modern day dad

Jennifer Lopez must love PBS Kids Television.

So I bought a copy of the People Magazine with the Jennifer Lopez twins in it this week (purely for research for my blogging job, I swear) and while my wife was looking it over, she noticed something. J-Lo named her kids Max and Emme, which also happen to be the names of the boy and girl on PBS' kids' show Dragon Tales.

Which in as of itself is only mildly strange, except now my three year old knows J-Lo's kids' names.

"That's Max and Emme," she tells me whenever she sees the magazine. In fact, she just did it as I was writing this post.

Why am I not entirely comfortable with this?

"Cute."

It's official. My little girl is becoming, well, a girl.

My eldest will be four years old in a few months, and she's brought home from pre-school her very first cool-kid's word. You know, the word or phrase that all the kids say at school to describe almost anything. Usually the word will last a few months to a year, and then eventually there will be something else cool to say.

Well, apparently in room seven, everything is "cute."

"Oh, that little doggy is cute."
"That's so cute."
"Mom! Look at what she's doing! Cute!"

Or sometimes it won't make any sense at all.

"That grilled cheese is cute."
"We're going to the mall? Cute!"

It's not like she says it all the time, but all of a sudden she started saying "cute" way more than she normally would. And when you think about it, there is a host of other words (even words she's allowed to say) that would be way worse, so I have to be happy about that at least.

And when I stop and think about it I realize this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I've got years of cool-kid words ahead of me. And ultimately I know someday I'll look back on this and think of it as, for lack of a better word...

cute.