la_rainette | Cayenne Pepper

One of the reasons why I love Toronto in July is the Beaches Jazz Festival. It runs for 4 days, Thursday to Sunday, and every evening there is a street fest. the week-end nights get crazy, but the Thursday night is always great fun, because it's mostly a neighbourhood event, so it's all about families, friends, good music and dancing in the streets.

Why they call it Jazz Festival I don't know, though. We saw a little bit of everything: from the young rappers, fresh from (or still in) High school, to the lovely old-timers, playing classic dixieland and obviously having the time of their lives. Once, Froglet stopped short and blushed and started playing with her hair, and then I noticed that her favourite hairdresser - the one she'd like to marry - was crowd-watching in a corner. :D

And Tadpole? Ay, Caramba! My Tadpole may look like a tiny pepperpot, but she's one hell of a lively, butt-shaking, samba-dancing, extra-hot pepperpot, I tell you. She had the time of her life, dancing, running wild, and for once ignoring her stroller altogether (she even let her exhausted sister sit in it, which is unheard of, while she partied on). Ah, so very very cute. She had about as much success as the half-naked women with enormous feathers sprouting from their behinds dancing the samba with a blasé half-smile, cos she at least was obviously having a lot of fun. Well. Actually, she got all the female viewers, while the corresponding males all went over to the feathered dancers. Men seem to like bird-watching in this area ;)

Tadpole predictably ended up falling a few times, but she was having so much fun that she ignored her boo-boos, to my amazement. She usually makes the most of them.

Now, Froglet, although gifted with an amazing sense of balance, and able to run on a balancing beam when concentrated, cannot spend one whole day without falling flat on her face. It suspect it is mainly because she never watches where she goes - and will thus miss a step and honestly tell you she didn't see it - but also partly because she has to manoeuver around her enormous feet - she has huge feet for her size - and sometimes doesn't quite lift them off the ground enough. At any rate, she falls a lot. When she was Tadpole's age, her knees wore constant scrapes and bruises. And whenever I approached her with a band-aid, she screamed like a banshee: "Hey, look, my mom wants to put a band-aid on my knee, I must be really hurt then, HEEEEEEEEEELP!"

Tadpole is of the very careful persuasion. She watches where she goes, goes there safely, never falls down. But the slightest scrape will have her crying for a band-aid. I then give her a band-aid, and she calms down immediately and busies herself with opening and applying it.

She never puts it quite on the boo-boo, are you nuts? That hurts! Also, she like to be able to look at/show off her boo-boos. She puts it in the vicinity, though, like a tiny, colorful monument to her injured self. And is then perfectly satisfied.

No, I don't insist on putting it on the boo-boo either. Her boo-boos never actually warrant such measures. Sometimes, there is no boo-boo at all, but her sense of fairness insists that she gets a band-aid because Froglet got one. Which leads to interesting conversations:

Froglet: I have a bad boo-boo. *sniffles and looks at band-aid covered boo-boo* See, I have a band-aid.
Tadpole: Me too. *yanks band-aid off slightly grubby but otherwise perfect knee, and sticks it under Froglet's nose*
Tadpole: See? *smugly takes band-aid back and reapplies it lovingly. Onto other, slightly grubby but otherwise perfect knee.*

To Tadpole, band-aids are like candy: lovely, colourful, life-brightening objects to be treasured and played with. They make her happy, and I see nothing wrong with that.

ETA: After chatting with Em (*waves to Em* hope you're still doing OK!), I'd like to add that, of course, it helps that band-aids come in many colours and even shapes. Froglet likes princesses. Tadpole loves Dora the Explorer. And both unite in their love for Harry Potter band-aids. Because, hey, glow-in-the-dark broomsticks! :D