Two stories to share. One photo.
First.
These days, at meal times, ruby is driving me insane. She can’t sit in her seat for more than a few moments and she pretty much refuses to eat unless someone is feeding her. She is perfectly capable of feeding herself. She just doesn’t want to. Hil has informed me that Charlotte went through this cute little phase at almost the exact same stage of life. I must have blocked it out for my own benefit because I don’t want to remember this kind of behaviour. Anyway – today at lunch she is up to her typical antics. Up and down from the table. Asking me to feed her. And lunch time on Tuesdays is hectic. I pick Charlotte up from school at 11:35 and need to have her back by 12:35. Factor in about 15mins for commuting time, 10mins for transitions, 10 more minutes for hand washing before lunch and visiting the washroom afterwards and you aren’t left with a whole lot of time to eat. So the pressure is on. Plus – Charlotte only comes home for lunch twice a week and I enjoy the time with her. So – today when Ruby is acting up I just ignore her. Completely. I know that I should do the disciplined thing and sit beside her and coach her through lunch. But Charlotte and I are just having such a nice conversation – a real life conversation – that I just don’t want to interrupt the exchange. Real life conversations with my 6 year old seem few and far between – so I ignore Ruby in favour of talking with Charlotte. And Ruby disappears. I can hear her upstairs crashing around – she is very heavy footed – and I assume she is just doing what she does. Reading books. Playing with her dolls. The typical stuff.
Back up a few days. We have a neighbour down the street who has a daughter a few years older than Charlotte and on Saturday, the neighbour dropped by with a bunch of hand-me-downs. We love hand-me-downs. And Charlotte wasted no time combing through the bags of clothes to find a few choice items. Fast forward to today and maybe you can guess where Ruby was. Yes – she was upstairs trying on the new clothes. So there I am, trying to feed Arden a few more spoonfuls before we have to head back out to school, Charlotte has gone upstairs to the washroom and what do I hear:
“Dad! Ruby is wearing my clothes!”
When I read it there in print – it almost doesn’t feel like line of the day material. But you have to understand that Ruby and Charlotte share a room and that before we put them in there with their bunk bed (at another point today Ruby turned to me and said: Dad, when I turn tall will I get to sleep on the top bunk?) we canvased as many sisters as we could about what it was like to share a room. Nearly all of them had positive things to say and so we have the highest hopes of what this experience will translate to in their later years. For now, it has its ups and downs.
Moving on.
Pretend play is not my strong suit. Or at least pretend play with 3-year old girls. I’m trying to make a real effort these days but my life is already so much about playing house that I find it hard to engage myself in the pretend playing house. I suppose I should see my daughter’s desire to play house as somewhat endearing – after all, mimicry is said to be a very high compliment. Anyway – there we are – I’m in the kitchen chopping up something for dinner. Ruby is pretending to be Hil. She is sitting at her “desk” working on her “computer” and talking to me on the phone. I am Ruby. We are talking on the phone. Her phone is a plastic clip. And, since we are playing pretend, my phone is an imaginary bluetooth.
Ruby: Pretend that I call you on the phone.
Drew: ok.
Ruby: Hi Ruby, how is your day going.
Drew: Good mom. We went to the church this morning and undecorated the church from Christmas.
Ruby: dad – now pretend my office is just over here and I can see you
Drew: ok. its good that your office is so close to home.
Ruby: What are you making for dinner Ruby?
Drew: Chicken and Rice
Ruby: Awesome. Rice is my favourite.
Drew: Great. What are you working on?
Ruby: dad – now pretend that I come home to go poo.
3 Ginger Snaps 