My two year-old daughter is sweet and charming and a complete goofball most of the time. She bumbles around the house clad in pink, her hair in pigtails. She's a bundle of joy in her light up boots, as she rides her little tricycle up and down the street, taking everything in. It's such a fun age, watching her play in the sandbox or discover new adventures. But I’ve noticed something else about my sweet little girl.
She likes the bad guys.
Whether we’re reading books or watching cartoons, or even
telling stories, she’ll make me go back to the naughty part. The other day we
were reading three little pigs. You think she was worried about those silly
pigs? Nope. It was all about the wolf.
It all started back around Christmas. She was watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and couldn't get enough of the Abominable Snow Monster. I'd been worried she would be afraid of the beast but instead she only wanted to watch the scenes with him in it. She loved him so much we even got her a little stuffed animal, which she cuddled and cared for as though it were a baby doll.
And then we noticed a trend...
The wolf. The Grinch. The Gruffalo. That boy sitting in the corner in Timeout. If it’s hairy or spikey, or makes terrible decisions, count her in. No matter what the situation, if she has to pick between Clark Kent and his arch enemies, she’s picking those three lunatics in black.
Maybe she likes a challenge, or enjoys the turning point in a story, but something about her giggle, they way her eyes light up when the villain gets the upper hand, it makes me wonder what kind of company she's going to keep as a teenager.
Then again, I think it’s commendable, how my daughter sees through a monster's scaly exterior to find the good inside. These are trying times, when everyone could use a friend. So hey, if she’s willing to take on a project, help a brute find his shine, who am I to tell otherwise?
But where does it end? Measuring for curtains at the Death Star? Finding ACME discount codes for Wile E. Coyote? And back to that teenager thing. At this rate, I fully expect her to leave the house on the back of a motorcycle.
