The Kentologist: Handy Mandy

"Handy Mandy" is not a new children's program that celebrates the skillful nimble-fingered female. It's a phrase, however, created about a year ago by my two-and-a-half year old, Kent. While I'd love to think that Kent is already a male supporting female achievement, this is not realistic. Kent uses the phrase 'handy mandy' to describe at hat. Confused?

I've searched and searched online and scoured old parenting email subscriptions for the term that describes this action of a toddler assigning a general meaning to an arbitrary word or phrase. I've yet to identify it. If you're familiar with the show, 'Handy Manny', you know that Manny wears a red and white baseball cap. Therefore, in Kent-logic, all hats shall now be called handy mandies. Just go with it. I do.

We've noticed that at an early age, Kent had somewhat of an obsession with hats. Pardon my child, but if you're wearing a hat and enter the same room as him, he'll likely pull it off your head and wear it himself. This has happened to family members, friends, and even strangers (and all the germaphobes say, "ewww").

10-month old hat-nabber
Photo courtesy of Candice Foldenauer
Hat courtesy of her husband, Alex

Photo courtesy of Candice Foldenauer

Nope, this one doesn't belong to him either

Don't even know whose hat this was

It's not even that Kent has a shortage of hats. It's not uncommon for him to go into his closet when he's playing with his toys to select a hat to wear. I'm not sure what the future holds for a materialistic obsession at this age. I can only hope that the cost of child hats never gets to be too much before he starts getting his own money and buying them for himself.

Last night I captured the full sequence of Kent snatching my uncle's hat. It actually matched his outfit too.