Kirk

Okay I named my son Kirk. So I'm a nerd. Whatever. The thing is my little boy who is three and put his pees in the potty at the Home Depot this weekend and is such a big boy is becoming a nerd too. We do have the right to brainwash our kids as we see fit. That is what religion is after all. Anyway, back to the potty. Kirkie has been wearing underpants and not having accidents, and the Home Depot thing was huge. He is a little shy of public bathrooms, as we all are, but he not only peed in a public restroom for the first time, but it was also standing up, and in the low urinal. I was praising him so much that when a stranger walked in he too understood and praised Kirk. Yay!

Kirk, who must be called Buzz these days, because he is Buzz Lightyear, is a big Space Ranger. He calls me Woody. I haven't heard the word daddy in months. I am Woody, all the time. His mom is sometimes Jessie, sometimes Mira Nova, but also sometimes still mommy, but I am always Woody. I'm so proud of my little space ranger for finally figuring out the potty thing. It's been work, and there are many bribes involved, but mostly there are rewards, and the things he gets for successful pottying are lessons in EARNING.

Back to the nerd thing. I lost my train of thought because potty time is such a big part of my life now. By the way, I recommend it. Simple lessons to children go a long way in understanding your own humanity. Anyway my Kirk is finally starting to watch Star Trek. He knows he is Kirk and he digs it. He has loved Star Wars for years, literally, and the Beatles, and Depeche Mode and other things I've exposed him to, but just recently he has discovered a fondness for the Trek. Original series of course.

He really likes the Corbomite Maneuver. Thats the one where the alien is all scary at first but turns out to really be a young Clint Howard. The alien is called Balok, and Kirk talks about his friend Balok all the time, but he hides under his blanket and cuddles me when we watch it, because he thinks the "puppet Balok" is scary. It's cute. I tell him it's okay, and that Balok just wants to be friends. He gets it but just can't deal with the Balok dummy. I like the cuddles though. He also likes to watch Spock's Brain. One of the silliest episodes, but Kirk digs it for some reason. He also like to watch the "silly black and white guys fight", and the "one where Kirk takes the Tribble from Chekov." Then he always says, "I love it when they beam."

My kid rules. The thing is I really didn't force it on him. I just asked him if he wanted to see an episode, and he watched it with me, and then asked for more. I tried to show it to him a year ago and he wasn't into it, but he liked Star Wars. Trek takes a level of sophistication. I can remember seeing it in re-runs when I was about his age and I was intrigued by it. The uniforms have bold colors, and the characters are classic. The kid who calls himself Buzz Lightyear truly loves space fantasy. He calls Captain Kirk him. He says,"look at what I'm doing." He loves that there is an awesome space hero called Kirk. By the way when we listen to Metallica I do point out that the nice guitar player is named Kirk too. He likes Metallica. We listened to Master of Puppets once and he was all headbanging in his carseat.

I let him drive the car this weekend. We went to a parking lot near our house and I sat him in my lap and let him steer. He needs to work on that, but he thought it was the greatest thing ever. Then I let him drive us home. When we got home he told his mommy that he drove. She asked, "Where did you drive?" and he shouted, "Home!" Whoops, I forgot to tell him not to tell his mother. Heh.

I love my three year old son. I only wonder what will happen when his new sibling is born. I can't imagine loving anyone as much as I love him. I guess I'm going to learn a new lesson about humanity soon. I do love babies. Being a dad rules. Please gods don't make them hate me.