them away so they don't screw with the wonderful taste of the smoothies. We're all good.

Then, uh-oh, the game goes up another level and you have to catch the glimmer berries (still with me?) before they float away so that you can...wait for it...PUT EACH KIND OF FRUIT INTO WHATEVER BLENDER YOU WANT WITHOUT SORTING!....Hallelujah, bonus round! Btw, this is what Ella loves, loves, loves to do...buy an app on the Ipad and make me play it.

Well, Hal tried, bless his heart, and I give him so much credit. He comes from a videogame background--he gets the concept. But somewhere between sour berries and glimmer berries, his head refused to accept any more pink. He needed blue. Here's the shortest glimpse of a hilarious conversation between Hal and Ella while playing the game:

E: Daddy, you have to CATCH THOSE SOUR BERRIES! They're yuh-uh-cky!

H: (Very calmly, somewhat bored) Ok, baby, I'll get the next one.

E and H (slightly more interested) together: Aw, man! Missed another one!! Shoot!

*Game moves to next level*

H: Ok, I'm ready for the sour berries this time...wait,what the...what's this mixed berry thing??

E(exasperated): *Sigh* Dad, it's a glimmer berry.

The girl has no tolerance for the inability of the "blue gender" to understand pink. Zero tolerance.