Today the family got out into the backyard and raked. We have a significant number of trees around, so we saw immediate results, both on the now clear lawn and on a huge leaf pile (although not equal to the leaf pile of my youth when we jumped from the shed roof into the pile... remind me not to tell Eleanor about this).
It was an unseasonably warm day, so there were other families out doing yard work as well. At one point I looked around for Eleanor and discovered that she had taken herself over to the neighbor's yard and was chatting with their 3 year old daughter. They live kiddy-corner to us, so we don't see them all that often, and I hadn't even noticed that they were out. But Eleanor noticed, and therefore Eleanor had to go right over there and talk to the girl, her 2 year old brother and the father. She explained why we were out, asked what they were doing, asked if the little girl could come over to our yard, volunteered to make cookies for their family, and so on.
It is useful for introverts like me to have extroverts in the family. I was not entirely comfortable just showing up in their yard as they were trying to get work done, but everyone (including Luke who was in the back pack) had a good time. I think the neighbor actually got more done since his daughter was playing with us and not needing interaction with him. I have the feeling this is not the last time that Eleanor will bring me out of my comfort zone and into conversations I need to have.
In the same vein, we had pictures taken at a local chain the other day. It being a few weeks before Christmas, the place was crawling with kids and stressed out parents. Match the child (Eleanor, Amanda or Luke) with the action in the following list:
It was an unseasonably warm day, so there were other families out doing yard work as well. At one point I looked around for Eleanor and discovered that she had taken herself over to the neighbor's yard and was chatting with their 3 year old daughter. They live kiddy-corner to us, so we don't see them all that often, and I hadn't even noticed that they were out. But Eleanor noticed, and therefore Eleanor had to go right over there and talk to the girl, her 2 year old brother and the father. She explained why we were out, asked what they were doing, asked if the little girl could come over to our yard, volunteered to make cookies for their family, and so on.
It is useful for introverts like me to have extroverts in the family. I was not entirely comfortable just showing up in their yard as they were trying to get work done, but everyone (including Luke who was in the back pack) had a good time. I think the neighbor actually got more done since his daughter was playing with us and not needing interaction with him. I have the feeling this is not the last time that Eleanor will bring me out of my comfort zone and into conversations I need to have.
In the same vein, we had pictures taken at a local chain the other day. It being a few weeks before Christmas, the place was crawling with kids and stressed out parents. Match the child (Eleanor, Amanda or Luke) with the action in the following list:
- This child crawled around, picked the dust off the floor, gave winning smiles to everyone and tried to eat their shoes.
- This child found the humongous teddy bear props and settled down to snuggle and watch quietly while another child got her picture taken.
- This child organized 5 other children (ages 4-7) into a game of hide and seek, then a game of duck duck goose (Duck, Duck Grayduck!) and then a game of house.
Comments
We have still to work on blending work with play. I'm not very good at it, myself. For Eleanor, work is anything that she has to do, and anything that lasts for more than about 15 minutes. I'm hoping that we can get over the latter obstacle as she gets older.
Eleanor (the younger) loves hearing about her great-grandma. Thanks for sharing that.
Ella