Saturday, February 28, 2015

Saved By The Belle


Annabelle doesn't have a ton of words yet.  But that certainly doesn't stop her from wanting to participate in family discussions.

Case in point.  A couple of nights ago, as we do every night, the family sat down for dinner together, sans media, to fortify ourselves and talk about our respective days.  Mrs. LIAYF went first, telling us about what she had learned that day at her work.  For all that she already knows, it's pretty cool that she never fails to think of something new that she picked up during the course of her day.

Next, we asked Lukas about his day at school, and what types of things he had learned in his 2nd grade classroom.  Usually this is difficult, because, as any of you who've had elementary age kids already know, they are pretty wiped out and often unresponsive by the time 6PM rolls around.

However, we can usually prime the pump with Lukas, and once he gets rolling, details will just sort of spill out.   Priming often takes both Mrs. LIAYF and I to talk about our day first.

It's usually difficult for me to find something interesting about what happened during my day.  Probably because I have a relatively boring job.  It's a good job and I have no complaints.  It's just boring.  So, I was once again having trouble thinkning of what to say after Mrs. LIAYF prompted me by asking to descibe something 'Interesting' that happened to me that day.

Thankfully though, I was saved by the Belle.  Annabelle.  That's because she was apparently tired of all her family chatting at the dinner table, and holding conversations without giving her a proper turn.

So she let out a healthy scream.  One that would shut us up and draw our attention.  It worked, as we quieted down and turned our attention to her. She said "My tin.  My tin"

"Do you want to talk about your day too?" Mrs. LIAYF asked, after we had all turned to gaze at our 2yo fireball.  "Yeah!"  She nodded.  Then she began to chatter to us animatedly.  She was obviously decribing, in detail, the events of her day at daycare.    "Did you see Elliot today?"  I asked her.  "Bye, Bye" she responded.  "You said goodbye when he left? " her mother asked "Yeah!" she smiled, obviously thrilled to have her own chance to detox.

Lukas laughed.  So did Mrs. LIAY and I.  We were having a true family discussion, one where EVERYONE had their say.  It was nice to have the whole family participate.

 It was also a good excercise in family bonding.  One we plan on continuing for the duation of their childhood.

Hopefully they won't be turned off of it by my rather mundane contributions.

2 comments:

DL said...

Jim, your blog is lovely! I enjoyed reading a few posts today before attacking our taxes. :)
For sure you are teaching yourself some serious mindfulness by making yourself find something interesting in the mundane. There is no better exercise for the soul in my opinion.
We are glad to know you. Elliott also talks about Anabelle at dinner and makes a great imitation of her saying "my dadda!!"

Dorothy

David K. M. Klaus said...

My boys are grown men, now, but I remember their asserting themselves that way, too.

Enjoy this time, friend. At every age your children are joys, but after leaving one set of joys for another, they will never return to them again.